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Anxiety sensitivity taxonicity across gender among youth

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Abstract

The present investigation comparatively evaluated the latent class structure and parameters of anxiety sensitivity (AS) among female and male youth using the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index. Participants were 4462 adolescents (2189 females) in grades 7-12 (M(age)=15.6 years). Consistent with prediction, taxometric analyses indicated the latent structure of AS was taxonic in both males and females, demonstrating the taxonic latent structure of AS is similarly observed across gender. Also consistent with prediction, the base rate of the AS taxon differed between genders -- higher for females (12%) compared to males (7%). These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the study of AS and panic vulnerability among youth.

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... Differences between Taylor et al.'s (1999) investigation and the other AS taxometric research reports among adults may be due to a host of unique methodological factors specific to this particular investigation, including sampling for bimodality (i.e., systematically selecting and then mixing clinical and nonclinical participants in the same sample), indicator selection criteria , and statistical procedures. Confidence in the taxonic structure of AS is strengthened by other work using the ASI–R (Taylor & Cox, 1998 ) among adults across six different samples from separate countries () and two large independent samples of youth using the CASI (Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, Comeau, & Leen-Feldner, 2006; Bernstein, Zvolensky, Weems, Stickle, & Leen-Feldner, 2005). Collectively, available data suggest that there is a large degree of consistent evidence that AS may be taxonic. ...
... Descriptive characteristics of participants by latent class. In terms of gender, consistent with previous empirical study of AS taxonicity across gender (Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, et al., 2006), there were more women in the taxon class (71.4%) relative to the complement class (61.5%), 2 (1, N 2,504) 9.5, p .01. In terms of ethnicity, there were no significant differences in the rates of any one or more ethnic groups in the taxon relative to the complement class, 2 (5, N 1,956) 7.5, p ns. Regarding education, there were no significant differences in the levels of education among participants in the taxon class relative to the complement class, 2 (8, N 1,960) 8.0, p ns. Finally, the mean age of taxon and complement class members did not differ, F(1, 2499) 0.57, p ns. Prior to conducting the planned factor analyses, the variability of AS scores among each class was evaluated. ...
... The base rate estimate was .11. These results are consistent with the findings of previous taxometric work on AS using the 16-item ASI in young adults from North America (Schmidt et al., 2005; Zvolensky et al., in press), the CASI among youth (Bernstein, Zvolensky, Weems, et al., 2005) and across gender (Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, et al., 2006 ), and the 16- item ASI and 36-item ASI–R among adults from different regions of the world (). Overall, these taxometric results replicate and extend empirical evidence for the existence of discrete , putatively normative and anxiety-psychopathologyvulnerability-conferring forms of AS. ...
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This study represents an effort to better understand the latent structure of anxiety sensitivity (AS), as indexed by the 16-item Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI; S. Reiss, R. A. Peterson, M. Gursky, & R. J. McNally, 1986), by using taxometric and factor-analytic approaches in an integrative manner. Taxometric analyses indicated that AS has a taxonic latent class structure (i.e., a dichotomous latent class structure) in a large sample of North American adults (N=2,515). As predicted, confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a multidimensional 3-factor model of AS provided a good fit for the AS complement class (normative or low-risk form) but not the AS taxon class (high-risk form). Exploratory factor analytic results suggested that the AS taxon may demonstrate a unique, unidimensional factor solution, though there are alternative indications that it may be characterized by a 2-factor solution. Findings suggest that the latent structural nature of AS can be conceptualized as a taxonic latent class structure composed of 2 types or forms of AS, each of these forms characterized by its own unique latent continuity and dimensional structure.
... stein, Zvolensky, Kotov, et al., 2006;Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, Nancy Comeau, & Leen-Feldner, 2006;Broman-Fulks et al., 2008). Finally, a recent line of work using factor mixture modeling (FMM) provided support for the dimensional-taxonic nature of AS (e.g., Allan, Korte, Capron, Raines, & Schmidt, 2014;Bernstein, Stickle, & Schmidt, 2013). ...
... These methods allow one to answer the question of whether people differ among each other only in the degree of AS (quantitatively), or whether those high in AS belong to a class qualitatively different from people with lower AS scores. In several studies, evidence for a categorical structure of AS was reported, suggesting the existence of a "normative/ adaptive" AS class, composed of about 80% of the sample, and a "vulnerable/high risk" AS class (Bernstein, Zvolensky, Kotov, et al., 2006;Bernstein et al., 2007;Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, et al., 2006;Bernstein, Zvolensky, Weems, Stickle, & Leen-Feldner, 2005). A drawback of these studies was their reliance on the same taxometric procedure, precluding consistency testing. ...
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Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is an established transdiagnostic risk factor for emotional disorders. It is defined as the fear of anxiety sensations that arises from beliefs that those sensations can have harmful consequences on cognitive, physical, and social functioning. Thus, AS is usually considered a multidimensional construct comprised of the following dimensions: Cognitive, Physical, and Social concerns. Some studies have questioned its continuous latent structure providing taxometric evidence for its categorical nature. However, more advanced factor mixture modeling (FMM) has offered support for a hybrid, dimensional-categorial latent structure of AS. In other words, 3 qualitatively different classes were identified, with a 3-factor model within each class. In the current study, FMM was used in 2 independent Serbian samples: an adult convenient community (Facebook) sample (N = 359) and a young treatment-seeking sample (N = 342). The obtained results are fairly in line with the most recent work targeting the nature of the AS construct, using the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 (ASI-3). By model fit, especially comparing the 2- and 3-class solution in Sample 1, and testing external validity in Sample 2, the empirical evidence supports the 3-class solution, with classes labeled as Normative AS, Moderate AS, and High AS. Important theoretical and practical questions were raised and discussed in the article. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
... Specifically, drawing on the evidence reviewed above, we hypothesized that higher trait fear would be uniquely related with more enhanced inhibitory control, while higher trait anxiety would be uniquely associated with impaired inhibitory control. In addition, given that females are more anxiety-prone and susceptible to anxiety-related disorders than males (Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, Nancy Comeau & Leen-Feldner, 2006;Chambless & Mason, 1986;Lake, Eaves, Maes, Heath & Martin, 2000;Lewinsohn, Gotlib, Lewinsohn, Seeley & Allen, 1998;Zvolensky, McNeil, Porter & Stewart, 2001), we inquired whether gender would moderate the unique relation of anxiety with inhibitory control. Notably, we conjectured that the specific effects of anxiety on inhibitory control may be more pronounced for females than for males. ...
... Given previous findings that females experience higher levels of trait anxiety (as also shown in our study, p = .051), anxiety symptoms, and anxiety disorders than males (e.g., Bernstein et al., 2006), our findings imply that females are more susceptible to the deleterious effects of anxiety on inhibitory control. In contrast, the absence of an interaction effect of trait fear and gender indicates that the effect of trait fear on inhibitory control does not differ between males and females. ...
Article
Given the dearth of research regarding the relations of trait fear and trait anxiety to cognitive control processes, we sought to investigate how trait fear and trait anxiety are uniquely related to inhibitory control, which is a crucial component of the regulatory processes that inhibit inappropriate responses that interfere with goal achievement. Given that inhibitory control tasks are often plagued by task-impurity issues, we employed a latent variable approach based on multiple measures of inhibitory control. We found that trait fear and trait anxiety are related but separable constructs that, when their shared variance was controlled for, predicted inhibitory control positively and negatively, respectively. Also, the unique negative relation between trait anxiety and inhibitory control was evident only for females. Our findings underscore distinct contributions of trait fear and trait anxiety to inhibitory control and the consideration of affective traits as multidimensional (e.g., valence and motivation) constructs to better understand the relation between negative affectivity and cognitive processes.
... The preponderance of dimensional findings for anxiety disorders and subtypes might cast doubt on the earlier categorical finding for anxiety sensitivity, but this finding has been replicated four times since 2002 [36][37][38][39]. Although they were all carried out by an overlapping set of researchers, the replications have been quite thorough, separately investigating adults and adolescents, men and women, and people from six countries. ...
... Several of the studies reviewed to this point have investigated depression, anxiety, or personality disturbance in Reviews, 2007, Vol. 3, No. 3 adolescent or child samples [22,27,37,38,42,49]. Three further studies have examined disorders of childhood that had received no previous taxometric scrutiny. ...
Article
Taxometric analysis is a statistical methodology for testing between categorical and dimensional models of latent variables. This article reviews taxometric research on the structure of mental disorders conducted since previous reviews in 2003, a period in which the quantity of this work has more than doubled. Taxometric studies have addressed a wide variety of mental disorders whose status as discrete categories or dimensional continua has been controversial, including unipolar depression, schizophrenia subtypes, post-traumatic stress disorder, and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. They continue to yield categorical and dimensional findings with approximately equal frequency, and with adequate levels of replication. These findings are summarized, practical implications are discussed, and several concerns about current taxometric practice are raised.
... A related question pertains to whether differing cutoffs should be used for men and women (or boys and girls) when selecting individuals for AS-targeted intervention. Women and girls score higher on average than men and boys in overall AS levels both in childhood/adolescence and adulthood (e.g., Stewart et al., 1997;Walsh et al., 2004) and a higher proportion of girls than boys belong to the high AS taxon (Bernstein et al., 2006). If we use genderspecific norms in selecting individuals for AS-targeted intervention, the average woman participant has more severe AS than the average man participant which could create artificial gender differences in who benefits most from intervention. ...
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Le présent article résume notre programme de recherche sur la sensibilité à l’anxiété (SA) – un facteur dispositionnel cognitif et affectif impliquant des craintes de sensations liées à l’anxiété en raison de croyances selon lesquelles ces sensations entraînent des conséquences catastrophiques. La SA et ses dimensions d’ordre inférieur sont considérées comme des facteurs transdiagnostiques de risque ou de maintien des troubles émotionnels et des troubles addictifs. La compréhension des mécanismes par lesquels la SA exerce ses effets peut révéler des cibles d’intervention clés pour les programmes de prévention et de traitement axés sur la SA. Dans le présent article, je passe en revue les recherches fondamentales que nous avons menées pour comprendre les mécanismes qui relient la SA à ces troubles et à leurs symptômes. Je décris également les interventions transdiagnostiques ciblées sur la SA et j’illustre la manière dont la recherche fondamentale a permis d’orienter le contenu de ces interventions. Enfin, je passe en revue les projets en cours dans mon laboratoire et je souligne les orientations futures importantes dans ce domaine. Bien que des progrès considérables aient été réalisés au cours des trois dernières décennies et que la recherche ait considérablement fait avancer notre compréhension de la SA en tant que facteur transdiagnostique, de nombreuses questions restent en suspens. Les réponses devraient nous aider à affiner les interventions afin d’en faire bénéficier au maximum les personnes qui ont une grande peur d’avoir peur.
... Another result we obtained in the study, as shown in many studies (25,26), was that AS in women was higher than in men. In a study on twins, AS was reported to be heritable only in women (27), which may contribute to women's susceptibility to AS. ...
