Does the social concerns component of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index belong to the domain of anxiety sensitivity or the domain of negative evaluation sensitivity?
Section snippets
Method
Data used in this factor analytic study was collected from 216 (76.4% female) undergraduate volunteers (mean age=21.1 yr, S.D.=3.4) as part of a larger study on the associations between family history of drinking problems and anxiety-related constructs (MacPherson & Stewart, 1999). Informed consent was obtained prior to participants' completion of the self-report measures. Questionnaires were completed anonymously during class time. The Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI; Peterson & Reiss, 1992)
Lower-order structure
A PCA with oblique (Oblimin) rotation was performed on item scores from both the ASI and BFNE. The eigenvalues greater than one were 9.1, 2.9, 1.7, 1.5, 1.2 and 1.0. Parallel analysis (Horn, 1965, Longman et al., 1989) using the 95th percentile eigenvalues criterion, indicated significant support for retaining three factors. Using parallel analysis and the less conservative mean eigenvalues criterion, significant support was obtained for a three-factor solution and marginal support was obtained
Discussion
The present study investigated whether the AS Social Concerns construct is best conceptualized as belonging to the domain of NES and/or to the domain of AS. The four-factor lower-order solution provided support for separate factors of NES, AS Physical Concerns, AS Social Concerns and AS Psychological Concerns, respectively, within the BFNE and ASI measures. All four of these lower-order factors were found to show high loadings on a single higher-order factor that we labeled Threat Sensitivity.
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2014, Addictive BehaviorsCitation Excerpt :These three sub-factors are hierarchically arranged within the single factor of general AS (Deacon & Abramowitz, 2006). Studies examining the correlates of these lower order factors demonstrate varying psychological associations with each factor (Blais et al., 2001; McWilliams, Stewart, & MacPherson, 2000; Taylor, Koch, Woody, & McLean, 1996; Zinbarg, Barlow, & Brown, 1997). Specifically, cognitive dyscontrol and somatic sensations have demonstrated the strongest associations with symptoms of depression (Blais et al., 2001; Grant, Beck, & Davila, 2007; Taylor et al., 1996).