DSM-defined anxiety disorders symptoms in South African youths: Their assessment and relationship with perceived parental rearing behaviors

This study investigated DSM-defined anxiety symptoms in South African youths. Children and adolescents (N = 701) from various cultural groups completed the SCARED and a questionnaire measuring perceived parental rearing behaviors. Results indicated that the psychometric properties of the SCARED were satisfactory in the total sample of South African youths, and acceptable in colored and black children and adolescents. Further, colored and black youths displayed higher SCARED scores than white youths, and there were also differences in the perceived parental rearing behaviors of the cultural groups. White youths generally rated their parents' rearing behaviors as less anxious, overprotective, and rejective, but more emotionally warm than colored and black youths. Finally, positive correlations were found between anxious rearing, overprotection, and rejection and anxiety symptoms. The clinical and research implications of these findings are briefly discussed.     

Gender Role Orientation and Anxiety Symptoms Among African American Adolescents

The present study evaluated gender role theory as an explanation for the observed gender differences in anxiety symptoms among adolescents. Specifically, the relation between gender, gender role orientation (i.e., masculinity and femininity), self-esteem, and anxiety symptoms was examined in a community sample of 114 African Americans aged 14 to 19 (mean age 15.77; 57 girls). Results revealed that masculinity was negatively associated with anxiety symptoms whereas femininity was positively associated with anxiety symptoms. Gender role orientation accounted for unique variance in anxiety scores above biological gender and self-esteem, and self-esteem moderated the relation between femininity (but not masculinity) and overall anxiety symptoms. Consistent with research on children and Caucasians, findings supported gender role theory as a partial explanation for the observed gender disparity in anxiety symptoms among African American adolescents.     

The effects of modifying interpretation bias on worry in generalized anxiety disorder

This study investigated whether facilitating a benign interpretive bias decreases negative thought intrusions in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Clients were randomly allocated to an interpretation modification condition in which they repeatedly accessed benign meanings of emotionally ambiguous homographs and scenarios, or to a control condition in which they accessed threat and benign meanings with equal frequency. Worry frequency was assessed using a breathing focus task that involved categorising the valence of thought intrusions before and after an instructed worry period. Interpretation bias was assessed during the modification tasks, and on a different measure of interpretation bias (sentence completion) following a period of worry. The experimental procedure modified interpretations made during training, and in the later sentence completion task. Furthermore, compared to the control group, the benign group showed fewer negative thought intrusions during breathing focus (as rated by both participants and an assessor). These findings show that it is possible to induce a more benign interpretive bias in GAD clients and that this reduces negative thought intrusions.     

Targeting the probability versus cost of feared outcomes in public speaking anxiety

Cognitive-behavioral theory suggests that social phobia is maintained, in part, by overestimates of the probability and cost of negative social events. Indeed, empirically supported cognitive-behavioral treatments directly target these cognitive biases through the use of in vivo exposure or behavioral experiments. While cognitive-behavioral theories and treatment protocols emphasize the importance of targeting probability and cost biases in the reduction of social anxiety, few studies have examined specific techniques for reducing probability and cost bias, and thus the relative efficacy of exposure to the probability versus cost of negative social events is unknown. In the present study, 37 undergraduates with high public speaking anxiety were randomly assigned to a single-session intervention designed to reduce either the perceived probability or the perceived cost of negative outcomes associated with public speaking. Compared to participants in the probability treatment condition, those in the cost treatment condition demonstrated significantly greater improvement on measures of public speaking anxiety and cost estimates for negative social events. The superior efficacy of the cost treatment condition was mediated by greater treatment-related changes in social cost estimates. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Intrusive imagery in severe health anxiety: Prevalence, nature and links with memories and maintenance cycles

Increased understanding of the nature and role of intrusive imagery has contributed to the development of effective treatment protocols for some anxiety disorders. However, intrusive imagery in severe health anxiety (hypochondriasis) has been comparatively neglected. Hence, the current study investigates the prevalence, nature and content of intrusive imagery in 55 patients who met DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000) criteria for the diagnosis of hypochondriasis. A semi-structured interview was used to assess the prevalence, nature and possible role of intrusive imagery in this disorder. Over 78% of participants reported experiencing recurrent, distressing intrusive images, the majority (72%) of which either were a memory of an earlier event or were strongly associated with a memory. The images tended to be future orientated, and were reliably categorised into four themes: i) being told ‘the bad news’ that you have a serious/life threatening-illness (6.9%), ii) suffering from a serious or life-threatening illness (34.5%), iii) death and dying due to illness (22.4%) and iv) impact of own death or serious illness on loved ones (36.2%). Participants reported responding to experiencing intrusive images by engaging in avoidance, checking, reassurance seeking, distraction and rumination. Potential treatment implications and links to maintenance cycles are considered.     

