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A Developmental Perspective on Disgust: Implications for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

  • Child and Developmental Psychiatry (M Grados, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

There has been an emergence of theoretical and empirical accounts on the nature and function of disgust in the literature. However, this literature has largely focused on adults. This article summarizes the literature on the emotion of disgust in children with emphasis on illuminating reactions to proposed disgust elicitors and the emergence of contamination concerns.

Recent Findings

Children’s understanding of disgust may represent the origins of individual differences in disgust proneness, a personality trait that is both genetic and a product of social learning. Early research employing multiple levels of analysis suggests that disgust proneness may confer risk for the development of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in children.

Summary

Disgust proneness may originate, in part, from a distaste response that has been adapted to generalize to other stimuli as a means of facilitating avoidance. The implications of disgust proneness for the etiology and treatment of OCD are discussed as well as future directions for research.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stanford University, Stanford, USA

    Sherri C. Widen

  2. Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, 301 Wilson Hall, 111 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA

    Bunmi O. Olatunji

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  1. Sherri C. Widen
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  2. Bunmi O. Olatunji
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Correspondence to Bunmi O. Olatunji.

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Dr. Sherri C. Widen and Dr. Bunmi O. Olatunji declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Child and Developmental Psychiatry

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Widen, S.C., Olatunji, B.O. A Developmental Perspective on Disgust: Implications for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Curr Behav Neurosci Rep 3, 204–210 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40473-016-0087-0

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