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Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the levels of game addiction and anxiety sensitivity in young adults who play online games. Method: The study was conducted cross-sectionally on the sociodemographic data form, the Anxiety Sensitivity Index and the Game Addiction Scale Short Form, which were delivered to volunteers who reported that they played online games through an online research platform. Game addiction was evaluated according to the monothetic and polythetic formats of the scale. Results: 7.8% of the 438 participants are game addicts according to the Game Addiction Scale Short Form monothetic format, and 40.9% are game addicts according to the polythetic format. Anxiety sensitivity levels in game addicts are higher than in non-game addicts. Anxiety sensitivity is higher in women. According to the monothetic format, game addiction does not differ in terms of age, gender, marital status and educational status, and according to the polythetic format, game addiction is higher in undergraduate and widow/divorced individuals. Conclusion: As a trait-like factor, anxiety sensitivity may lay the groundwork for game addiction. The relationship between anxiety sensitivity and problematic game playing needs to be examined in more detail to screen depression and anxiety disorders.
... In another study by Walsh et al. on 1698 children and adolescents, similar results were obtained (24). These studies show that women have higher scores compared to men in general with anxiety sensitivity components such as fear of physical symptoms, fear of cognitive symptoms and fear of publicly observed symptoms, while a recent study showed that there are gender differences in this component (27). Some reasons regarding, women's more vulnerability to anxiety and increased likelihood to experiencing anxiety disorders could be menstrual cycles, menopause and reproductive strokes which can be considered in clinical situations (28). ...
... Another explanation for the male-female differences in student anxiety could be attributed to socialization with respect to expressing and dealing with emotions such as anxiety. Women are more predisposed than their male peers towards expressing issues with anxiety (Bernstein et al. 2006). Women are also more likely to receive positive reinforcement for expressing concerns about their anxious feelings while men are not (McLean and Anderson 2009). ...
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Background Understanding student anxiety is an important factor for broadening the gender diversity of STEM majors due to its disproportionate and negative influence on women. To investigate how student anxiety is related to other academic emotions I conducted open-ended interviews with 19 university students and analyzed the data using emergent grounded theory. Emergent grounded theory uses inductive and deductive reasoning to develop a model of cognition and human behavior. Results Data analysis led to the development of a detailed theoretical model outlining connections among student anxiety, positive and negative academic emotions, self-regulated learning, and performance. In addition, the data highlight important emotional differences between men and women that have the potential to influence retention in STEM. Specifically, the model elaborates on the concept of a self-deprecating cycle driven by negative academic emotions and suggests that women may be more likely to become trapped in this cycle. Conclusion The model incorporates students’ emotions as a powerful influence on performance and can be used to inform strategies aimed at changing how university students experience and deal with emotions such as student anxiety.
... 23 The lifetime prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder is also higher in females than in males (6.6% vs 3.6%, respectively), 24 and females may have greater anxiety sensitivity than males. 25 A recent consensus statement 6 indicates that such psychological factors may increase concussion symptom recovery and contribute to risk of persistent symptoms of concussion. ...
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Background: Concussion is one of the most common injuries in athletes. Current concussion consensus statements propose that female sex may be a modifying factor in concussion management and recovery. Objective: To determine whether female athletes in middle school and high school with a first-time, sports-related concussion remained symptomatic longer than their male counterparts. Methods: A retrospective medical record analysis was performed among athletes who sustained a concussion between 2011 and 2013. Inclusion criteria consisted of age between 11 and 18 years and diagnosis of first-time concussion sustained while playing organized sports. Using the documented notes in the medical record, length of time that each athlete was symptomatic from his or her concussion was calculated. Results: A total of 110 male and 102 female athletes (N=212) met the eligibility criteria for the study. A significant difference was found in the median number of days female athletes remained symptomatic (28 days) when compared with male athletes (11 days) (P<.001). No statistically significant difference was found in symptom duration between age groups. When matched for sex, no statistically significant differences were found in symptom duration between the type of sports played. Conclusion: Female athletes aged 11 to 18 years with first-time, sports-related concussions remained symptomatic for a longer period when compared with male athletes of similar age, regardless of sport played. The mechanism behind this difference needs to be further elucidated.
... These dimensions have been found to associate uniquely with different types of psychopathology; for example, physical concerns with panic, cognitive concerns with depression, and social concerns with social anxiety (Olthuis, Watt, & Stewart, 2014). Research shows that women tend to be more anxiety sensitive than men (Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, Comeau, & Leen-Feldner, 2006). ...
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The present study examined relations among attachment, aggression, and anxiety sensitivity (AS) in a sample of male and female undergraduates. Given that some individuals may use aggression to modulate negative emotional states, it was predicted that AS dimensions would mediate relations between attachment anxiety (vs. attachment avoidance) and certain forms of aggression, particularly impulsive aggression. Moreover, it was hypothesized that the relations among attachment, aggression, and AS would be moderated by gender. Participants (N = 1,042) completed measures of attachment (Experiences in Close Relationships–Revised [ECR-R]), aggression (Aggression Questionnaire [AQ]; Impulsive/Premeditated Aggression Scales [IPAS]), and AS (AS Index–3 [ASI-3]). Results indicated that AS mediated relations between attachment dimensions (both anxiety and avoidance) and most forms of aggression, with each of the AS dimensions playing a unique role differentially by gender. Cognitive concerns emerged as a significant mediator, particularly for men; physical and social concerns played more of a mediating role for women. Interestingly, none of the AS dimensions played a significant mediating role between attachment (either anxiety or avoidance) and physical aggression for men. Results are discussed in terms of their clinical implications and directions for future research.
... Some research suggests that AS is dimensional (e.g., Broman-Fulks et al., 2008, 2010, whereas other research suggests that AS has a taxonic structure (i.e., is categorical) and that the base rate of the AS taxon differs by gender. More specifically, the AS taxon base for women is higher than for men (12% vs. 7%, respectively) (Bernstein et al., 2010;Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, Comeau, & Leen-Felder, 2006). The reason for the difference in base rate is unclear, but may be related to differential levels of genetic heritability (Taylor, Jang, Stewart, & Stein, 2008) or differential exposure to relevant learning experiences (Watt, McWilliams, & Campbell, 2005;Watt, Stewart, & Cox, 1998). ...
Article
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High anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of arousal-related bodily sensations) is a known risk factor for psychopathology and medical pathology. High AS individuals tend to avoid activities that induce feared arousal-related sensations; yet, few studies have examined AS and sexual activity, those that did have produced mixed results, and no study to date has examined AS and sexual avoidance. In Study 1, 296 young adult women completed the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 (ASI-3) and the Female Sexual Distress Scale-Revised, which were positively correlated, r = 0.34, p < .001. Women scoring in the highest and lowest quartiles on the ASI-3 were recruited for Study 2. As predicted, high (vs. low) AS women reported significantly more sexual distress, impairments in sexual functioning (including sexual pain), and avoidance of sexual activity, and less sexual satisfaction. Results suggest that high AS can limit the frequency and quality of sexual functioning in young adult women, or lead to avoidance of sexual activity altogether. Reducing AS via empirically validated cognitive-behavioural approaches could improve women's sexual and relationship well-being.
... Specifically, research is needed to investigate whether AS is best-represented as continuously or categorically distributed within individuals. Taxometric methods (e.g., Meehl, 1999) were some of the first methods to examine the presence or absence of classes of individuals based on their AS levels (e.g., Asmundson, Weeks, Carelton, Thibodeau, & Fetzner, 2011;Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, Comeau, & Leen-Feldner, 2006;Schmidt, Kotov, Lerew, Joiner, & Ialongo, 2005). Several of these studies found support for the presence of a small high-AS class comprising approximately 10-20% of individuals and a larger normative-AS class comprising 80-90% of individuals (Bernstein, Zvolensky, Kotov et al., 2006;Bernstein et al., 2007;Bernstein, Zvolensky, Weems, Stickle, & Leen-Feldner, 2005;Schmidt et al., 2005). ...
Article
Anxiety sensitivity (AS), a multidimensional construct, has been implicated in the development and maintenance of anxiety and related disorders. Recent evidence suggests that AS is a dimensional-categorical construct within individuals. Factor mixture modeling was conducted in a sample of 579 adult smokers (M age = 36.87 years, SD = 13.47) to examine the underlying structure. Participants completed the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 and were also given a Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR. Three classes of individuals emerged, a high AS (5.2% of the sample), a moderate AS (19.0%), and a normative AS class (75.8%). A cut-score of 23 to identify high AS individuals, and a cut-score of 17 to identify moderate-to-high AS individuals were supported in this study. In addition, the odds of having a concurrent anxiety disorder (controlling for other Axis I disorders) were the highest in the high AS class and the lowest in the normative AS class.
... b r o m a n -f u l k s e t a l . MAMBAC curves have rarely been distinguishable (e.g., Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, et al., 2006; Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, & Comeau, 2007; Schmidt et al., 2005), suggesting that in those cases MAMBAC may not have been able to effectively discriminate between a low base rate taxon and a dimension. In some instances, researchers have noted the apparent unsuitability of MAMBAC tests and omitted these results from their reports. ...
Article
Anxiety sensitivity, or the fear of anxiety sensations, has been implicated in the etiology of anxiety disorders, particularly panic disorder. Recently, inconsistent findings have been reported regarding the latent structure of anxiety sensitivity. Whereas some taxometric studies of anxiety sensitivity have reported evidence of categorical latent structure, others have found evidence of a latent dimension. The purpose of the present research was to further examine the latent structure of anxiety sensitivity using taxometric procedures and commonly utilized measures of anxiety sensitivity. To this end, three mathematically independent taxometric procedures (MAXEIG, MAMBAC, and L-Mode) were applied to data collected from two large nonclinical samples (n's=1,171 and 2,173) that completed the Anxiety Sensitivity Index and the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-Revised. Results from both studies converged in support of a dimensional conceptualization of anxiety sensitivity. A third study was conducted using indicators derived from the newly revised Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 in a separate sample of 1,462 nonclinical participants. Results of these analyses provided further support for a dimensional anxiety sensitivity solution. The implications of these results for anxiety sensitivity research are discussed, and several potential directions for future research are considered.
... An initial taxo-metric investigation indicated that AS was dimensional at the latent level (Taylor, Rabian, & Fedoroff, 1999). However, a series of subsequent taxometric studies across a variety of nonclinical samples suggests that AS is categorical, or taxonic, at the latent level (e.g., Bernstein, Zvolensky, Kotov, et al., 2006;Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, & Comeau, 2007;Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, Comeau, & Leen-Feldner, 2006;Bernstein, Zvolensky, Weems, Stickle, & Leen-Feldner, 2005). This line of taxometric research suggests that the categorically distinct, high-AS group represents the top 10%-20% of the distribution and that AS is categorical in both female and male youth (Bernstein, Zvolensky, Weems, et al., 2005). ...