Socially anxious individuals lack unintentional mimicry

So far, evidence for unskilled social behavior in high socially anxious individuals (HAs) is equivocal. One reason may be that shortcomings are often not directly observable. An important shortcoming would be a lack of unintentional mimicry because it communicates sympathy and rapport with the interaction partner. Therefore, we tested whether HAs show less unintentional mimicry of others. Twenty-nine HAs and 43 low socially anxious individuals (LAs) - all female - watched a virtual man (avatar) who displayed a fixed set of head movements while giving an opinionated speech. Four raters scored whether the participants mimicked the avatar's movements within 4 s. The results indicate that HAs did indeed mimic significantly less than LAs. Lacking such pro-social behavior, HAs may indeed be evaluated as less sympathetic by others, confirming their fears of being disliked.     

The relative impact of workplace bullying as a social stressor at work

Hauge, L. J., Skogstad, A. & Einarsen, S. (2010). The relative impact of workplace bullying as a social stressor at work. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 426–433. Exposure to workplace bullying has been argued to be a severe social stressor and a more crippling and devastating problem for affected individuals than the effects of all other work‐related stressors put together. However, few studies have explicitly investigated this assumption. In a representative sample of the Norwegian working population, the present study investigated the relative contribution of workplace bullying as a predictor of individual and organizational related outcomes after controlling for the well‐documented job stressors of job demands, decision authority, role ambiguity and role conflict. Bullying was found to be a significant predictor of all the outcomes included, showing a substantial relative contribution in relation to anxiety and depression, while for job satisfaction, turnover intention and absenteeism, more modest relative contributions were identified. Workplace bullying is indeed a potent social stressor with consequences similar to, or even more severe than, the effects of other stressors frequently encountered within organizations. Thus, the finding that bullying has a considerable effect on exposed individuals also when controlling for the effects of other job stressors demonstrates bullying as a serious problem at workplaces that needs to be actively prevented and managed in its own right.     

Underlying correlation structures of parental stress, general health and anxiety

A partial least square regression (PLSR) was performed on the Swedish Parenthood Stress Questionnaire (SPSQ) sum score and subscales on incompetence, role restriction, social isolation, spouse relationship and health problems, using 42 items from the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and 20 items from the State Anxiety Inventory (STAI-X1). The dataset contained 227 fathers and 301 mothers of children aged 1.0-6.6 years from a population-based study on parental psychological distress in the general Norwegian population, and all items correlated positively with SPSQ. Subscales on spouse relationship, incompetence, social isolation and role restriction related to items on state anxiety and depression. The SPSQ subscale on health problems related to GHQ items on somatic symptoms and social dysfunction. The STAI-X1 item "not feeling rested" had a particularly important effect on parental stress. Underlying correlation structures between parental stress and items from STAI-X1 and GHQ were explored, but only the SPSQ sum score could be acceptably predicted. PLSR as a statistical methodology was found useful for health and psychometric data.     

A Norwegian version of the Obsessive‐Compulsive Inventory–Revised: Psychometric properties

Solem, S., Hjemdal, O., Vogel, P.A. & Stiles, T.C. (2010). A Norwegian version of the Obsessive‐Compulsive Inventory–Revised: Psychometric properties. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 51, 509–516. The aims of this study were to test the psychometric properties of the Norwegian version of the Obsessive‐Compulsive Inventory–Revised (OCI‐R). The study included a student/community control sample (N = 1167) and a clinical sample (N = 72) with a diagnosis of obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD). The results indicated a good fit for the six‐factor structure of the OCI‐R. The mean scores and standard deviations were similar to that of studies from other countries as was the internal consistency. The OCI‐R scores were significantly higher in the OCD sample compared to the control sample. All the subscales, except hoarding, were significant predictors of obsessive‐compulsive severity, and the OCI‐R subscales seemed to be in agreement with the different subtypes of OCD according to DSM‐IV. The OCI‐R showed meaningful correlations with measures related to obsessive compulsive symptoms. As expected, it showed the strongest correlation with the Yale‐Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, followed by measures of worry, anxiety, and depression. In summary, the Norwegian OCI‐R showed adequate psychometric properties suggesting it could be a suitable measure of obsessive‐compulsive symptoms.