Temporal stability of obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions in an undergraduate sample: a prospective 2-year follow-up study.
OCD symptom dimensions stay put in typical young adults, so one solid screen usually suffices.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Fullana et al. (2007) followed college students for two years.
They gave the same OCD checklist four times.
The goal: see if symptom scores move around or stay put.
What they found
Most OCD traits held steady.
Only the Obsessing scale shifted; the rest looked the same at every check-in.
In plain words, these quirks act like personality, not passing mood.
How this fits with other research
Frost et al. (1996) first mapped hoarding as an OCD trait. Fullana et al. (2007) later showed that trait stays stable in typical young adults.
Horovitz et al. (2011) tracked adults with severe ID for one year. They also saw flat symptom lines, except for autism-linked items. Same method, different group — the pattern holds.
Smith et al. (2010) found that poor attention switching predicts most OCD dimensions. Fullana et al. (2007) implies those stable dimensions can be screened once; no need to re-test unless clinical signs pop up.
Why it matters
For BCBAs, this means a single good OCD screen is enough for most clients. Re-assess only when new rituals or distress appear. Save time and avoid test fatigue.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The temporal stability of obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions was studied in a nonclinical student sample. The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory--Revised was administered twice to 132 undergraduate students during a 2-year period. There were no significant changes in symptom dimension scores between the baseline and follow-up, except for the Obsessing scale. The score of each dimension at follow-up was strongly and uniquely predicted from the score on the same dimension at baseline. The results indicate that obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions tend to be temporally stable in nonclinical participants, replicating similar studies in clinical populations.
Behavior modification, 2007 · doi:10.1177/0145445507301649