Investigating Parenting Styles and Relationship Obsessive-compulsive Disorder Symptoms: The Mediating Role of Alexithymia

Objective: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common and debilitating mental disorder that can manifest in various themes. Recently, studies have identified relationship OCD (ROCD) as a subtype of OCD in which obsessions and compulsions revolve around romantic relationships comprising the relationship (relationship-centered) or the romantic partner (partner-focused). This study investigates the mediating role of alexithymia in the relationship between parenting styles and different presentations of ROCD, including relationship-centered and partner-focused.  Methods: A total of 453 participants completed partner-related obsessive-compulsive Symptoms inventory, relationship obsessive-compulsive inventory, parental authority questionnaire, and Toronto alexithymia scale-20. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software, version 26, and the Amos software, version 24. Results: The results demonstrated that the authoritarian parenting style has a significant positive relationship with relationship-centered and partner-focused obsession compulsion (OC) symptoms at a significance level of 0.01. Furthermore, the relationship between all three types of parenting styles, including authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive, with relationship-centered and partner-focused obsessions and compulsions symptoms, was mediated by alexithymia at the 0.05 significance level. Also, the fit indices suggested that the model has an acceptable overall fitness. Conclusion: Parenting styles are related to ROCD symptoms through the mediating role of alexithymia, and this model can facilitate the etiology of ROCD symptoms and is used to design interventions and early identification of high-risk individuals.