A cross-sectional investigation of autogenous and reactive obsessions and associated cognitive and symptom correlates in China

Categorizing clinical obsessions as either autogenous or reactive, a model that has been supported by several studies, may represent a parsimonious approach to characterizing individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, most published studies on autogenous and reactive obsessions have been carried out with participants in highly developed nations (e.g., United States, Australia). No studies have been carried out in less developed countries, such as China. It was hypothesized that the nature of autogenous and reactive obsessions and their correlates would generalize to China. This cross-sectional study incorporated three groups from China: a college student sample (N = 1,701), a clinical sample of patients with OCD (N = 158), and a clinical control group of patients with anxiety disorder other than OCD (N = 88). Confirmatory factor analysis provided support for the autogenous and reactive model of obsessions in a Chinese sample. The results also showed that autogenous and reactive obsessions demonstrated a pattern of associations with cognitive and symptom correlates (e.g., obsessive beliefs, traditional OCD subtype themes) that were comparable to those found in previous research. The current study supports the autogenous and reactive obsessions model of OCD and its correlates in China, providing additional evidence for the cultural invariance of the model.