Does anxiety sensitivity predict symptoms of panic, depression, and social anxiety?

This study examined whether the lower-order factors of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) exhibited specificity in predicting symptoms of panic, depression, and social anxiety prospectively. This question was addressed using a sample of undergraduates stratified to represent low, medium, and high levels of anxiety sensitivity (AS). It was hypothesized that the physical concerns, mental concerns, and social concerns subscales of the ASI would predict increases in panic, depression, and social anxiety symptoms, respectively, one year later. Results found that the physical concerns subscale predicted increases in both panic and depressive symptoms. Neither the mental concerns nor the social concerns subscales predicted significant variance in any of the Time 2 symptoms. Theoretical implications of these data for AS are discussed.     

Test anxiety,anxiety disorders,and school-related wellbeing: Manifestations of the same or different constructs?

Previous studies have shown that highly test anxious persons are more likely to meet criteria for an anxiety disorder and report more frequent symptoms of anxiety disorders than their low test anxious counterparts. However, it is unclear whether test anxiety should be treated as distinct to, or a manifestation of, anxiety disorders. Furthermore, the Dual Factor Model of Mental Health proposes that high subjective wellbeing cannot be solely inferred from the absence of psychopathology. To date, no studies have examined the Dual Factor Model in relation to test anxiety. In the present study, we examined how test anxiety, two common anxiety disorders (i.e., generalized anxiety disorder [GAD] and panic disorder [PD]), and subjective wellbeing in the school domain (i.e., school-related wellbeing) were related in a sample of 918 adolescents (M age = 15.77 years) using network analysis and latent profile analysis. Results from the network analysis indicated that test anxiety, GAD, PD, and school-related wellbeing were represented as distinct constructs. Bridge nodes were identified that linked test anxiety with GAD, PD, and school-related wellbeing. The latent profile analysis identified three of the four profiles predicted by the Dual Factor Model, including (a) troubled (i.e., low school-related wellbeing, high test anxiety, GAD, and PD), (b) complete mental health (i.e., high school-related wellbeing, low test anxiety, GAD, and PD), and (c) symptomatic but content (i.e., average school-related wellbeing, test anxiety, GAD, and PD). We concluded that test anxiety was distinct from, rather than a manifestation of, GAD and PD. We found support for the Dual Factor Model, albeit not unequivocal, using test anxiety as an additional indicator of psychopathology to that of GAD and PD.     

The age of anxiety? Birth cohort change in anxiety and neuroticism, 1952-1993

Two meta-analyses find that Americans have shifted toward substantially higher levels of anxiety and neuroticism during recent decades. Both college student (adult) and child samples increased almost a full standard deviation in anxiety between 1952 and 1993 (explaining about 20% of the variance in the trait). The average American child in the 1980s reported more anxiety than child psychiatric patients in the 1950s. Correlations with social indices (e.g., divorce rates, crime rates) suggest that decreases in social connectedness and increases in environmental dangers may be responsible for the rise in anxiety. Economic factors, however, seem to play little role. Birth cohort, as a proxy for broad social trends, may be an important influence on personality development, especially during childhood.     

Is anxiety sensitivity distinguishable from trait anxiety? Reply to Lilienfeld, Jacob, and Turner (1989)

Lilienfeld, Jacob, and Turner (1989) questioned the conceptual and empirical distinction between anxiety sensitivity and trait anxiety, and suggested that results attributed to anxiety sensitivity are more parsimoniously explained by trait anxiety. In the present article, I clarify the theoretical distinction between these constructs, and provide further data that support this distinction.     

Interpretation bias and social anxiety: does interpretation bias mediate the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety responses?

Two studies aimed to examine whether high socially anxious individuals are more likely to negatively interpret ambiguous social scenarios and facial expressions compared to low socially anxious individuals. We also examined whether interpretation bias serves as a mediator of the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety responses, in particular current state anxiety, bodily sensations, and perceived probability and cost of negative evaluation pertaining to a speech task. Study 1 used ambiguous social scenarios and Study 2 used ambiguous facial expressions as stimuli to objectively assess interpretation bias. Undergraduate students with high and low social anxiety completed measures of state anxiety responses at three time points: baseline, after the interpretation bias task, and after the preparation for an impromptu speech. Results showed that high socially anxious individuals were more likely to endorse threat interpretations for ambiguous social scenarios and to interpret ambiguous faces as negative than low socially anxious individuals. Furthermore, negative interpretations mediated the relationship between trait social anxiety and perceived probability of negative evaluation pertaining to the speech task in Study 1 but not Study 2. The present studies provide new insight into the role of interpretation bias in social anxiety.     

