PROCRASTINATION TENDENCIES AMONG OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVES AND THEIR RELATIVES

Participants diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD; 39 wom en, 26 men; M age = 40) and their family relatives (11 women, 7 men; M age = 45) completed standardized measures of obsessions, compulsions, decisional procrastination (indecision), and avoidant procrastination . Among the OCDs, obsessions were related significantly to decisional procrastination, and compulsions were related significantly to decisio nal and avoidant procrastination. In comparison to family members of o bsessive compulsives, the OCDs reported significantly greater obsessio ns, compulsions, and indecisions, but not procrastination motivated by avoidance. Results suggest that individuals with clinical obsessive-c ompulsive tendencies do, in fact, report states of indecision, as clai med by DSM-III-R. However, these clinical individuals may not differ s ignificantly from nonclinical samples (e.g., family members) in avoida nt procrastination.