Emotion Reactivity as a Predictor of Health Anxiety (Emotion Reactivity & Health Anxiety
1. Emotion Reactivity as a Predictor of Health Anxiety
Emily M. O’Bryan, B.S. & Alison C. McLeish, Ph.D.
University of Cincinnati
PARTICIPANTS:
• 422 undergraduates (Mage = 19.50 years, SD = 2.36% 67.9% female; 83.4%
Caucasian) who completed self-report measures online for course credit.
MEASURES:
• Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule- Negative Affect Subscale (PANAS-NA):
assesses tendency to experience negative affective states
• IUS-12: assesses negative reactions to uncertainty and the future
• ASI-3: assesses fear of anxiety and arousal related symptoms
• DTS: assesses the ability to withstand negative emotional states
• It was hypothesized that after controlling for the effects of age and negative
affect, greater attentional control would significantly predict lower levels of
intolerance of uncertainty, distress intolerance, and anxiety sensitivity.
• Several cognitive vulnerability factors have been determined to play a role in
anxiety psychopathology, including intolerance of uncertainty (i.e., negative
reactions to uncertainty), anxiety sensitivity (i.e., fear of anxiety symptoms), and
distress intolerance (i.e., inability to withstand negative emotional states).
• The link between anxiety disorders and attentional bias for threat has also been
well established (Bar-Haim et al., 2007).
• Attentional control, defined as the ability to flexibly maintain and shift attention
on desired stimuli while resisting the urge to direct attention elsewhere, is a
process responsible for modulating the relationship between anxiety and
attentional bias towards threat.
• However, only one study, to date, has examined attentional control and anxiety
vulnerability factors, demonstrating that both AS and DT was more strongly
predictive of PTSD symptoms among individuals with poor attentional control.
• However, research has yet to directly examine the role of attentional control in
terms of these anxiety-related cognitive vulnerability factors.
• Therefore, the aim of the current study was to examine the unique predictive
ability of attentional control in terms of intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety
sensitivity, and distress intolerance.
• Partially consistent with prediction, greater attentional control significantly
predicted lower levels of intolerance of uncertainty and distress intolerance.
• Inconsistent with prediction, attentional control was not a significant predictor
of anxiety sensitivity.
• This suggests that targeting attentional control may help to improve distress
tolerance and the ability to tolerate uncertainty.
• Thus, interventions emphasizing the use of skills for regulating attention may
be beneficial in targeting these risk factors transdiagnostically (e.g.,
mindfulness training, attention bias modification)
Attentional Control as a Predictor of Anxiety-Related Risk
Factors
Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI):
INTRODUCTION RESULTS
HYPOTHESIS
METHOD DISCUSSION
Karlie Roshong, Anna G. Kessler, Emily M. O’Bryan, M.A., and Alison C. McLeish, Ph.D.
University of Cincinnati
Criterion Variable: DTS
ΔR2 t β sr2 p
Step 1
Age
PANAS-NA
Step 2
ACS
.39
.02
-.07
-15.10
3.08
-.00
-.62
.14
.00
.39
.02
.00
.94
.00
.002
.002
* p < .05, ** p < .01
Note. β = standardized beta weight. sr2 = squared semi-partial correlation.
Criterion Variable: IUS-12
ΔR2 t β sr2 p
Step 1
Age
PANAS-NA
Step 2
ACS
.30
.03
.00
12.46
-3.64
.00
.55
-.17
.00
.30
.02
.00
1.00
.00
.00
.00