Body image in social anxiety disorder,obsessive–compulsive disorder,and panic disorder

Body dysmorphic disorder falls under the category of obsessive–compulsive and related disorders, yet research has suggested it may also be highly associated with social anxiety disorder. The current study examined body image variables among 68 outpatients with primary obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD; n = 22), social anxiety disorder (SAD; n = 25), and panic disorder (PD; n = 21). Participants filled out self-report measures of body image disturbance, attitudes toward one's appearance, and anxiety. Body image disturbance and attitudes toward appearance did not significantly differ between the groups. However, SAD symptoms predicted body image disturbance, Appearance Evaluation and Body Areas Satisfaction, and OCD symptoms predicted Appearance Orientation. These findings suggest that SAD and OCD may be associated with different facets of body image. Implications for the treatment of anxiety disorders and for future research are discussed.     

The anxiety disorder spectrum: Fear imagery,physiological reactivity,and differential diagnosis∗

Abstract

This review considers recent research assessing psychophysiological reactivity to fear imagery in anxiety disorder patients. As in animal subjects, fear cues prompt in humans a state of defensive motivation in which autonomic and somatic survival reflexes are markedly enhanced. Thus, a startle stimulus presented in a fear context yields a stronger (potentiated) reflex, providing a quantitative measure of fearful arousal. This fear potentiation is further exaggerated in specific or social phobia individuals when viewing pictures or imagining the phobic object. Paradoxically, fear imagery studies with more severe anxiety disorder patients – panic disorder with agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, or anxious patients with comorbid depression – show a blunted, less robust fear potentiated response. Furthermore, this reflex blunting appears to systematically be more pronounced over the anxiety disorder spectrum, coincident with lengthier chronicity, worsening clinician-based judgments of severity and prognosis, and increased questionnaire-based indices of negative affectivity, suggesting that normal defensive reactivity may be compromised by an experience of long-term stress.     

Feeling safe and content: A specific affect regulation system? Relationship to depression,anxiety, stress,and self-criticism

Recent work in the neuroscience of positive affect has suggested that there may be two different types of positive affect. One is linked to a drive/seeking system (and may be dopaminergic mediated) and the other is a soothing-contentment system (and may be opiate/oxytocin mediated). This study sought to develop a self-report scale that could tap these positive affects in regard to characteristic feelings individuals may have. Results from 203 students suggested three (rather than two) underlying factors: activated positive affect, relaxed positive affect, and safe/content positive affect. It was the safe/content positive affect that had the highest negative correlations with depression, anxiety and stress, self-criticism, and insecure attachment. Hence, greater clarity on the different types and functions of positive affect may demystify the relationship between positive emotions and well-being.     

Does parental job insecurity matter? Money anxiety, money motives, and work motivation

A structural model focusing on the spillover effect of parental perceived job insecurity on money anxiety was developed and tested. The crossover effect of parents' money anxiety on their children's money anxiety, money motives, and motivation to work was also examined. Data were collected from a sample of undergraduates and their parents. Results of structural equation modeling analyses supported a spillover effect of paternal perceived job insecurity on paternal money anxiety. However, maternal perceived job insecurity was not significantly associated with maternal money anxiety. Results also supported a crossover effect of parental money anxiety on youths' money anxiety. Youths' money anxiety was significantly related to youths' negative money motives. In turn, youths' negative money motives were associated with their intrinsic motivation to work. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Which fearful toddlers should we worry about? Context, fear regulation, and anxiety risk

In the current study, the author tested a model of risk for anxiety in fearful toddlers characterized by the toddlers' regulation of the intensity of withdrawal behavior across a variety of contexts. Participants included low-risk 24-month-old toddlers (N = 111) followed longitudinally each year through the fall of their kindergarten year. The key hypothesis was that being fearful in situations that are relatively low in threat (i.e., are predictable and controllable and in which children have many coping resources) is an early precursor to risk for anxiety development as measured by parental and teacher reports of children's anxious behaviors in kindergarten. Results supported the prediction such that it is not how much fear is expressed but when and how the fear is expressed that is important for characterizing adaptive behavior. Implications are discussed for a model of risk that includes the regulation of fear, the role of eliciting context, social wariness, and the importance of examining developmental transitions, such as the start of formal schooling. These findings have implications for the methods used to identify fearful children who may be at risk for developing anxiety-related problems.     