Article
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There has been significant interest in the role of anxiety sensitivity (AS) in the anxiety disorders. In this meta-analysis, we empirically evaluate differences in AS between anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and nonclinical controls. A total of 38 published studies (N = 20,146) were included in the analysis. The results yielded a large effect size indicating greater AS among anxiety disorder patients versus nonclinical controls (d = 1.61). However, this effect was maintained only for panic disorder patients compared to mood disorder patients (d = 0.85). Panic disorder was also associated with greater AS compared to other anxiety disorders except for posttraumatic stress disorder (d = 0.04). Otherwise the anxiety disorders generally did not differ from each other in AS. Although these findings suggest that AS is central to the phenomenology of panic disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder, causal inferences regarding the role of AS in these anxiety disorders cannot be made. Moderator analyses showed that a greater proportion of female participants was associated with larger differences in AS between anxiety and nonclinical control groups. However, more female participants were associated with a smaller AS difference between anxiety and mood disorder groups. This finding suggests that AS is less robust in distinguishing anxiety from mood disorders among women. Age also moderated some observed effects such that AS was more strongly associated with anxiety disorders in adults compared to children. Type of AS measure used also moderated some effects. Implications of these findings for the conceptualization of AS in anxiety-related disorders are discussed.
... AS, defined as the fear of anxiety and anxietyrelated sensations (Reiss & McNally, 1985), is a risk factor for several anxiety disorders, and is strongly associated with panic disorder (Zinbarg & Barlow, 1996). Several studies have found evidence of greater AS among women within both non-clinical samples of adolescents (Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, Comeau, & Leen-Felder, 2006) and adults (Deacon, Abramowitz, Woods, & Tolin, 2003; Stewart, Taylor, & Baker, 1997; Zvolensky, McNeil, Porter, & Stewart, 2001). Research among clinical samples, however, has been less consistent. ...
Article
Substantial evidence indicates that women report greater fear and are more likely to develop anxiety disorders than men. Women's greater vulnerability for anxiety disorders can be partly understood by examining gender differences in the etiological factors known to contribute to anxiety. This review examines evidence for gender differences across a broad range of relevant factors, including biological influences, temperamental factors, stress and trauma, cognitive factors, and environmental factors. Gender differences are observed with increasing consistency as the scope of analysis broadens to molar levels of functioning. Socialization processes cultivate and promote processes related to anxiety, and moderate gender differences across levels of analysis.
... Although in its relative infancy, research with adults suggests such an approach may be effective (Schmidt et al., in press). Here, a key research objective will be to empirically establish cut-offs that indicate at what level of AS the risk for panic development meaningfully increases (Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, Comeau, & Leen-Feldner, 2006). This type of criterion would enhance prevention-related efforts by delineating specific subpopulations at risk for developing panic (Feldner, Zvolensky, & Schmidt, 2004). ...
Article
The present study examined the interaction between pubertal status and anxiety sensitivity (AS) in predicting anxious and fearful responding to a three-minute voluntary hyperventilation challenge among 124 (57 females) adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 years (Mage = 15.04; SD = 1.49). As predicted, after controlling for baseline anxiety, age, and gender, there was a significant interaction between pubertal status and AS in predicting anxious responding to bodily sensations to the hyperventilation challenge. Specifically, adolescents reporting more advanced pubertal status and higher levels of AS reported the greatest post-challenge self-reported anxiety focused on bodily sensations, whereas pubertal status had relatively less of an effect on low AS adolescents. A test of specificity also was conducted; as expected, the interaction between AS and pubertal status was unrelated to generalized negative affectivity, suggesting the predictor variables interact to confer specific risk for anxious responding to bodily sensations. Finally, exploratory analyses of psychophysiological reactivity to the challenge indicated AS, but not pubertal status, moderated the relation between challenge-related change in heart-rate and post-challenge anxiety such that high AS youth who had experienced a relatively greater heart-rate change reported the most anxious reactivity to the challenge. Results are discussed in relation to theory regarding vulnerability to anxious responding to bodily sensations among adolescents.
... Such research has found that AS is taxonic with a relatively low base-rate taxon (approximately 9-15%). AS taxonicity has been observed across multiple measures and manifest indicators of the latent construct, and among multiple populations, including military cadets [29], adults from North America [30], adults from different regions of the world [31,32], youths [33] and across gender [34]. Initial studies have also demonstrated evidence of the incremental, predictive, discriminant and construct validity of the AS taxon with respect to anxiety problems (e.g., panic attacks and posttraumatic stress) and other panic-related vulnerability processes [16,29,30,31,35]. ...
... DS is a genetically based personality trait that may operate as a specific risk for anxiety disorders in a similar fashion as anxiety sensitivity (i.e., Muris, 2006). Recent taxometric research has begun to examine the structure of anxiety sensitivity, with findings from several published studies appearing suggestive of taxonic latent structure (e.g., Bernstein, Zvolensky, Stewart, et al., 2006;Bernstein et al., 2005). However, the latent structure of DS has yet to be examined in a similar fashion. ...
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Disgust sensitivity has recently been implicated as a specific vulnerability factor for several anxiety-related disorders. However, it is not clear whether disgust sensitivity is a dimensional or categorical phenomenon. The present study examined the latent structure of disgust by applying three taxometric procedures (maximum eigenvalue, mean above minus below a cut, and latent-mode factor analysis) to data collected from 2 large nonclinical samples on 2 different measures of disgust sensitivity. Disgust sensitivity in the first sample (n=1,153) was operationalized by disgust reactions to food, animals, body products, sex, body envelope violations, death, hygiene, and sympathetic magic, as assessed by the Disgust Sensitivity Scale (J. Haidt, C. McCauley, & P. Rozin, 1994). Disgust Sensitivity Scale indicators of core, animal reminder, and contamination disgust were also examined in the 1st sample. Disgust sensitivity in the 2nd independent sample (n=1,318) was operationalized by disgust reactions to animals, injections and blood draws, mutilation and death, rotting foods, and odors, as assessed by the Disgust Emotion Scale (R. A. Kleinknecht, E. E. Kleinknecht, & R. M. Thorndike, 1997). Results across both samples provide converging evidence that disgust sensitivity is best conceptualized as a dimensional construct, present to a greater or lesser extent in all individuals. These findings are discussed in relation to the conceptualization and assessment of disgust sensitivity as a specific dimensional vulnerability for certain anxiety and related disorders.
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Psychosocial stress promotes and links mood and cardiovascular disorders in a sex-specific manner. However, findings in animal models are equivocal, in some cases opposing human dimorphisms. We examined central nervous system (CNS), behavioral, endocrine, cardiac, and hepatic outcomes in male or female C57Bl/6 mice subjected to chronic social stress (56 days of social isolation, with intermittent social confrontation encounters twice daily throughout the final 20 days). Females exhibited distinct physiological and behavioral changes, including relative weight loss, and increases in coronary resistance, hepatic inflammation, and thigmotaxic behavior in the open field. Males evidence reductions in coronary resistance and cardiac ischemic tolerance, with increased circulating and hippocampal monoamine levels and emerging anhedonia. Shared CNS gene responses include reduced hippocampal Maoa and increased Htr1b expression, while unique responses include repression of hypothalamic Ntrk1 and upregulation of cortical Nrf2 and Htr1b in females; and repression of hippocampal Drd1 and hypothalamic Gabra1 and Oprm in males. Declining cardiac stress resistance in males was associated with repression of cardiac leptin levels and metabolic, mitochondrial biogenesis, and anti-inflammatory gene expression. These integrated data reveal distinct biological responses to social stress in males and females, and collectively evidence greater biological disruption or allostatic load in females (consistent with propensities to stress-related mood and cardiovascular disorders in humans). Distinct stress biology, and molecular to organ responses, emphasize the importance of sex-specific mechanisms and potential approaches to stress-dependent disease.
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Taxometric procedures have been used extensively to investigate whether individual differences in personality and psychopathology are latently dimensional or categorical (‘taxonic’). We report the first meta-analysis of taxometric research, examining 317 findings drawn from 183 articles that employed an index of the comparative fit of observed data to dimensional and taxonic data simulations. Findings supporting dimensional models outnumbered those supporting taxonic models five to one. There were systematic differences among 17 construct domains in support for the two models, but psychopathology was no more likely to generate taxonic findings than normal variation (i.e. individual differences in personality, response styles, gender, and sexuality). No content domain showed aggregate support for the taxonic model. Six variables – alcohol use disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, problem gambling, autism, suicide risk, and pedophilia – emerged as the most plausible taxon candidates based on a preponderance of independently replicated findings. We also compared the 317 meta-analyzed findings to 185 additional taxometric findings from 96 articles that did not employ the comparative fit index. Studies that used the index were 4.88 times more likely to generate dimensional findings than those that did not after controlling for construct domain, implying that many taxonic findings obtained before the popularization of simulation-based techniques are spurious. The meta-analytic findings support the conclusion that the great majority of psychological differences between people are latently continuous, and that psychopathology is no exception.
Chapter
This chapter summarizes the most significant gender influences on mental health in terms of illness incidence and prevalence, clinical presentation, course, and response to treatment. Several mental disorders including major depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and eating disorders are considered in different sections.
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Background Child anxiety sensitivity (AS) is measured almost exclusively using the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI). Yet, in the context of significant discrepancies regarding the CASI factors and how they are scored and reported, it remains unclear whether the CASI reliably and validly assesses the purported multifactorial AS construct. Objective This paper will: (1) provide a comprehensive summary of previous CASI factor analyses by which these factor structures were identified, (2) evaluate evidence regarding the multifactorial nature of AS in youth, and (3) discuss potential directions for continued research in this area. Method In a PsycInfo search, peer-reviewed studies published between 1991 and 2018 were identified for inclusion if they examined the factor structure of the CASI or reported data on the CASI subscales as administered to child participants. Results Findings from the 50 studies reviewed suggested that (1) the 18-item CASI does not consistently yield internally reliable assessments of specific AS facets, (2) significant discrepancies exist regarding the CASI subscales identified, the items comprising these scales, and their predictive validity in terms of anxiety, and (3) alternatives to assess the multifactorial construct of AS in youth do exist, but they have not been systematically examined in the literature. Conclusions Directions for future study include further examining expanded scales for AS in youth, continued study of shorter scales assessing more consistently reliable AS content, and evaluating the utility of an expanded response scale for the CASI.
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Objective The default assumption among most psychologists is that personality varies along a set of underlying dimensions, but belief in the existence of discrete personality types persists in some quarters. Taxometric methods were developed to adjudicate between these alternative dimensional and typological models of the latent structure of individual differences. The aim of the present review was to assess the taxometric evidence for the existence of personality types. Method A comprehensive review yielded 102 articles reporting 194 taxometric findings for a wide assortment of personality attributes. Results Structural conclusions differed strikingly as a function of methodology. Primarily older studies that did not assess the fit of observed data to simulated dimensional and typological comparison data drew typological conclusions in 65.2% (60/92) of findings. Primarily newer studies employing simulated comparison data supported the typological model in only 3.9% (4/102) of findings, and these findings were largely in the domain of sexual orientation rather than personality in the traditional sense. Conclusions In view of strong Monte Carlo evidence for the validity of the simulated comparison data method, it is highly likely that personality types are exceedingly scarce or non‐existent, and that many early taxometric research findings claiming evidence for such types are spurious.
