Obsessive-compulsive symptoms and personal disposition, family coherence and school environment in Chinese adolescents: a resilience approach

Jing Sun; Zhan-Jiang Li; Nicholas J Buys; Eric A Storch; Ji-sheng Wang

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2014.07.015

Obsessive-compulsive symptoms and personal disposition, family coherence and school environment in Chinese adolescents: a resilience approach

J Affect Disord. 2014 Oct:168:459-65. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2014.07.015. Epub 2014 Jul 18.

Authors

Jing Sun¹, Zhan-Jiang Li², Nicholas J Buys³, Eric A Storch⁴, Ji-sheng Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Griffith Health Institute and School of Medicine, Griffith University, QLD Q4222, Australia. Electronic address: j.sun@griffith.edu.au.
² Department of Clinical Psychology, Beijing Key Lab of Mental Disorders; Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University; Center of Schizophrenia; Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing, China 100088. Electronic address: lizhj8@ccmu.edu.cn.
³ Griffith Health Institute, Griffith University, QLD Q4222, Australia. Electronic address: n.buys@griffith.edu.au.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, University of South Florida, United States; Rogers Behavioral Health - Tampa Bay, Tampa, FL, USA; All Children's Hospital - Johns Hopkins Medicine, St. Petersburg, FL, USA. Electronic address: estorch@health.usf.edu.
⁵ Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Electronic address: wangjisheng9@126.com.

PMID: 25113959
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2014.07.015

Abstract

Background: Risk factors of adolescents with obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OC) have been extensively examined, but protective resilience factors have not been explored, particularly in Chinese adolescents.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the association of resilience factors with the occurrence of OC and its symptoms in Chinese adolescents.

Method: This study consisted of two phases. The first phase used a cross-sectional design involving a stratified clustered non-clinical sample of 3185 secondary school students. A clinical interview procedure was then employed to diagnose OC in students who had a Leyton Obsessional Inventory 'yes' score of ≥15. The second phase used a case-control study design to analyse the relationship between resilience factors and OC in a matched sample of 288 adolescents with diagnosed OC relative to 246 healthy adolescents.

Results: Low personal disposition scores in self-fulfilment, flexibility and self-esteem, and low peer relation scores in the school environment were associated with a higher probability of having OC. Canonical correlation analysis indicated that OC symptoms were significantly associated with personal dispositions, poor peer relationships and maladaptive social life, but not to family coherence.

Limitations: The study is not prospective in nature, so the causal relationship between OC occurrence and resilience factors cannot be confirmed. Second, the use of self-report instruments in personal disposition, family coherence, and school environment may be a source of error.

Conclusions: Resilience factors at both the personal disposition and school environment levels are important predictors of OC symptoms and caseness. Future studies using prospective designs are needed to confirm these relationships.

Keywords: Family coherence; Obsessive-compulsive disorder; Personal disposition; Resilience; School environment.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Case-Control Studies
Cross-Sectional Studies
Family / psychology*
Female
Humans
Male
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / psychology*
Personality Inventory
Personality*
Prospective Studies
Resilience, Psychological*
Risk Factors
Schools
Social Environment*
Students