Anxiety sensitivity (AS) and emotion regulation (ER) difficulty have been identified as risk factors for anxiety symptoms. Few studies have examined the unique relations between these risk factors and anxiety and even less have examined whether AS and ER difficulty interact in their relations with anxiety. The current study used latent variable modeling to examine the unique and interactive effects of AS and ER difficulty on worry, panic, and social anxiety symptoms in a sample of 526 individuals (M age = 34.87 years, SD = 12.41). It was hypothesized that AS and ER difficulty would be uniquely associated with all anxiety symptoms and that significant, negative interactions would emerge. The hypotheses of the current study were supported, except ER difficulty was only associated with panic at low levels of AS. These findings indicate that the effects of one risk factor was diminished at high levels of the other risk factor.