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It is generally assumed that personality varies by degree along a variety of trait dimensions. Despite this default assumption, theorists have proposed a variety of discrete personality types. Taxometric analysis was developed as a rigorous method for adjudicating between these dimensional and categorical alternatives. The substantial body of taxometric research on personality is reviewed, applying the simple criterion that a personality type can only be inferred with any confidence if a categorical finding is replicated in a preponderance of studies. I conclude that the evidence for personality types is weak. Only 2 of the 21 constructs examined to date meet the criterion, and methodological artifacts may cast doubt on these exceptions.
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Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a cognitive individual difference actor involving an enduring fear of anxiety-related arousal sensations (e.g., increased heart rate) that arises from the tendency to catastrophize about these sensations, believing they will have serious psychological, physiological, and/or social consequences. AS may have particular relevance for adolescents as the onset of puberty heralds the arrival of a wide range of new and unexpected bodily sensations, as well as changes in cognitive and social development. Research has implicated AS in the development and maintenance of a number of mental health disorders in adolescents including panic disorder, social phobia, posttraumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, substance misuse, and depression. Furthermore, AS has been shown to be composed of several lower-order factors (e.g., Physical, Social, and Psychological Concerns), which may have unique associations with psychopathology. Understanding AS will help in the identification of youth at risk for mental health problems and might have implications for prevention and intervention.
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Background In DSM-5, the agoraphobia core symptom criterion has been revised to require fear about multiple situations from across at least two distinct domains in which escape might be difficult or panic-like symptoms might develop. The present study examined patterns and correlates of the recent change in a sample of anxious youth with symptom presentations consistent with the DSM-IV agoraphobia definition and/or specific phobia (SP) to consider how the recent diagnostic change impacts the prevalence and composition of agoraphobia in children and adolescents.Method Analyses (N = 151) evaluated impairment and correlates of agoraphobic youth who no longer meet the DSM-5 agoraphobia criteria relative to agoraphobic youth who do meet the new DSM-5 criteria. Secondary analyses compared agoraphobic youth not meeting DSM-5 criteria to SP youth.ResultsOne-quarter of youth with symptom presentations consistent with the DSM-IV agoraphobia definition no longer met criteria for DSM-5 agoraphobia, but showed comparable severity and impairment across most domains to youth who do meet criteria for DSM-5 agoraphobia. Further, these youth showed higher levels of anxiety sensitivity and internalizing psychopathology relative to youth with SP.ConclusionsA substantial proportion of impaired youth with considerable agoraphobic symptom presentations have been left without a specified anxiety diagnosis by the DSM-5, which may affect their ability to receive and/or get coverage for services and their representation in treatment evaluations. Future DSM iterations may do well to include a “circumscribed” agoraphobia specifier that would characterize presentations of fear or anxiety about multiple situations, but that do not span across at least two distinct situational domains.
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Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a multidimensional construct composed of several lower order factors and has been implicated in the development and maintenance of anxiety and depression symptoms and disorders. Recently, it has been suggested that AS is a dimensional-categorical construct, reflecting classes of individuals with different levels of and relations between AS factors. Factor mixture modeling was applied to examine the latent structure of AS in a sample of 1,151 college students (M age = 18.88, SD = 1.91). Results indicated that the best fitting model comprised three classes consisting of individuals with normative AS (n = 953), moderate AS (n = 124), and high AS (n = 74). Relations among the factors appeared to be different across groups, with the highest relations found in the normative AS class and the lowest relations found in the high AS class. There were significant differences in mean levels of anxiety and depression symptoms across classes, with the exception of social anxiety disorder symptoms. This study was the first to find and provide support for a third AS class. Implications for research and clinical utility are discussed, including the benefit of developing cut scores for AS classes based on this and similar studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
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Sex differences are prominent in mood and anxiety disorders and may provide a window into mechanisms of onset and maintenance of affective disturbances in both men and women. With the plethora of sex differences in brain structure, function, and stress responsivity, as well as differences in exposure to reproductive hormones, social expectations and experiences, the challenge is to understand which sex differences are relevant to affective illness. This review will focus on clinical aspects of sex differences in affective disorders including the emergence of sex differences across developmental stages and the impact of reproductive events. Biological, cultural, and experiential factors that may underlie sex differences in the phenomenology of mood and anxiety disorders are discussed.
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Anxiety sensitivity has been implicated as an important risk factor, generalizable to most anxiety disorders. In adults, factor mixture modeling has been used to demonstrate that anxiety sensitivity is best conceptualized as categorical between individuals. That is, whereas most adults appear to possess normative levels of anxiety sensitivity, a small subset of the population appears to possess abnormally high levels of anxiety sensitivity. Further, those in the high anxiety sensitivity group are at increased risk of having high levels of anxiety and of having an anxiety disorder. This study was designed to determine whether these findings extend to adolescents. Factor mixture modeling was used to examine the best fitting model of anxiety sensitivity in a sample of 277 adolescents (M age = 11.0 years, SD = 0.81). Consistent with research in adults, the best fitting model consisted of 2 classes, 1 containing adolescents with high levels of anxiety sensitivity (n = 25) and another containing adolescents with normative levels of anxiety sensitivity (n = 252). Examination of anxiety sensitivity subscales revealed that the social concerns subscale was not important for classification of individuals. Convergent and discriminant validity of anxiety sensitivity classes were found in that membership in the high anxiety sensitivity class was associated with higher mean levels of anxiety symptoms, controlling for depression and externalizing problems, and was not associated with higher mean levels of depression or externalizing symptoms controlling for anxiety problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
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Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is most often described in its multidimensional and hierarchical form, consisting of three lower order factors: fear of physical symptoms, fear of publically observable symptoms, and fear of cognitive dyscontrol. The lower order factors of AS have been shown to be differentially predictive of panic disorder, social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, and depression. However, there is limited research exploring sex differences in these relationships. The present study examined three specific anxiety symptom clusters (i.e., physiological hyperarousal, worry, and social anxiety symptoms) and depressive symptoms and their relationship with measures of the three lower order factors of AS (i.e., physical concerns, social concerns, and mental incapacitation) in men and women. Sex differences were observed in the unique associations between the lower order factors and physiological hyperarousal and social anxiety symptoms; similar relationships between men and women, which were also consistent with the hierarchical structure of AS, were observed with worry and depressive symptoms.
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The aim of the present study was to evaluate a factor mixture-based taxonic-dimensional model of anxiety sensitivity (AS) (Bernstein et al. Behavior Therapy 41:515-521, 2010), as measured by the ASI-3 (Taylor et al. Psychological Assessment 19:176-188, 2007), in regard to panic attacks, anxiety symptoms, and behavioral impairment among a university sample (N = 150, n females = 107, M age = 21.3 years, SD = 4.3) and a clinical sample (N = 150, n females = 102, M age = 39.0 years, SD = 12.0) from Mexico City, Mexico. Findings demonstrated cross-national support for the conceptual and operational utility of the AS taxonic-dimensional hypothesis (Bernstein et al. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 20:1-22, 2007b). Specifically, (1) the FMM-based AS taxon class base rate was significantly greater among the clinical relative to the university sample; (2) risk for panic attacks was significantly greater among the AS taxon class relative to the AS normative class; and (3) continuous individual differences in AS physical and psychological concerns, within the AS taxon class, were associated with level of risk for panic attacks, as well as panic attack severity and anxiety symptom levels. Similar AS taxonic-dimensional effects were observed in relation to degree of behavioral impairment across domains of functioning. The study results are discussed with respect to their implications for better understanding the nature of AS-related cognitive vulnerability for panic and related anxiety psychopathology.
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BACKGROUND: The purpose of the present study was to shed light on the latent structure and nature of individual differences in anxiety sensitivity (AS) and related risk for psychopathology. METHODS: The present study evaluated the latent structure of AS using factor mixture modeling (FMM; Lubke and Muthén, 2005) and tested the relations between the observed FMM-based model of AS and psychopathology in a large, diverse adult clinical research sample (N=481; 57.6% women; M(SD)(age)=36.6(15.0) years). RESULTS: Findings showed that a two-class three-factor partially invariant model of AS demonstrated significantly better fit than a one-class dimensional model and more complex multi-class models. As predicted, risk conferred by AS taxonicity was specific to anxiety psychopathology, and not to other forms of psychopathology. LIMITATIONS: The sample was not epidemiologic, self-report and psychiatric interview data were used to index AS and psychopathology, and a cross-sectional design limited inference regarding the directionality of observed relations between AS and anxiety psychopathology. CONCLUSIONS: Findings are discussed with respect to the nature of AS and related anxiety psychopathology vulnerability specifically, as well as the implications of factor mixture modeling for advancing taxonomy of vulnerability and psychopathology more broadly.
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IntroductionSomatisation – definitions and conceptDissociation – definitions and conceptThe diagnosis and classification of somatoform and dissociative disordersThe neurobiology of somatisation and dissociationPsychosocial factorsConversion disorderHypochondriasisDissociative disordersConclusions
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Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a trait-like characteristic capturing fears of the experience of anxiety and the potential psychological, somatic, or social consequences associated with anxiety. Recently, research has provided evidence for the latent structure of AS suggesting two discrete types, i.e. a taxonic class and a complement class. Investigations have identified combinations from the 16-items of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) that are able to predict the taxon class of AS, referred to as the ASI taxon scales. The current study investigated the ability of a new ASI taxon scale, comprised of the seven overlapping items of the previously identified ASI taxon scales, to predict CO(2) challenge responses. This was examined in a sample of 387 nonclinical participants presenting for an AS treatment program. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires and a 20% CO(2) challenge as part of the program. Analyses indicated that the ASI taxon scale uniquely predicted CO(2) challenge response, whereas the complement scale did not have a significant association. The present study provides the first evidence of the AS taxon having the ability to predict an exaggerated fear response to a novel stressor known to be associated with anxiety psychopathology. Implications of these findings are discussed.
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Taxometric research methods were developed by Paul Meehl and colleagues to distinguish between categorical and dimensional models of latent variables. We have conducted a comprehensive review of published taxometric research that included 177 articles, 311 distinct findings and a combined sample of 533 377 participants. Multilevel logistic regression analyses have examined the methodological and substantive variables associated with taxonic (categorical) findings. Although 38.9% of findings were taxonic, these findings were much less frequent in more recent and methodologically stronger studies, and in those reporting comparative fit indices based on simulated comparison data. When these and other possible confounds were statistically controlled, the true prevalence of taxonic findings was estimated at 14%. The domains of normal personality, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, externalizing disorders, and personality disorders (PDs) other than schizotypal yielded little persuasive evidence of taxa. Promising but still not definitive evidence of psychological taxa was confined to the domains of schizotypy, substance use disorders and autism. This review indicates that most latent variables of interest to psychiatrists and personality and clinical psychologists are dimensional, and that many influential taxonic findings of early taxometric research are likely to be spurious.
