Predicting anxiety: The role of experiential avoidance and anxiety sensitivity

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Abstract

Anxiety sensitivity (AS), the tendency to fear arousal-related body sensations based on beliefs that they are harmful, is a strong psychological risk factor for development of anxiety psychopathology; however, in most studies AS explains only a portion of the variability in anxiety symptoms. Recent theoretical and research work has suggested that experiential avoidance (EA), unwillingness to endure unpleasant internal experiences (e.g., thoughts, emotions, memories), is related to anxiety disorders. The current study examined independent contributions of EA and AS in the prediction of anxiety symptoms in a sample of 42 adults with DSM-IV anxiety disorders. Participants completed measures of AS, EA, anxiety, and depression. Correlational analyses indicated associations between AS, EA, and anxiety, yet more conservative regression analyses indicated that the Physical Concerns dimension of AS predicted anxiety symptom severity independently of EA. Theoretical and treatment implications of the results are discussed.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants included 42 adults (22 women, 20 men) with a mean age of 27.21 years (SD = 13.06; range = 18–63 years). Of the sample, 91% identified as Caucasian. All 42 participants received the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule (ADIS; Di Nardo, Brown, & Barlow, 1994) at one of the following sites: the Anxiety and Stress Disorders Clinic at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC) and the OCD and Related Disorders Program at Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospitals (Hoffman Estates,

Data analytic strategy

As our aim was to examine the relationship between the predictor variables (EA and AS) and the symptoms of general anxiety (as opposed to disorder-specific signs and symptoms; e.g., obsessions, compulsions, avoidance, panic attacks), we combined patients with different anxiety diagnoses into a single group for our analyses. To test our hypotheses, we first computed correlation coefficients to examine zero-order relationships among EA (AAQ-II), AS and its three dimensions (ASI-3 and its

Sample characteristics

Table 1 presents the group means and standard deviations on the study measures. As would be expected in a group of individuals diagnosed with anxiety disorders, mean scores were indicative of significant levels of anxious psychopathology.

Zero-order correlations

To examine the relationships among study variables, we computed zero-order correlations. These results are presented in Table 2. The AAQ-II is unique among the study measures in that higher scores indicate less psychopathology. Therefore, its correlations with

Discussion

The aims of this study were to investigate relationships between AS and EA, and to examine the independent and relative contributions of these variables in explaining anxiety symptoms. AS is a well-established psychological risk factor for anxiety psychopathology (e.g., Schmidt et al., 1997, Schmidt et al., 2007, Zvolensky et al., 2006). EA has also received empirical support as a factor in theoretical models of anxiety (e.g., Eifert and Heffner, 2003, Hayes et al., 1996, Levitt et al., 2004).

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