سیده مریم اسماعیلی

Objective: Among psychological problems, mood disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders impose huge costs on the society every year due to their recurring nature. In this regard, the present study was conducted with the aim of comparing parenting styles and psychological distress in patients with obsessive-compulsive and bipolar disorders. Methods: The present study was applied in terms of its purpose and employed a causal-comparative (ex-post facto) design for data collection. The statistical population consisted of all patients diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) who referred to psychiatric clinics in Ardabil during the second half of 2024. Participants were selected based on clinical interviews conducted by specialists according to DSM-5 criteria and their confirmed medical records. A total of 100 individuals (50 with Bipolar Disorder and 50 with OCD) were selected through purposive sampling based on the inclusion criteria. Data were collected using the Parenting Practices Questionnaire (PPQ) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21). The collected data were analyzed using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). Results: The findings indicated that although the OCD group reported higher mean scores in psychological distress and the bipolar group reported higher levels of authoritative parenting, multivariate analysis (MANOVA) did not reveal any statistically significant differences between the two groups (Wilks’ Lambda = .921, F(12, 284) = 1.00, p = .44). Similarly, univariate analyses (ANOVA) showed no significant differences in individual variables, including Depression (p = .35), Anxiety (p = .69), Stress (p = .42), Authoritative (p = .15), Authoritarian (p = .62), and Permissive parenting (p = .57). These results suggest that overall patterns of psychological distress and perceived parenting styles are largely similar across these two disorders, and the type of disorder alone does not account for substantial differences in these variables. Conclusion: Therefore, the current research emphasizes the importance of paying attention to parenting styles and psychological distress of the system in obsessive-compulsive and bipolar disorders.