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Anxiety sensitivity (AS) refers to a person’s tendency to fear anxiety-related symptoms due to the belief that these symptoms may have harmful consequences. The most widely used operationalization of AS in adults is the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI). The factor structure, gender stability, and psychometric properties of the ASI in a sample of Croatian adults (N = 984) were evaluated. Results confirm the multidimensional and hierarchical structure of the ASI, which consisted of three lower-order factors (Physical Concerns, Psychological Concerns, and Social Concerns) and a single higher-order factor, AS. Furthermore, the achievement of normative scores for the ASI in a Croatian adult sample demonstrates the cross-national stability of the ASI. Reliability coefficients for the ASI, Physical Concerns, and Psychological Concerns are high and satisfactory in the total sample and for both genders. Overall, the results confirmed the cross-national stability, gender stability, reliability, and validity of the ASI in a sample of Croatian adults.
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The present study tested multiple, competing latent structural models of anxiety sensitivity (AS), as measured by the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 (ASI-3; Taylor et al., 2007). Data were collected from 3 sites in North America (N=634). Participants were predominantly university students (M=21.3 years, SD=5.4). ASI-3 data were evaluated using an integration of mixture modeling and confirmatory factor analysis-factor mixture modeling (FMM; Muthén, 2008). Results supported a 2-class 3-factor partially invariant model of AS. Specifically, the FMM analyses indicated that AS is a taxonic (two-class) variable, and that each categorical class has a unique multidimensional factor structure. Consistent with the specific point-prediction regarding the hypothesized parameters of the putative latent class variable, FMM indicated that the putatively "high-risk" subgroup of cases or latent form of AS composed approximately 12% of the studied sample whereas the putatively "normative" subgroup of cases or latent form of AS composed 88% of the sample. In addition, the AS Physical and Psychological Concerns subscales, but not the Social Concerns subscale, most strongly discriminated between the two latent classes. Finally, comparison of continuous levels of AS Physical and Psychological Concerns between FMM-derived AS latent classes and independent clinical samples of patients with anxiety disorders provided empirical support for the theorized taxonic-dimensional model of AS and anxiety psychopathology vulnerability. Findings are discussed in regard to the implications of this and related research into the nature of AS and anxiety psychopathology vulnerability.
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The current study evaluated a novel latent structural model of anxiety sensitivity (AS) in relation to panic vulnerability among a sample of young adults (N=216). AS was measured using the 16-item Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI; Reiss, Peterson, Gursky, & McNally, 1986), and panic vulnerability was indexed by panic attack responding to a single administration of a 4-minute, 10% CO(2) challenge. As predicted, vulnerability for panic attack responding to biological challenge was associated with dichotomous individual differences between taxonic AS classes and continuous within-taxon class individual differences in AS physical concerns. Findings supported the AS taxonic-dimensional hypothesis of AS latent structure and panic vulnerability. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and clinical implications.
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This study represents an effort to better understand the latent structure of anxiety sensitivity (AS), a well-established affect-sensitivity individual difference factor, among youth by employing taxometric and factor analytic approaches in an integrative manner. Taxometric analyses indicated that AS, as indexed by the Child Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI; Silverman, Flesig, Rabian, & Peterson, 1991), demonstrates taxonic latent class structure in a large sample of youth from North America (N=4,462; M(age)=15.6 years; SD=1.3). Subsequent confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the latent continuous, multidimensional, 4-factor model of AS among youth (Silverman, Goedhart, Barrett, & Turner, 2003) provided good fit for the CASI data among the complement class ("normative form" of AS), but not among the taxon class ("high-risk form" of AS). EFAs supported the prediction that the AS taxon demonstrates a unique, heretofore unexplored latent continuous, unidimensional factor structure among youth. Findings are discussed in relation to refining our understanding of the latent structure of AS and the clinical implications that arise from it.
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Evidence suggests that anxiety sensitivity (AS) contributes to individual differences in fearfulness and to the risk of developing anxiety disorders. To investigate the origins of AS we administered the Anxiety Sensitivity Index to 245 monozygotic and 193 dizygotic twin pairs, comprising 658 women and 218 men. Scores were calculated for the most widely replicated AS dimensions; physical, cognitive, and social concerns. For women, each dimension was influenced by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Heritability in women significantly increased with AS scores, indicating that severe forms of AS, compared to milder forms, are more strongly influenced by genetic factors. Correlations among AS dimensions for women could be explained by genetic and environmental factors influencing all three dimensions. For men, dimensions were influenced by environmental but not genetic factors. Correlations among dimensions for men could be explained by environmental factors influencing all dimensions. Overall, the findings reveal that AS has more complex etiology than previously recognized; its dimensions appear to arise from a mix of dimension-specific and non-specific etiologic factors, whose importance vary as a function of sex and severity.
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Anxiety sensitivity has been implicated as a risk factor for the development and maintenance of panic and other anxiety disorders. Although researchers have generally assumed that anxiety sensitivity is a dimensional, rather than categorical, variable, recent taxometric research has raised questions concerning the accuracy of this assumption. The present study examined the latent structure of anxiety sensitivity by applying four taxometric procedures (MAXEIG, MAXCOV, MAMBAC, and L-Mode) to data collected from two large nonclinical samples (n = 1,025 and n = 744) using two distinct measures of anxiety sensitivity (Anxiety Sensitivity Profile and Anxiety Sensitivity Index—Revised). In contrast to previous taxometric analyses of anxiety sensitivity, results of the present research provided convergent evidence for a latent anxiety sensitivity dimension. Several potential explanations for the discrepancy between these findings and those of previous research are discussed, as well as the implications of these findings for the conceptualization and measurement of anxiety sensitivity.
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This investigation sought to expand existing knowledge of anxiety sensitivity in a sample of high school students (N = 2,365) assessed over 4 years. The stability of anxiety sensitivity levels across assessment periods was examined, and cluster analyses were used to identify different developmental pathways in levels of anxiety sensitivity. Groups of adolescents with stable low, stable high, and escalating anxiety sensitivity levels were identified. Adolescents with stable high or escalating anxiety sensitivity were significantly more likely to report experiencing a panic attack than individuals with stable low anxiety sensitivity. Results also indicated that Asian and Hispanic adolescents tended to report higher anxiety sensitivity but that their anxiety sensitivity was less strongly associated with panic than that of Caucasian adolescents.
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Researchers have described 2 types of worriers, normal and pathological, who differ in the frequency, intensity, and controllability of their worry experiences. Although normal and pathological worry are generally treated as separate though related phenomena, no study has tested for separateness against the alternative hypothesis that all worry exists along a single dimension. In the present study, worry ratings of 1,588 college students were submitted to taxometric procedures designed to evaluate latent structure. Results provided evidence for the dimensionality of worry. These findings suggest that generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), whose central feature is worry, may also be quantitatively rather than qualitatively different from normal functioning. The authors argue that a focus on normal and pathological extremes has constrained the study of worry phenomena and that dimensional conceptualization of worry may significantly enhance understanding of both worry and GAD.
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Maximum covariance (MAXCOV) is a method for determining whether a group of 3 or more indicators marks 1 continuous or 2 discrete latent distributions of individuals. Although the circumstances under which MAXCOV is effective in detecting latent taxa have been specified, its efficiency in classifying cases into groups has not been assessed, and few studies have compared its performance with that of cluster analysis. In the present Monte Carlo study, the classification efficiencies of MAXCOV and the k-means algorithm were compared across ranges of sample size, effect size, indicator number, taxon base rate, and within-groups covariance. When the impact of these parameters was minimized, k-means classified more data points correctly than MAXCOV. However, when the effects of all parameters were increased concurrently, MAXCOV outperformed k-means.
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Anxiety sensitivity (AS) has been defined as the fear of anxiety and anxiety-related sensations, and evidence suggests that AS plays an important role in the psychopathology of panic. It is entirely unclear whether the relation between AS and panic should be attributed to one (or more) of the AS group factors, the general AS factor, or to factors at both levels of the AS hierarchy. The authors reanalyzed data presented earlier by R. M. Rapee, T. A. Brown, M. A. Antony, and D. H. Barlow (1992) to tease apart the contributions of the different levels of the AS hierarchy to fear responses to hyperventilation and 5.5% carbon dioxide challenges. ne results demonstrated that AS-Physical Concerns is the only one of the three AS group factors that contributes to relations with fear responses to these two challenges. However, AS-Mental Incapacitation Concerns had a stronger positive linear association with depressed mood than did AS-Physical Concerns.
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Expectancy theory posits that anxiety sensitivity may serve as a premorbid risk factor for the development of anxiety pathology (S. Reiss, 1991). The principal aim of the present study was to determine whether anxiety sensitivity acts as a specific vulnerability factor in the pathogenesis of anxiety pathology. A large, nonclinical sample of young adults (N = 1,401) was prospectively followed over a 5-week highly stressful period of time (i.e., military basic training). Anxiety sensitivity was found to predict the development of spontaneous panic attacks after controlling for a history of panic attacks and trait anxiety. Approximately 20% of those scoring in the upper decile on the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (R. A. Peterson & S. Reiss, 1987) experienced a panic attack during the 5-week follow-up period compared with only 6% for the remainder of the sample. Anxiety sensitivity also predicted anxiety symptomatology, functional impairment created by anxiety, and disability. These data provide strong evidence for anxiety sensitivity as a risk factor in the development of panic attacks and other anxiety symptoms.
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The authors used a semistructured clinical interview and a self-report battery of questionnaires to measure key features of the anxiety disorders in a large sample of patients seeking treatment at an outpatient anxiety disorders clinic and in a no mental disorder group. Results were consistent with hierarchical models of anxiety and the anxiety disorders such as the model implicit in American Psychiatric Association (1987, 1994) and trait models positing a trait diathesis common to all the anxiety disorders. A higher order general factor differentiated each of the patient groups from the no mental disorder group. Several lower order factors provided the basis for differentiation among the patient groups. Conclusions regarding the degree to which models predicting a hierarchical structure of anxiety and the anxiety disorders are empirically supported must await replication of these results with additional samples.
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Two studies were designed to establish whether high anxiety sensitive (AS) university students selectively process threat cues pertaining to their feared catastrophic consequences of anxiety, and to examine potential gender differences in the selective processing of such threat cues among high versus low AS subjects. Forty students (20 M; 20 F) participated in Study 1. Half were high AS and half low AS, according to scores on the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI). Subjects completed a computerised Stroop colournaming task involving social/psychological threat (e.g. EMBARRASS; CRAZY), physical threat (e.g. CORONARY; SUFFOCATED), and neutral (e.g. MOTEL; TOWEL) target words. High AS subjects demonstrated more threat-related interference in colour-naming than did low AS subjects, overall. High AS menevidencedgreater interference relative to low AS men only for the social/psychological threat stimuli; highAS women evidencedgreater interference relative to low AS women only for the physical threat stimuli. Study 2 was designed to replicate and extend the novel Study 1 finding of a cognitive bias favouring the processing of social/psychological threat cues among high AS men. Participants were 20 male university students (10 high AS; 10 low AS). In addition to social/psychological threat, physical threat, and neutral words, a category of positive emotional words (e.g. HAPPINESS; CELEBRATION) was included as a supplementary control on the Stroop. Consistent with Study 1, high AS males evidenced greater Stroop interference than did low AS males, but only for social/psychological threat words. No AS group differences in Stroop interference were revealed for the physical threat or positive words. Clinical implications, and potential theoretical explanations for the gender differences, are discussed.
