Relationships between magical thinking, obsessive-compulsiveness and other forms of anxiety in a sample of non-clinical children

Br J Dev Psychol. 2009 Jun;27(Pt 2):457-71. doi: 10.1348/026151008x345582.

Abstract

Despite the obvious phenomenological similarities between magical thinking and obsessive-compulsiveness, the relationship between them has been the subject of few empirical investigations in samples of children. The present study aimed to examine the relationship between a general epistemic stance towards magical causation and tendencies towards obsessive-compulsiveness in a non-clinical sample of schoolchildren. One-hundred and two children, aged between 5 and 10 years (48 boys and 54 girls), completed questionnaire measures designed to assess magical thinking, obsessive-compulsiveness, and other forms of anxiety. School teachers completed a measure of strengths and difficulties for each child. General belief in magical causation was correlated with all types of anxiety, not just obsessive-compulsiveness, with significant correlations shown for boys in the sample, but not girls. General belief in magical causation contributed little to the prediction of obsessive-compulsiveness beyond general anxiety. In this study, a general epistemic stance towards magical causation did not differentiate obsessive-compulsiveness from other anxiety dimensions. The findings are considered in the context of developmental theories of magical and scientific causal reasoning.

MeSH terms

  • Analysis of Variance
  • Anxiety / physiopathology*
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Compulsive Behavior / physiopathology*
  • Culture*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Internal-External Control*
  • Male
  • Personality Assessment
  • Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
  • Regression Analysis
  • Sex Factors
  • Students
  • Surveys and Questionnaires