Anxiety sensitivity and perceived control over anxiety-related events: Evaluating the singular and interactive effects in the prediction of anxious and fearful responding to bodily sensations
Section snippets
Participants
The sample consisted of 229 participants (Mage = 21.02, SD = 7.55, 124 females) who were recruited from the greater Burlington, Vermont community. Participants were recruited through the general community and university communities via newspaper ads and flyers advertising a laboratory study on ‘emotion.’ Overall, 92.6% of the sample was Caucasian, 1.7% was Hispanic, 1.3% was biracial, 0.9% was Asian, 0.9% identified themselves as “other,” and 0.4% was black. Some participants (2.2%) chose not to
Manipulation check of provocation paradigm
A paired-samples t-test indicated that the mean SUDS score post-challenge (M = 53.93, SD = 27.75) was significantly greater than the mean SUDS score pre-challenge (M = 16.11, SD = 15.47), t(223) = −20.55, P < H 0.001. In addition, paired-samples t-tests indicated that the mean heart rate, SCL, and respiration rate scores post-challenge (M = 91.87, SD = 14.47; M = 3.81, SD = 1.72; M = 19.75, SD = 4.09, respectively) were significantly greater than at the final minute of the pre-challenge time period (M = 81.55, SD = 10.35;
Discussion
The overarching aim of the present investigation was to examine the singular and interactive relationships between anxiety sensitivity and perceived control over anxiety-related events and panic-relevant responding in the context of a biological challenge paradigm. A number of novel observations were derived from the investigation, helping to elucidate cognitive vulnerability processes for panic-relevant responding to somatic perturbation.
Consistent with prediction, there was evidence that
Acknowledgments
This paper was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse research grants (1 R01 DA018734-01A1, R03 DA16307-01, and 1 R21 DA016227-01) awarded to Dr. Zvolensky. This paper was the dissertation of Kristin Gregor at the University of Vermont, and was additionally supported by the McNeil Prevention and Community Psychology Dissertation Award, awarded to Kristin Gregor. The authors indicated no conflicts of interest.
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2014, Behavior TherapyCitation Excerpt :Given that adolescents had just undergone a VH that elicited uncomfortable somatic sensations, lower willingness ratings were considered indicative of avoidance of the bodily arousal to be elicited by the proposed VH. This index of avoidance has been successfully utilized in past biological challenge studies (Eifert & Heffner, 2003; Gregor & Zvolensky, 2008). Of note, adolescents did not complete a second VH, and were not made aware of this fact when administered the willingness question.