Mental Health RAISR4D

Ambivalent self-concept and feared self mediates the relationship between negative early life experiences and obsessive-compulsive symptoms

24/05/2026

AI Summary

The feared self contributes to the development and maintenance of OCD by embodying a feared identity.
Negative early life experiences disrupt healthy self-concept, producing self-ambivalence and a corrupted feared self.
Authoritarian parenting and negative pubertal timing predict greater OCD severity indirectly via self-ambivalence and corrupted feared self.

Sci Rep. 2026 May 23. doi: 10.1038/s41598-026-54202-y. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The feared self, the self that a person fears they might be or become, has been increasingly shown to drive the development and maintenance of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, there is little empirical research on how this feared self develops. Aardema and Wong’s cognitive-behavioural theory of OCD proposes that negative early life experiences (e.g., childhood trauma) can disrupt healthy self-concept development, leading to an ambivalent self-concept and the feared self, and consequently OCD symptoms. We investigated these hypothesised relationships using a cross-sectional design and online self-report with non-clinical participants (N = 242). Data was analysed using path analysis which indicated multiple significant indirect effects. Self-reported experiences of authoritarian parenting and negative perceptions of pubertal timing significantly predicted greater OCD symptom severity through self-ambivalence and the corrupted feared self. These findings suggest that certain negative early life experiences could be associated with OCD symptoms through its effects on self-concepts.

PMID:42177311 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-026-54202-y

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