Text or talk? Social anxiety, loneliness, and divergent preferences for cell phone use.

This paper investigates whether social anxiety and loneliness lead to contrasting beliefs and preferences among cell phone users towards texting and talking on their cell phones. Three hypotheses are examined: (1) that social anxiety and loneliness are differentially associated with generalized preferences either for texting or for talking on the cell phone, (2) that these preferences are linked to contrasting beliefs concerning the social functionality of the short message service (SMS), and (3) that these divergent beliefs mediate the effects of social anxiety and loneliness on cell phone users' generalized preferences for texting or talking. Results from an Internet questionnaire (N=158) showed that, whilst lonely participants preferred making voice calls and rated texting as a less intimate method of contact, anxious participants preferred to text, and rated it a superior medium for expressive and intimate contact. These divergent beliefs accounted for 36% and 16% of the variance in preference for texting and voice calls, respectively, and significantly attenuated the influence of loneliness and social anxiety when they were added to the regression equations for these measures. Results are discussed in terms of the hyperpersonal possibilities of mobile communications technologies.     

Freud's Jewish identity,circumcision, and the theory of castration anxiety: problem or pride?

In this work the author reflects on the Jewish identity of Sigmund Freud. It is acknowledged that Freud, even though he seemed ambivalent towards Jewishness and even though anti-Semitism was omnipresent, not necessarily perceived his Jewish identity as problematic. Rather, it seems as if Freud had a positive Jewish identity, which was connected to profound knowledge in Jewish religion and tradition, even though he declared himself as a Godless Jew. Both his Jewish identity and his knowledge in Judaism seemed to have contributed to some of his insights into the human psyche. The impact of the traditional Jewish circumcision and the insights connected to the theory of castration anxiety are specifically discussed. The author suggests that Freud's positive Jewish identity, and the significance of circumcision, contributed to his insights into the prerequisites of human development and how we as individuals are shaped both by our interpersonal relationships and by the cultural context.     

The state-trait anxiety inventory, trait version: does it really measure anxiety?

To clarify what is actually measured by the trait version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970), we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis of various models and evaluated convergent and discriminant validity. The best fit was obtained with both a bifactor model, comprising 2 specific factors plus a general factor, and a 1-construct, 2-method model. The total score and the 2 method subscales of the STAI trait version were more strongly correlated with depression than with anxiety. In the bifactor model with 2 specific factors, the depression subscale showed stronger correlations with measures of depression than with measures of anxiety. The correlation of the hypothetical anxiety subscale with measures of depression was equivalent to or higher than its correlation with measures of anxiety. These results suggest that the questionnaire does not strictly evaluate anxiety but, rather, negative affect.     

The effect of group psychological counselling in Greek university students’ anxiety,depression, and self-esteem

Objective: During the last decades there has been a marked increase in both the number of students with severe psychological problems on campus and the number of students seeking counselling services. The present study measured the effect of a group psychological counselling program on university students’ anxiety, depression, and self-esteem. Design: Data were derived from six separate groups and a total of 53 participants (19 male, 34 female). The intervention was based on Cognitive-Behavioural Group Therapy (CBGT) and included cognitive and behavioural techniques in eight, two-hour weekly sessions. The quasi-experimental longitudinal study used a pretest/posttest group design. The participants completed the Spielberger's State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSE) before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using t-tests. Results: The results indicated the existence of meaningful differences in terms of state and trait anxiety, depression and self-esteem from pre-treatment to post-treatment. Conclusion: The program was effective in decreasing significantly participants’ anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as increasing their self-esteem. These are encouraging results demonstrating an effective form of the intervention on student population.     

Is anxiety about health associated with desire to exercise, physical activity, and exercise dependence?

There are significant gaps in the literature regarding the behavioural consequences of health anxiety. Although past research indicates that health anxiety is associated with distinctive maladaptive behaviours, such as reassurance seeking, the relationship between health anxiety and wellness-related behaviours, such as physical activity, has not been adequately examined. Given that health anxiety is associated with excessive attempts to ensure health and avoid illness, health anxiety could be potentially related to extreme physical activity, known as exercise dependence. Using the cognitive behavioural model of health anxiety as a framework, this exploratory study investigated the relationships between health anxiety, exercise desire, physical activity, and exercise dependence.Undergraduate university students (n = 144) completed a battery of online measures. Results indicated that only the perceptual component of health anxiety, namely hypervigilance to somatic symptoms, was related to exercise desire and components of exercise dependence. Implications of the findings are discussed and future research avenues are explored.     

