Developmental predictors of romantic relationship and partner-based obsessive-compulsive symptoms on emerging adulthood: Autonomy, attachment and perfecti̇oni̇sm

The purpose of the study was to investigate the link between adult attachment styles, perceived level of psychological control and autonomy support from participants' parents, perfectionistic tendencies to partner related and romantic relationship themed obsessive compulsive symptoms. The sample in the study included 233 (66%) female and 120 (34%) male university students who were attending to diffrent faculties at Hacettepe University. In the study "Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory II (ECRI - II)", "Psychological Control Scale - Youth Self Report (PCS-YSR)", ''Autonmy Support Scale'', "Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (F-MPS)", Relationship Obsessions and Compulsions Inventory (ROCI) and Partner-Related Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms Inventory (PROCSI) were administered to the participants. Developmental models were evaluated with Structural Equation Model (SEM). In the study, attachment based developmental model was generated at first. Afterwards, psychological control based model generated and tested. In consequence of the model analysis adult attachment styles, parents' psychological control and level of perfectionistic tendencies of participants, partner related and romantic relationship themed obsessive-compulsive symptoms were evaluated with an integrated approach. According to the results of the attachment based model anxious and avoidant attachment and psychological control take place as strong developmental variables in the model. Also it has shown that maladaptive perfectionism make stronger the pathway to psyhopathology. In a similar manner, psychological control based model also showed that maladaptive perfectionism mediated the relationship of parents' psychological control and partner related and romantic relationship themed obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Results were discussed in the light of literature.