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The present article sets forth the argument that psychological assessment should be based on a construct’s latent structure. The authors differentiate dimensional (continuous) and taxonic (categorical) structures at the latent and manifest levels and describe the advantages of matching the assessment approach to the latent structure of a construct. A proper match will decrease measurement error, increase statistical power, clarify statistical relationships, and facilitate the location of an efficient cutting score when applicable. Thus, individuals will be placed along a continuum or assigned to classes more accurately. The authors briefly review the methods by which latent structure can be determined and outline a structure-based approach to assessment that builds on dimensional scaling models, such as item response theory, while incorporating classification methods as appropriate. Finally, the authors empirically demonstrate the utility of their approach and discuss its compatibility with traditional assessment methods and with computerized adaptive testing.
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This article examined evidence for dimensional and typological models of dissociation. The authors reviewed previous research with the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES; E. B. Bernstein-Carlson & F. W. Putnam; see record 1987-14407-001) and note that this scale, like other dissociation questionnaires, was developed to measure that so called dissociative continuum. Next, recently developed taxometric methods for distinguishing typological from dimensional constructs are described and applied to DES item-response data from 228 adults with diagnosed multiple personality disorder and 228 normal controls. The taxometric findings empirically justify the distinction between two types of dissociative experiences. Nonpathological dissociative experiences are manifestations of a dissociative trait, whereas pathological dissociative experiences are manifestations of a latent class variable. The taxometric findings also indicate that there are two types of dissociators. Individuals in the pathological dissociative class (taxon) can be identified with a brief, 8-item questionnaire called the DES-T. Scores on the DES-T and DES are compared in 11 clinical and nonclinical samples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Describes the Maximum Covariance (MAXCOV) taxometric procedure within the coherent cut kinetics method. Using MAXCOV, when given 3 quantitative indicators of a conjectured latent taxon, a statistical function defined as the covariance of 2 indicators (designated for the procedure as the "output" indicators) computed within successive intervals along the third (designated as "input") indicator reveals whether the latent structure of the data is taxonic or not. If it is taxonic, latent parameters (base rate, hit rates, complement and taxon means) can be estimated, the latent distributions drawn, and subjects assigned to the taxon or the complement group. Several consistency tests are presented, using Monte Carlo configurations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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The Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) is one of the most widely used measures of the construct of anxiety sensitivity. Until the recent introduction of a hierarchical model of the ASI by S. O. Lilienfeld, S. M. Turner, and R. G. Jacob (1993), the factor structure of the ASI was the subject of debate, with some researchers advocating a unidimensional structure and others proposing multidimensional structures. In the present study, involving 432 outpatients seeking treatment at an anxiety disorders clinic and 32 participants with no mental disorder, the authors tested a hierarchical factor model. The results supported a hierarchical factor structure consisting of 3 lower order factors and 1 higher order factor. It is estimated that the higher order, general factor accounts for 60% of the variance in ASI total scores. The implications of these findings for the conceptualization and assessment of anxiety sensitivity are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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The empirical literature on prevention programs for anxiety psychopathology is reviewed. Programs targeting the prevention of nonspecific anxiety psychopathology as well as specific anxiety disorders are critically evaluated in the context of the Institute of Medicine's conceptualization of universal, selected, and indicated prevention. General conclusions embedded within contemporary models of prevention are discussed in order to outline future directions for the area in terms of methodological and conceptual issues.
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The present study evaluated the association between the lower-order facets of anxiety sensitivity construct (physical, mental incapacitation, and social concerns) and positive (expectancies about negative affect reduction) and negative (expectancies about negative personal consequences) smoking outcome expectancies. Participants were 90 young adult regular smokers [37 females; M age = 23.4 years (SD = 8.9); mean number of cigarettes/day = 11.7 (SD = 6.1)] with no history of psychopathology or nonclinical panic attacks recruited from the general population. Anxiety sensitivity physical concerns and mental incapacitation concerns, as indexed by the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI; S. Reiss, R. A. Peterson, M. Gursky, & R. J. McNally, 1986), were significantly and incrementally associated with smoking outcome expectancies, as indexed by the Smoking Consequences Questionnaire (SCQ; T. H. Brandon & T. B. Baker, 1991), for negative affect reduction as well as negative personal consequences; the observed effects were over and above the variance accounted for by theoretically relevant smoking history characteristics, gender, and negative affectivity. Results are discussed in relation to better understanding motivational processes for smoking among groups at heightened risk for developing panic psychopathology.
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Anxiety sensitivity (AS; the fear of anxiety-related sensations) has been proposed as a risk factor for the development of panic disorder. The present study involved a conceptual replication of Ehlers' (1993, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 269–278) study on childhood learning experiences and panic attacks, but also extended her work by investigating the relationship between early learning experiences and the development of AS, in a non-clinical sample. A sample of 551 university students participated in a retrospective assessment of their childhood and adolescent instrumental and vicarious learning experiences with respect to somatic symptoms (i.e. anxiety and cold symptoms, respectively) using an expanded version of Ehler's (1993) Learning History Questionnaire. AS levels were assessed using the Anxiety Sensitivity Index, and panic history was obtained using the Panic Attack Questionnaire, Revised. Contrary to hypotheses, the learning experiences of high AS individuals were not found to be specific to anxiety symptoms, but involved parental reinforcement of sick-role behavior related to somatic symptoms in general. High AS subjects reported both more anxiety and cold symptoms prior to age 18 than individuals with lower levels of AS. In addition, both cold and anxiety symptoms elicited more special attention and/or instructions from parents for high AS individuals to take special care of themselves. These findings are contrasted with the results for self-reported panickers who reported more learning experiences (modeling and parental reinforcement) specific to anxiety-related symptoms, than the non-panickers. The results suggest that higher-than-normal levels of AS may arise from learning to catastrophize about the occurrence of bodily symptoms in general, rather than anxiety-related symptoms in particular.
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Classification in psychopathology is a problem in applied mathematics; it answers the empirical question "Is the latent structure of these phenotypic indicator correlations taxonic (categories) or nontaxonic (dimensions, factors)?" It is not a matter of convention or preference. Two taxometric procedures, MAMBAC and MAXCOV-HITMAX, provide independent tests of the taxonic conjecture and satisfactorily accurate estimates of the taxon base rate, the latent means, and the valid and false-positive rates achievable by various cuts. The method requires no gold standard criterion, applying crude fallible diagnostic "criteria" only in the phase of discovery to identify plausible candidate indicators. Confidence in the inference to taxonic structure and numerical accuracy of latent values is provided by multiple consistency tests, hence the term coherent cut kinetics for the general approach. Further revision of diagnostic systems should be based on taxometric analysis rather than on committee decisions based on clinical impressions and nontaxometric research.
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Taxometric analyses were applied to the construct of psychopathy (as measured by the Psychopathy Checklist) and to several variables reflecting antisocial childhood, adult criminality, and criminal recidivism. Subjects were 653 serious offenders assessed or treated in a maximum-security institution. Results supported the existence of a taxon underlying psychopathy. Childhood problem behaviors provided convergent evidence for the existence of the taxon. Adult criminal history variables were continuously distributed and were insufficient in themselves to detect the taxon.
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This study presents estimates of lifetime and 12-month prevalence of 14 DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders from the National Comorbidity Survey, the first survey to administer a structured psychiatric interview to a national probability sample in the United States. The DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders among persons aged 15 to 54 years in the noninstitutionalized civilian population of the United States were assessed with data collected by lay interviewers using a revised version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Nearly 50% of respondents reported at least one lifetime disorder, and close to 30% reported at least one 12-month disorder. The most common disorders were major depressive episode, alcohol dependence, social phobia, and simple phobia. More than half of all lifetime disorders occurred in the 14% of the population who had a history of three or more comorbid disorders. These highly comorbid people also included the vast majority of people with severe disorders. Less than 40% of those with a lifetime disorder had ever received professional treatment, and less than 20% of those with a recent disorder had been in treatment during the past 12 months. Consistent with previous risk factor research, it was found that women had elevated rates of affective disorders and anxiety disorders, that men had elevated rates of substance use disorders and antisocial personality disorder, and that most disorders declined with age and with higher socioeconomic status. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders is greater than previously thought to be the case. Furthermore, this morbidity is more highly concentrated than previously recognized in roughly one sixth of the population who have a history of three or more comorbid disorders. This suggests that the causes and consequences of high comorbidity should be the focus of research attention. The majority of people with psychiatric disorders fail to obtain professional treatment. Even among people with a lifetime history of three or more comorbid disorders, the proportion who ever obtain specialty sector mental health treatment is less than 50%. These results argue for the importance of more outreach and more research on barriers to professional help-seeking.
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The authors used a semistructured clinical interview and a self-report battery of questionnaires to measure key features of the anxiety disorders in a large sample of patients seeking treatment at an outpatient anxiety disorders clinic and in a no mental disorder group. Results were consistent with hierarchical models of anxiety and the anxiety disorders such as the model implicit in American Psychiatric Association (1987, 1994) and trait models positing a trait diathesis common to all the anxiety disorders. A higher order general factor differentiated each of the patient groups from the no mental disorder group. Several lower order factors provided the basis for differentiation among the patient groups. Conclusions regarding the degree to which models predicting a hierarchical structure of anxiety and the anxiety disorders are empirically supported must await replication of these results with additional samples.
Book
Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is the fear of anxiety sensations which arises from beliefs that these sensations have harmful somatic, social, or psychological consequences. Over the past decade, AS has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers and clinicians with more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles published. In addition, AS has been the subject of numerous symposia, papers, and posters at professional conventions.© 1999 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Why this growing interest? Theory and research suggest that AS plays an important role in the etiology and maintenance of many forms of psychopathology, including anxiety disorders, depression, chronic pain, and substance abuse. Bringing together experts from a variety of different areas, this volume offers the first comprehensive state-of-the-art review of AS--its conceptual foundations, assessment, causes, consequences, and treatment--and points new directions for future work. It will prove to be an invaluable resource for clinicians, researchers, students, and trainees in all mental health professions. © 1999 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
Article
The Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) is one of the most widely used measures of the construct of anxiety sensitivity. Until the recent introduction of a hierarchical model of the ASI by S. O. Lilienfeld, S. M. Turner, and R. G. Jacob (1993), the factor structure of the ASI was the subject of debate, with some researchers advocating a unidimensional structure and others proposing multidimensional structures. In the present study, involving 432 outpatients seeking treatment at an anxiety disorders clinic and 32 participants with no mental disorder, the authors tested a hierarchical factor model. The results supported a hierarchical factor structure consisting of 3 lower order factors and 1 higher order factor. It is estimated that the higher order, general factor accounts for 60% of the variance in ASI total scores. The implications of these findings for the conceptualization and assessment of anxiety sensitivity are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Cognitive conceptualizations of panic disorder suggest that panic is produced and maintained by threatening beliefs associated with autonomic arousal. The present study tested the discriminant validity of the anxiety sensitivity model of panic by assessing the differential predictions of particular anxiety sensitivity domains. A factor analysis of the Body Sensations Questionnaire indicated four nested anxiety sensitivity factors assessing fears of cardiopulmonary, dissociation, numbness, and gastrointestinal sensations. The symptoms assessed by each factor possess varying levels of correspondence to the sensations typically produced during a 35% CO_2 inhalation (i.e., Cardiopulmonary Fears/High Correspondence, Dissociation Fears/Moderate Correspondence, Numbness Fears/Moderate Correspondence, Gastrointestinal Fears/Low Correspondence). It was hypothesized that anxiety sensitivity to the high-correspondence sensations, compared to anxiety sensitivity to moderate- and low-correspondence sensations, would predict greater fearful responding to a 35% CO_2 challenge. Fifty-six participants meeting DSM-IV criteria for panic disorder completed a single vital capacity 35% CO_2 challenge. Consistent with prediction, Cardiopulmonary Fears was the only index that predicted provocation-induced anxiety and symptoms. These findings suggest that specific anxiety sensitivities can provide a more powerful explanatory model for predicting emotional responding in panic disorder.
