title: The differential relationship between mental contamination and the core dimensions of contact contamination fear.
abstract: Two types of contamination fear are recognized: contact and mental contamination. Contact contamination appears to be motivated both by harm avoidance and disgust avoidance. This study aimed to examine the relationships between disgust propensity, mental contamination and contact contamination while differentiating between harm avoidance and disgust avoidance in contact contamination. 169 OCD patients completed a set of questionnaires assessing mental contamination, contact contamination, disgust propensity, OCD, anxiety and depression. 1) Contact contamination based on disgust avoidance was more strongly associated with mental contamination and disgust propensity than contact contamination based on harm avoidance; 2) mental contamination significantly predicted contact contamination based on disgust avoidance, while it did not predict contact contamination based on harm avoidance; 3) mental contamination had a significant mediational role in the relationship between disgust propensity and contact contamination motivated by disgust avoidance. Mental contamination plays a role in contact contamination fear when disgust is primarily experienced.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology and Psychotherapy of Florence (IPSICO), Italy; University of Pisa, Italy. Electronic address: g.melli@ipsico.it.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Melli
authors.affiliation: Institute for Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology and Psychotherapy of Florence (IPSICO), Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bulli
authors.affiliation: Institute for Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology and Psychotherapy of Florence (IPSICO), Italy.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Carraresi
authors.affiliation: Cognitive and Behavioral Psychotherapy Center, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tarantino
authors.affiliation: Institute for Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology and Psychotherapy of Florence (IPSICO), Italy.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gelli
authors.affiliation: Institute for Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology and Psychotherapy of Florence (IPSICO), Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Poli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Contamination fear; Disgust; Mental contamination; Obsessive-compulsive disorder