Does the social concerns component of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index belong to the domain of anxiety sensitivity or the domain of negative evaluation sensitivity?

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Abstract

The present study utilized an exploratory factor-analytic approach (i.e. principal-components analysis; PCA) to investigate whether the Social Concerns component of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI [Peterson, R. A., & Reiss, S. (1992). Anxiety Sensitivity Index manual (2nd ed.). Worthington, OH: International Diagnostic Systems.]) is best conceptualized as belonging to the domain of anxiety sensitivity (AS) and/or the domain of negative evaluation sensitivity (NES). A sample of university students (N=216) was administered measures of both NES (i.e. Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation scale; Leary, 1983) and AS (i.e. ASI). Participants' responses to the items comprising these measures were subjected to a PCA with oblique rotation. Factors representing the NES construct and the three lower-order AS constructs (i.e. AS Physical, Psychological and Social Concerns) were obtained. Subscales derived from these four factors were positively and significantly correlated with one another and loaded on a single higher-order factor labeled Threat Sensitivity. Thus, the present findings suggest that the AS Social Concerns factor is distinct from NES and the other lower-order components of AS. However, correlational analyses and higher-order PCA indicated that the AS Social Concerns factor taps a blend of AS and NES as well as something unique and distinct from both global AS and NES.

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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      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).

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