Abstract
This study examined a theoretical model that suggests family/carer accommodation mediates the relationship between family/carer distress tolerance (more specifically, intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and tolerance of negative emotions; TNE) and OCD symptom severity. Thirty two adults experiencing symptoms of OCD and someone who lived with them completed a survey comprising of screening questions, demographic information and self-report questionnaires (total N=64). The mediation analysis found that the 95% confidence intervals crossed zero, showing that levels of relational accommodation did not significantly mediate the relationship between carer IU or TNE and OCD symptom severity. Furthermore, carer IU and TNE did not significantly predict levels of accommodation to the OCD symptoms. Levels of accommodation predicted OCD symptom severity (p<.05), but this did not remain significant when controlling for carer mental health. This is the first study to examine whether accommodation of OCD symptoms mediate the relationship between distress tolerance in a significant other living with someone with symptoms of OCD and OCD symptoms. This study concluded that accommodation of the OCD symptoms is common amongst adults with OCD who live with someone. The proposed theoretical model was not supported empirically in this study and the hypothesised factors explained a limited amount of the variance in levels of accommodating behaviours. It was concluded that although the study was underpowered, there are likely to be other factors not accounted for in the proposed model that explain some of the variance in accommodating behaviours. Whilst the study replicated the finding that there is a significant correlation between levels of family accommodation and OCD symptom severity, it calls for the need to control for carer mental health in analysis. The authors continue to develop the study to investigate factors that predict levels of accommodation, in addition to developing the mediation model proposed.