The interaction effect of impulsivity and responsibility in relation to obsessive-compulsive symptoms

The objectives of the present study were to investigate the relationship between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and impulsivity, and the interaction effects of impulsivity and responsibility in relation to obsessive-compulsive symptoms. A total of 205 university and college students were asked to fill out the Padua Inventory-Washington State University Revision, the Responsibility Attitudes Scale, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-version 11 and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. A sub-sample (n = 79) also completed the Stop Signal Task (SST), a performance task that assesses behavioral inhibition (i.e., impulsivity). Obsessive-compulsive symptoms were found to be related to responsibility attitudes and self-reported attentional impulsiveness. There was no association between behavior inhibition (SST) and self-reported impulsivity or obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The interaction between responsibility attitudes and attentional impulsiveness as well as between responsibility and behavior inhibition, added to the prediction of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. These findings indicate that certain aspects of impulsivity influence obsessive-compulsive symptoms in interaction with responsibility attitudes.