Marked for life? A prospective study of tattoos on appearance anxiety and dissatisfaction, perceptions of uniqueness, and self-esteem

Previous studies on psychosocial aspects of tattooing have not examined prospective changes in self- and body-related attitudes as a result of obtaining a tattoo. In the present study, 82 British residents obtaining their first tattoo completed measures of state appearance anxiety and dissatisfaction prior to, and immediately after, obtaining a tattoo. They also completed measures of trait body appreciation, distinctive appearance investment, self-ascribed uniqueness, social physique anxiety, and self-esteem before obtaining a tattoo and three weeks later. Results showed that both women and men had significantly lower appearance anxiety and dissatisfaction immediately after obtaining their tattoo, and significantly higher body appreciation, distinctive appearance investment, self-ascribed uniqueness, and self-esteem after three weeks. Women reported greater social physique anxiety after three weeks, whereas men reported lower anxiety. These results are discussed in relation to the positive impacts of obtaining body art and the mainstreaming of tattooing in Western societies.     

Emotion regulation in social anxiety: a systematic investigation and meta-analysis using self-report,subjective, and event-related potentials measures

Recent models of social anxiety disorder emphasise the role of emotion dysregulation; however, the nature of the proposed impairment needs clarification. In a replication and extension framework, four studies (N?=?193) examined whether individuals with social anxiety (HSAs) are impaired in using cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Self-reports and lab-based tasks of suppression and reappraisal were utilised among individuals with high and low levels of social anxiety. A meta-analysis of these studies indicated that, compared to controls, HSAs reported less frequent and effective use of reappraisal and more frequent and effective use of suppression. Counter to most models and our hypotheses, HSAs were more successful than controls in lab-based reappraisal of shame-arousing pictures as measured by subjective ratings, but not by event-related potentials. HSAs were less successful than controls in lab-based suppression of shame-arousing pictures as measured by subjective ratings, but not by event-related potentials. The results held even when participants were under social stress (impromptu speech anticipation). Overall, subjective reports of HSAs reveal strong deficits in emotion regulation whereas lab-based measures provided less conclusive evidence of such deficits. These results suggest that individuals with social anxiety experience difficulties implementing their reappraisal abilities in daily life.     

Do childhood anxiety measures measure anxiety?

The Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (FSSC-R), Revised-Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS), and the Modified State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC-M) are three widely used self-report measures of childhood anxiety. While previous studies have established the reliability of these measures, their validity in discriminating anxious from non-anxious youngsters remains to be established. The present study examines the discriminant validity of the three measures by comparing clinic referred samples of boys with an anxiety disorder (n=105) or ADHD (n=59) with a community sample of never-psychiatrically-ill boys (n=49). Results indicated that the two patient groups differed significantly from the never-psychiatrically-ill group on the RCMAS and STAIC-M, but the anxious and ADHD groups did not differ from each other. None of the three groups differed on the FSSC-R. The implications of these findings for the assessment of childhood anxiety disorders are discussed.     

Velocity versus safety: Impact of goal conflict and task difficulty on drivers’ behaviour,feelings of anxiety,and electrodermal responses

This paper proposes a goal conflict model that links drivers’ conflicting motivations for fast and safe driving with an emotional state of anxiety. It is proposed that this linkage is mediated by a behavioural inhibition system (Gray & McNaughton, 2000) affecting drivers’ mood, physiological responses and choice of speed. The model was tested with 24 male participants, each of whom undertook 18 runs of a simple driving simulation. On each run, the goal conflict was induced by time pressure and the advance warning of a possible encounter with a deer. The conflict’s intensity varied depending on the magnitude of the equally-sized gain and loss assigned to early arrival and collision respectively. Results show that the larger the conflict, the more slowly the participants drove. In addition, they rated themselves as being more anxious, attentive, and aroused. An increase in task difficulty induced by low visibility resulted in an additional speed reduction and increase in self-reported anxiety but did not lead to a further increase in self-assessed attention and arousal. Overall, the number of electrodermal responses depended neither on conflict nor on task difficulty, but increased linearly with conflict during low visibility. Implications for the incorporation of goal conflict into theories on driving behaviour and conclusions for traffic safety policies are discussed.