In the present study high religious, low religious and religious school Canadian Christian and Turkish Muslim students were compared on measures of OCD symptoms, obsessive beliefs, guilt, religiosity, and negative affect.
Analysis revealed that religiosity had a specific relationship with obsessional but not anxious or depressive symptoms in both samples, although the highly religious Muslim students reported more compulsive symptoms than highly religious Christians. In both samples the relationship between religiosity and obsessionality was mediated by importance/control of thoughts and responsibility/threat beliefs as well as generalized guilt.
The sample composition was limited to non-clinical undergraduates and only two major religions were considered without recognition of denominational differences.
These findings indicate that the tendency for highly religious Christians and Muslims to experience greater obsessionality is related to their heightened sense of personal guilt and beliefs that they are responsible for controlling unwanted, threatening intrusive thoughts.