Article
"What does a manager do?" This question interested a few researchers on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1950s and 1960s, starting with Sune Carlson (1951) in Sweden in the early 1950s. They, like some other social scientists at the time, thought it important to explore what actually happened, whether in organizations, or in managerial activities, rather than to rely on the current theories about the principles of good organization or the nature of managerial functions. Joan Woodward (1965) and Tom Burns and George Stalker (1961) were the pioneers in exploring how organizations actually worked. Leonard Sayles was one of the early researchers to adopt a similar approach to managerial behavior.
Article
The purpose of the present study was to place drinking motives within the context of the Five-Factor Model of personality. Specifically, we sought to determine whether certain personality domains and facets of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) predict Enhancement, Coping, Social, and/or Conformity drinking motives from the Revised Drinking Motives Questionnaire (DMQ-R). A sample of 256 university student drinkers (M age =21.3 years) completed the NEO-PI-R and DMQ-R. In bivariate correlations, the two negative reinforcement motives (Coping and Conformity) were positively correlated with Neuroticism and negatively correlated with Extraversion. The two positive reinforcement motives (Enhancement and Social) were positively correlated with Extraversion and negatively correlated with Conscientiousness. Multiple regression analyses revealed that personality domain scores predicted two of the four drinking motives (i.e. the internal drinking motives of Coping and Enhancement), after controlling for the influences of alternative drinking motives. Enhancement Motives were predicted by high Extraversion and low Conscientiousness, and Coping Motives by high Neuroticism. Supplementary correlational analyses involving certain personality facet scores revealed that the depression and self-consciousness facets of the Neuroticism domain were positively correlated with residual Coping and Conformity Motives, respectively, and that the excitement-seeking and gregariousness facets of the Extraversion domain were positively correlated with residual Enhancement and Social Motives, respectively. These results provide further validation of Cox and Klinger’s 2×2 (valence [positive vs negative reinforcement]×source [internal vs external]) model of drinking motivations, and confirm previous speculations that drinking motives are distinguishable on the basis of personality domains and facets. Understanding the relations between personality and drinking motives may prove useful in identifying young drinkers whose drinking motivations may portend the development of heavy and/or problem drinking.
Article
The present investigation evaluated the Anxiety Sensitivity (AS) taxon using the 16-item Anxiety Sensitivity Index (Reiss, Peterson, Gursky, & McNally, 1986) and its relation with two theoretically relevant cognitive processes associated with panic vulnerability: bodily vigilance and perceived uncontrollability over anxiety-related events. Taxometric analyses of 589 young adults indicated that the latent structure of AS was taxonic with an estimated base rate ranging between 13% and 14%. As predicted, an 8-item ASI Taxon Scale accounted for significant variance above and beyond that accounted for by the full-scale ASI total score in terms of bodily vigilance and perceived controllability of anxiety-related events. Moreover, after accounting for the variance explained by the full-scale ASI total score, the total score for the 8 ASI items not included in the ASI Taxon Scale was associated with significant variance in these same dependent measures, but it was in the opposite direction from that predicted by contemporary panic disorder theory. Dichotomous taxon membership accounted for significant variance above total ASI scores for bodily vigilance but not perceptions of control for anxiety-related events. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for the study of AS and panic vulnerability.
Article
The purpose of this book is to begin the ambitious task of "true diagnostics," standing on the shoulders of taxometric theory, by reviewing taxometric studies, analyzing several large new data sets, and trusting in the future cooperation and enterprise of psychologists and others who read this book. The book begins with a review of the nature of classification procedures by highlighting some of its main problems and controversies. In chapter 2, the evolution of our current diagnostic system--the DSM--is discussed and the central argument is advanced. The authors suggest that for the DSM to continue to advance, we must begin to scientifically determine the underlying nature of these diagnostic entities through the use of procedures such as taxometrics. Chapter 3 offers a detailed analytic primer on the nature of taxometrics. The primer is written in a user-friendly manner so clinicians and others not familiar with the underlying mathematics associated with taxometrics can gain a full understanding of the importance and utility of these procedures. Chapter 4 is specifically focused on outlining a method by which taxometric procedures can be applied to diagnostic entities within the DSM. The final two chapters provide a review of the current taxometrics literature and the degree to which it has been applied to specific psychopathological entities (e.g., schizophrenia spectrum, anxiety, eating disorders). In summary, this book represents a "call to action" to revolutionize the diagnostic system. The point of this book is not that a diagnostic revolution has occurred; it is that it can and should occur and that, to a degree, it is occurring. Through this book, the authors hope to stimulate this enterprise by describing it, summarizing its initial progress, and contributing toward it. The enterprise, although difficult, is clearly feasible (within years not decades), if a core of psychological scientists join the fray. One of the main purposes of the book is to invite them to contribute to this cause. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Given 2 quantitative indicators of a conjectured latent taxon, a statistical function defined as the difference between the observed means for cases of one indicator (designated for the procedure as the "output" indicator) falling above and below a sliding cut on the other indicator (designated as the "input" indicator) indicates whether the latent structure is taxonic or nontaxonic ("factorial," "dimensional"). If it is taxonic, latent parameters (e.g., base rate, hit rates, complement and taxon means) can be estimated. Graphs can be inspectionally sorted with very high accuracy, even by laypersons. Mean Above Minus Below A Cut (MAMBAC) is one of a related family of taxometric procedures in P. E. Meehl's coherent cut kinetics method. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
This book brings together some of the foremost experts to review and integrate the current research and theory on the major factors that shape anxiety disorders in childhood and throughout the life span. The book is divided into three parts: Part I provides a framework for conceptualizing the developmental psychopathology of anxiety and introduces foundational issues, including developmental variations in the prevalence and manifestation of anxiety. Part II covers a diverse array of factors that precede, precipitate, maintain, intensify, protect against, and ameliorate anxiety, as well as some of the processes by which they may operate. Part III offers integrative discussions of these varied factors and processes in the context of specific anxiety disorders that affect children. Researchers and clinicians alike will find this collection of chapters of interest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Diathesis-stress models have long been cited in conceptualizations of the etiology of clinical disorders (Meehl, 1962; Rosenthal, 1970). These models suggest that specific types of psychopathology arise from a combination of vulnerability factors (diatheses) and life stress (Fowles, 1992). Despite an accumulating body of evidence demonstrating that specific diatheses, in the context of life stress, predict depressive symptomatology (Metalsky, Joiner, Hardin, and Abramson, 1993; Satterfield, Folkman, and Acree, 2002), few attempts have been made to directly test diathesis-stress models of anxiety disorders. Recent research, however, has indicated anxiety sensitivity (AS), defined as the fear of bodily sensations, interacts with life stress to predict panic-related problems (Zvolensky, Kotov, Antipova, and Schmidt, in press; Zvolensky and Schmidt, 2003). Although promising, extant panic-relevant diathesis-stress research has not addressed recently emerging taxometric research indicating that AS may be characterized by an underlying qualitative discontinuity between normal and pathological groups rather than an evenly graded dimension. Such neglect is unfortunate, as failure to accurately conceptualize the latent structure of the diathetic component of the panic-relevant diathesis-stress model may (1) limit the model's construct valid representation of the panic-relevant diathesis-stress phenomenon; and (2) preclude psychopathologists from further elucidating the specific processes underlying panic vulnerability. To begin to address this gap in the literature, the present study sought to test a panic-relevant diathesis-stress model using a taxometrically-derived categorical index of AS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Points out that diagnosing psychological disorders requires not only an organizational framework, but also a method of gathering information about a patient or client. The author reviews the literature on diagnosis and demonstrates that, although structured or semi-structured interviews increase interrater reliability, reliance on a single source (whether patient, clinician, or other) often results in diagnoses that are unstable and inaccurate. Consequently, he recommends gathering information from multiple sources, no matter what diagnostic system is used. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
This book discusses the MAXCOV-HITMAX procedure to reveal the underlying rationale of MAXCOV in simple terms and show how this technique can be used in a variety of disciplines by researchers in their taxonomic work. The misconceptions concerning the psychometric and philosophical status of taxonic constructs are discussed, and several meanings of the term "taxon" and the philosophy of science that has guided the authors' work in this area are reviewed. The authors describe MAXCOV-HITMAX and demonstrate how MAXCOV uses the General Covariance Mixture Theorem to test taxonic hypotheses (using utility programs written in S-Plus to do the taxometric procedures). Two new taxometric procedures are introduced, MAXEIG-HITMAX and L-Mode, for the simultaneous analysis of multiple taxon indicators. These techniques are contrasted with other data clustering and classification methods, such as latent profile analysis and Q-technique factor analysis. Guidelines are provided for corroborating taxonic models and the role of taxometrics in scientific methodology is described. The book is intended for professionals and practitioners in statistics, evaluation, survey research, sociology, psychology, education and communication research, policy studies, management, public health, and nursing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Evaluated a scale for measuring anxiety sensitivity (i.e., the belief that anxiety symptoms have negative consequences), the Child Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI), in 76 7th–9th graders and 33 emotionally disturbed children (aged 8–15 yrs). The CASI had sound psychometric properties for both samples. The view that anxiety sensitivity is a separate concept from that of anxiety frequency and that it is a concept applicable with children was supported. The CASI correlated with measures of fear and anxiety and accounted for variance on the Fear Survey Schedule for Children—Revised and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (Trait form) that could not be explained by a measure of anxiety frequency. The possible role of anxiety sensitivity as a predisposing factor in the development of anxiety disorder in children is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
ABSTRACT A taxon is a nonarbitrary class whose existence is conjectured as an empirical question, not a mere semantic convenience. Numerous taxa are known to exist in nature and society (chemical elements, biological species, organic diseases, geological strata, kinds of stars, elementary particles, races, cultures, Mendelizing mental deficiencies, major psychoses, vocations, ideologies, religions). What personality types, if any, occur in the nonpathological population remains to be researched by sophisticated methods, and cannot be settled by fiat or “dimensional” preference. The intuitive concept of taxonicity is to be explicated by a combination of formal-numerical and causal criteria. Taxometric methods should include consistency tests that provide Popperian risk of strong discorroboration. In social science, latent class methods are probably more useful than cluster algorithms.
