Compulsive Hoarding Symptoms and the Role of Mindfulness Skills During Social Distancing for the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Exploratory Survey

Abstract

People reporting compulsive hoarding symptoms (CHS) have lower mindfulness skills than those without such symptoms. Mindfulness skills can have the role of a protective buffer against stressful periods. The quarantine imposed to contain the COVID-19 spread had a negative impact on daily habits and healthy behaviors (including social interactions). An increased attachment to objects might be one of the under-recognized psychological consequences of these difficult times, yet no study focused on CHS. Through an online survey in men who were on quarantine during the pandemic, this exploratory survey examined the prevalence of men reporting CHS during this period and explored the role of mindfulness skills on CHS controlling for anxious-depressive/stress symptoms. Forty-three men from the general population completed the Obsessive Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R), Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised (CAMS-R) and Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21). Twenty-eight percent reported CHS. No differences on the scores of the questionnaires emerged between men with and without CHS, except on CAMS-R Attention scores. In a logistic regression analysis lower CAMS-R Attention scores predicted CHS (β = −0.34, p = 0.03). This is the first, yet preliminary investigation on CHS during quarantine. The prevalence of CHS appears higher than the rates (4%) reported in the last years before the COVID-19 outbreak. Perhaps people showed more intense hoarding tendencies during quarantine/social distancing, and this pattern should be monitored. Larger samples, longitudinal designs and clinician-rated instruments are needed to support or not our findings.

Exploring the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and hoarding behavior: A moderated multi-mediation model

“…These findings suggest that mindfulness can help achieve a "double dividend" in decreasing hoarding behavior. Although previous studies showed the potential negative influence of mindfulness on hoarding behavior (Marazziti et al, 2021), our findings identify the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and hoarding behavior from a new perspective, and reveal the "black-box" of how this relationship works.…”

“…Recent investigations have included mindfulness as a component of an intervention for obsessive-compulsive symptoms (e.g., Patel et al, 2007;Sugiura and Sugiura, 2015;Apaolaza et al, 2019), and one of the symptom dimensions is hoarding disorder. Moreover, previous research found that individuals with compulsive hoarding symptoms scored lower in the attention facet of mindfulness skills than those without such symptoms (Marazziti et al, 2021). These studies jointly suggest the negative association between mindfulness and hoarding behavior.…”

“…First, the finding that mindfulness was negatively associated with hoarding behavior is in accordance with another recent study. Marazziti et al (2021) found that the ability to regulate attention can protect from hoarding and play the role of a psychological factor associated with lower hoarding. Unlike the socio-psychological antecedents of hoarding that have received a lot of attention from researchers (e.g., Wheaton et al, 2011;Jia et al, 2019), the current study enriches and extended prior literature on the role of dispositional mindfulness in hoarding behavior.…”

“…Meanwhile, several studies have focused on the inhibitors of hoarding. Besides social support (Medard and Kellett, 2014) and social trust (Weiss et al, 2020), the attention facet of mindfulness skills has also been found to be negatively associated with compulsive hoarding symptoms for men who were on quarantine during the pandemic (Marazziti et al, 2021).…”

“…Individuals with higher dispositional mindfulness have a clear awareness of what is actually happening in the moment, and therefore make conscious decisions and show less reflexive and impulsive behavior (Brown and Ryan, 2003). Although a recent study found the attention facet of mindfulness skills was negatively associated with compulsive hoarding symptoms (Marazziti et al, 2021), the relationship between individual differences in dispositional mindfulness and hoarding behavior, as well as the mechanisms underlying this relationship, have not yet been tested.…”