Cognitive correlates of hoarding symptoms: An exploratory study with a non-Western community sample

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Highlights

  • Main factors of cognitive accounts for hoarding behavior which also seems valid in a Turkish community sample.

  • Apart from avoidance, other strategies of coping, mainly in the form of emotion-focused, are also influential in this symptom pattern.

  • Culture-specific descriptions might account for various ways of coping in hoarding behavior.

  • More cross-cultural research is needed on the impact of culture in hoarding.

Abstract

The cognitive behavioral model of hoarding, focusing on real/perceived deficits in cognitive processes, beliefs about possessions and avoidance, is mainly supported by several studies with Western samples. However, owing to the possible impact of cultural characteristics, more research is needed to support cognitive correlates of hoarding in a variety of cultures and to understand the role of the various ways of coping. Hence, the present study examines the relationships between certain cognitive constructs, namely attachment to possessions, indecisiveness, metacognitive beliefs and ways of coping with hoarding symptoms. We collected data from a Turkish community sample using self-report measures and performed correlation and regression analyses. The results confirmed the roles of indecisiveness, emotional attachment to belongingness, positive and negative beliefs about worries and cognitive confidence in hoarding symptoms. Moreover, the following factors also seemed to be associated with these symptoms: greater use of indirect ways of coping, including escape/avoidance, belief in supernatural forces, accepting responsibility, keeping to self, and less use of planned problem solving. In addition to highlighting the role of culture-specific descriptions and empirical studies, the current findings may be viewed as preliminary evidence that validates the current model and roles of various ways of coping.

Section snippets

. Introduction

Although saving and collecting may be adaptive, in severe forms it can prevent the normal use of space in the home and increases the risk of illness and injuries; and accordingly, its extreme version, as in the form of hoarding disorder, can be detrimental and stressful not only to the individual, but also to others significantly (Pertusa et al., 2010). Once considered as a manifestation and subtype of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), contrasting research findings have prompted debate over

Participants

The study sample was composed of 775 adults working in various private companies, and in elementary and high schools in Bursa-Turkey (419 males, 332 females, 24 unknown). The mean age of the participants was 32.32 (Sd=8.49) within a range of 18–63. The participants were mostly married (55.4 percent) and university graduates (52.2 percent). Additionally, among three options, 82.8 percent of the participants reported an average income level, and 47.8 percent reported having at least one child.

Sample characteristics

As can be seen from Table 1, the means and standard deviations of study reveal that the SI-R scores in the current sample fell within the ranges of various samples (e.g., Bulli et al., 2014; Frost et al., 2004; Timpano et al., 2015). When the results of the analyses to identify the relationship between the SI-R and demographic variables were examined, it was found that neither the total SIR nor its subscale scores were correlated with any of the demographical variables, such as age and income (r

Discussion

Although there has been a dramatic increase in the number of empirical studies into hoarding over the last two decades, a very limited amount of this research recruited non-Western samples. In this regard, there is a need for a validation of the findings in countries where hoarding has yet to be examined from a cognitive behavioral perspective. The present study aimed to investigate the role of some of the critical cognitive correlates which have been suggested in the cognitive behavioral model

Conclusion

The present study investigated main cognitive correlates of hoarding symptoms in a non-Western community sample via a series of self-report measures. The results of the analyses demonstrated that as the general hypotheses of this study were supported, the basic tenets of cognitive-behavioral model of hoarding are also valid for Turkish participants. Among influential factors are emotional bonding to possessions, indecisiveness, metacognitive beliefs and avoidance in the hoarding symptoms.

Acknowledgment

The authors are very grateful to Dr. R. Frost for his valuable suggestions during preparation of current manuscript. Likewise, we would like to thank anonymous reviewers of the present journal that helped improve the current manuscript. In addition, the present study was supported by Scientific Research Program Grant (2013.KB.SOS.012) at Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir-Turkey.

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