Article
Taxometrics is a statistical tool that can be used to discern psychopathological categories from continua. In this study, taxometric analyses were conducted to determine whether a psychopathological category (or taxon) underlies a cognitive vulnerability to panic (i.e., fear of anxiety symptoms and body vigilance). The construct was operationalized with 3 variables: the Anxiety Sensitivity Index, the Body Sensations Questionnaire, and the Body Vigilance Scale. The test was performed in a large nonclinical sample (N = 1,224). Analyses and consistency tests support the taxonic conjecture for the existence of a latent cognitive vulnerability taxon with a base rate of about 18% in this population. Moreover, tests of the taxon’s utility indicated that taxon membership has incremental validity in predicting future panic attacks.
Article
Despite advances in our understanding of the nature of anxiety-related responding during periods of elevated bodily arousal, it is not necessarily evident by what psychological mechanisms anxiety is produced and maintained. To address this issue, researchers have increasingly employed biological challenge procedures to examine how psychological factors affect anxious responding during elevated bodily arousal. Of the challenging procedures, hyperventilation and inhalations of carbon dioxide-enriched air have been among the most frequently employed, and a relatively large body of literature using these procedures has now accumulated. Unfortunately, existing reviews do not comprehensively examine findings from hyperventilation and inhalations of carbon dioxide studies, and only rarely the methodological issues specific to these studies. To address these issues, we review the voluntary hyperventilation and carbon dioxide-enriched air literature in order to identify the primary methodological issues/limitations of this research and address the extent to which psychological variables influence anxious responding to such challenges. Overall, we conclude challenge research is a promising paradigm to examine the influence of psychological variables in anxious responding, and that such work will likely be enhanced with greater attention to psychological process issues.
Article
Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is the fear of anxiety-related sensations arising from beliefs that these sensations have harmful physical, psychological, or social consequences. AS is measured using the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI), a 16-item self-report questionnaire. Little is known about the origins of AS, although social learning experiences (including sex-role socialization experiences) may be important. The present study examined whether there were gender differences in: (a) the lower- or higher-order factor structure of the ASI; and/or (b) pattern of ASI factor scores. The ASI was completed by 818 university students (290 males; 528 females). Separate principal components analyses on the ASI items of the total sample, males, and females revealed nearly identical lower-order three-factor structures for all groups, with factors pertaining to fears about the anticipated (a) physical, (b) psychological, and (c) social consequences of anxiety. Separate principal components analyses on the lower-order factor scores of the three samples revealed similar unidimensional higher-order solutions for all groups. Gender × AS dimension analyses on ASI lower-order factor scores showed that: females scored higher than males only on the physical concerns factor; females scored higher on the physical concerns factor relative to their scores on the social and psychological concerns factors; and males scored higher on the social and psychological concerns factors relative to their scores on the physical concerns factor. Finally, females scored higher than males on the higher-order factor representing the global AS construct. The present study provides further support for the empirical distinction of the three lower-order dimensions of AS, and additional evidence for the theoretical hierarchical structure of the ASI. Results also suggest that males and females differ on these various AS dimensions in ways consistent with sex role socialization practices.
Article
The present study investigated relations of anxiety sensitivity and other theoretically relevant personality factors to Copper's [Psychological Assessment 6 (1994) 117.] four categories of substance use motivations as applied to teens' use of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. A sample of 508 adolescents (238 females, 270 males; mean age=15.1 years) completed the Trait subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI), and the Intensity and Novelty subscales of the Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking. Users of each substance also completed the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (DMQ-R) and/or author-compiled measures for assessing motives for cigarette smoking and marijuana use, respectively. Multiple regression analyses revealed that, in the case of each drug, the block of personality variables predicted “risky” substance use motives (i.e., coping, enhancement, and/or conformity motives) over-and-above demographics. High intensity seeking and low anxiety sensitivity predicted enhancement motives for alcohol use, high anxiety sensitivity predicted conformity motives for alcohol and marijuana use, and high trait anxiety predicted coping motives for alcohol and cigarette use. Moreover, anxiety sensitivity moderated the relation between trait anxiety and coping motives for alcohol and cigarette use: the trait anxiety–coping motives relation was stronger for high, than for low, anxiety sensitive individuals. Implications of the findings for improving substance abuse prevention efforts for youth will be discussed.
Article
The relationship between panic attack symptoms, anxiety sensitivity, and academic performance was evaluated in a sample of 77 high school students. Although it has been suggested that children and adolescents are unlikely to experience panic attacks and panic disorder, the results of recent studies suggest that symptoms frequently occur in this age group. Evaluation of symptoms reported on the Panic Attack Questionnaire revealed that 39% of our sample experienced panic attacks, and that five subjects (6.5%) met diagnostic criteria for panic disorder at some time during their life. Furthermore, a significant correlation between scoring on the PAQ and scores on the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index, a fear of anxiety measure, was found. Results suggest that there is a relationship between anxiety sensitivity and panic symptomatology in adolescents, a finding comparable with the adult literature. The observed relationship between anxiety sensitivity and panic symptomatology in adolescents is congruent with theorizing that anxiety sensitivity is a cognitive risk factor for the development of panic disorder.
Article
Meehl's (1962, 1990) model of schizotypy and the development of schizophrenia implies that the structure of liability for schizophrenia is dichotomous and that a "schizogene" determines membership in a latent class, or taxon (Meehl & Golden, 1982). The authors sought to determine the latent structure and base rate of schizotypy. They applied Meehl's (1973; Meehl & Golden, 1982) MAXCOV-HITMAX taxometric analytic procedures to a subset of items from the Perceptual Aberration Scale (PAS; Chapman, Chapman, & Raulin, 1978), a prominent psychometric index of schizotypy, derived from a randomly ascertained nonclinical university sample (N = 1,093). The results, in accordance with Meehl's conjectures, strongly suggest that schizotypy, as assessed by the PAS, is taxonic at the latent level with a general population taxon base rate of approximately .10.
Article
A distinction is proposed between anxiety (frequency of symptom occurrence) and anxiety sensitivity (beliefs that anxiety experiences have negative implications). In Study 1, a newly-constructed Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) was shown to have sound psychometric properties for each of two samples of college students. The important finding was that people who tend to endorse one negative implication for anxiety also tend to endorse other negative implications. In Study 2, the ASI was found to be especially associated with agoraphobia and generally associated with anxiety disorders. In Study 3, the ASI explained variance on the Fear Survey Schedule—II that was not explained by either the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale or a reliable Anxiety Frequency Checklist. In predicting the development of fears, and possibly other anxiety disorders, it may be more important to know what the person thinks will happen as a result of becoming anxious than how often the person actually experiences anxiety. Implications are discussed for competing views of the ‘fear of fear’.
Article
Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is the fear of anxiety-related sensations, which arises from beliefs that these sensations have harmful somatic, psychological or social consequences. According to Reiss (1991), AS is one of three fundamental fears that amplify or cause many common fears. AS also is thought to play an important role in causing panic attacks. The purpose of the present article is to review recent findings concerning the construct of AS and its place in the nomological network outlined by Reiss. Although the weight of evidence supports a unifactorial model of AS, recent findings suggest AS is multifactorial at the level of first-order factors, and these factors load on a single higher-order factor. People with elevated AS, compared to those with low AS, are more likely to have histories of panic attacks. AS is factorially distinct from other fundamental fears, and is more strongly related to agoraphobia than other common fears. AS can be regarded as a subfactor of trait anxiety, and is more strongly related to agoraphobia than other common fears. AS can be regarded as a subfactor of trait anxiety, although the question arises as to whether AS is a cause of trait anxiety. Important questions for further investigation concern the etiology of AS and whether it can be reduced to still more basic fears.
Article
Based on our review of the available data, we conclude that panic attacks are common among adolescents, while both panic attacks and Panic Disorder appear to be present, but less frequent, in children. Furthermore, it is evident that both adolescents and children who report panic attacks describe the occurrence of cognitive symptoms, although with less frequency than physiological ones. Consistent with the cognitive model of panic, it seems that at least some youngsters are capable of experiencing the physiological symptoms of panic accompanied by the requisite catastrophic cognitions. However, a more complete understanding of the cognitive manifestation of panic attacks/disorder among children awaits further investigation. Future research should aim to explore the developmental progression in children's cognitive responses to specific panic symptomatology. Risk factors (e.g. anxiety sensitivity, depression) which may contribute to the likelihood of misinterpreting physiological sensations in a catastrophic manner throughout the course of development should also be assessed: Finally, we are in general agreement with Abelson and Alessi (1992) who argue that we must begin to ask ourselves how panic disorder may be manifested in children. That is, rather than assessing the frequency with which children experience symptoms of adult panic, we should explore what panic would look like in children. They propose that the study of panic in children would be facilitated by a reformulation of separation anxiety as a childhood expression of panic disorder. Although this reformulation makes intuitive sense and is appealing from a developmental perspective, we would insert a strong caveat. Although the research is yet to be conducted, it is probable that childhood separation anxiety is only one of many routes to panic disorder outcome. It is improbable that such direct and continuous pathways are present for the majority of children, adolescents and adults who experience panic disorder. More probably, the pathways are multiple, complex, and discontinuous (Robbins & Rutter, 1990). Much work remains to be done before we are able to ferret out the linkages between developmental processes and clinical outcomes for panic disorder in children and adolescents.
Article
Little is known about the prevalence of panic symptoms that do not meet criteria for panic disorder. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of panic disorder, panic attacks, and limited-symptom attacks in the general population. The authors identified a community-based sample of 1,683 randomly selected adults in 18 census tracts in San Antonio, Tex.; 1,306 of these subjects agreed to be interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III. Subjects were classified as having panic disorder if they met DSM-III-R criteria, as having panic attacks if they had attacks of four or more panic symptoms but did not have panic disorder, and as having limited-symptom attacks if they had attacks of fewer than four symptoms but no full-blown panic attacks. The crude lifetime prevalence rates were 3.8% for panic disorder, 5.6% for panic attacks, and 2.2% for limited symptom attacks. Women had higher rates of panic disorder and panic attacks than men, but the difference between men and women was not statistically significant for limited-symptom attacks. No statistically significant differences in rates between Hispanic and either non-Hispanic white or black subjects were found. Non-Hispanic white subjects had higher rates of limited-symptom attacks than black subjects. The prevalence of limited-symptom attacks in this community-based study was 2.2%; black subjects had lower rates than non-Hispanic white subjects. Panic attacks appear to be at least as common as DSM-III-R panic disorder and, like panic disorder, are more common among women.
Article
A small Monte Carlo study was conducted to determine whether MAXCOV analysis, a taxometric method for testing between discrete ("taxonic") and continuous models of latent variables, is robust when indicators of the latent variable are skewed. Analysis of constructed data sets containing three levels of skew indicated that the MAXCOV procedure is unlikely to yield spurious findings of taxonicity even when skewness is considerable. However, care must be taken to distinguish low base-rate taxonic variables from skewed nontaxonic variables.