The Emotion Dysregulation Model of Anxiety: A preliminary path analytic examination

doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2010.06.018

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Volume 24, Issue 8, December 2010, Pages 924-930

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2010.06.018 Get rights and content

Abstract

Both temperamental (e.g., behavioral inhibition) and environmental (e.g., family emotional environment) factors are associated with etiology and maintenance of anxiety; however, few studies have explored mechanisms through which these risk factors operate. The present study investigation of a developmental model of anxiety (i.e., the Emotion Dysregulation Model of Anxiety; EDMA) that hypothesizes that emotion dysregulation is the mechanism through which temperamental and emotion parenting variables relate to anxiety. Emerging adults (N = 676, M age = 19.5) retrospectively reported on behavioral inhibition and emotion parenting factors in childhood, and current emotion regulation skills and symptoms of anxiety. Results of path analyses provide initial support for the EDMA. Emotion dysregulation fully mediated the relationship between behavioral inhibition and anxiety and partially mediated the relationship between family emotional environment and anxiety.

Section snippets

Links between high child temperamental reactivity and anxiety

Research drawn from various literatures supports the notion that individuals with anxiety disorders experience elevated levels of reactivity. Several studies by independent research groups have demonstrated links between behavioral inhibition (i.e., the tendency to display heightened physiological arousal and withdrawal when exposed to unfamiliar people, places, or situations) and anxiety problems (Biederman et al., 1995, Coplan et al., 2006, Kagan et al., 1988, Muris and Meesters, 2002, Turner

Links between family emotional environment and anxiety

In the EDMA, family emotional environment is expected to influence emotion dysregulation through a failure to appropriately socialize the emotion understanding and regulation skills that are necessary for adaptive emotion functioning. Suveg et al. (2005) found that children with an AD and their mothers independently indicated lower levels of family emotional expressivity in comparison to non-clinical children and their mothers (cf., Noguchi & Ollendick, in press). During discussions about times

Links between emotion dysregulation and anxiety

Finally, the EDMA proposes that emotion dysregulation is the mechanism through which both high temperamental reactivity and family emotional environment exert their effects on anxiety. Preliminary research has linked emotion regulation difficulties to anxiety in both youth and adult populations and suggests that emotion regulation difficulties extend beyond the ability to manage anxiety specifically. Suveg and Zeman (2004) found that children with ADs reported less adaptive emotion regulation

Sample

Participants included 676 students between the ages of 18 and 29. Undergraduate students from a large university located in a small city volunteered in exchange for partial credit toward a class research participation requirement. The sample included 242 males (36%) and 434 females (64%) with a mean age of 19.5 (SD = 1.22). With respect to the diversity of the sample, 552 (81.7%) were Caucasian, 53 (7.8%) were Asian, 46 (6.8%) were African American, 14 (2.1%) were Hispanic, and 11 (1.6%)

Results

Path analyses were conducted using Lisrel v.8.80 (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1996). The correlations between the measures and their means, standard deviations, and estimates of skew and kurtosis can be found in Table 1. A preliminary inspection of Table 1 reveals a positive association between the anxiety measure (SCL-90 ANX) and the temperamental reactivity (RMBI), family emotional environment (FES and FEQ Negative), and emotion dysregulation (DERS) measures. Path analyses were conducted on the

Discussion

Research has implicated both temperamental and environmental factors in anxiety (Caspi et al., 1995, Hibbs et al., 1991, Suveg et al., 2005, Suveg et al., 2008a, Suveg et al., 2008b). The goal of this study was to extend previous research by examining mechanisms by which three particular variables (i.e., high temperamental reactivity measured via behavioral inhibition, restrictive family expressiveness, frequency of negative affect expression in the family) influence anxiety symptoms. Based on

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Citation Excerpt :
The emotion dysregulation model of anxiety holds that individuals who cannot competently negotiate emotion-evoking situations may choose maladaptive tactics such as avoidance to reduce emotional arousal (Suveg et al., 2010). These maladaptive strategies cannot effectively manage emotional arousal but function to maintain anxiety (Suveg et al., 2010). In line with this proposition, emotional dysregulation forms a core feature of social anxiety disorders (Hofmann, 2004).
Extant models of the association between harsh parenting and social anxiety among adolescents are mostly partial mediation models, leaving much of the relationship unaccounted for.
The current study intends to test a two-mediator model in which adolescents' cognitive reactivity and emotional dysregulation were assumed to mediate the potential impact of harsh parenting on their social anxiety.
A sample of 726 adolescent students with their parents was recruited from two middle schools located in a provincial city of Northern China.
Both fathers and mothers were required to report on their spouse's harsh parenting practices. The “Behind your back” task was used to assess cognitive reactivity of adolescents who also reported on their emotional dysregulation and social anxiety. Moderated mediation model and simple slope analyses were used to examine the meditational relations and the moderating role of child sex.
For the current model, cognitive reactivity and emotional dysregulation could completely mediate the potential influence of harsh fathering and harsh mothering on adolescents' social anxiety. Moreover, harsh fathering has a greater effect on adolescents' social anxiety than harsh mothering, especially for girls.
Cognitive reactivity in conjunction with emotional dysfunction can better account for the relationship from harsh fathering and harsh mothering to adolescents' social anxiety.

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The Emotion Dysregulation Model of Anxiety: A preliminary path analytic examination

Abstract

Section snippets

Links between high child temperamental reactivity and anxiety

Links between family emotional environment and anxiety

Links between emotion dysregulation and anxiety

Sample

Results

Discussion

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behavior Therapy

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Personality and Individual Differences

Child Abuse & Neglect

Psychiatry Research

Clinical Psychology Review

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behavior Therapy

Personality and Individual Differences

Behavior Therapy

Clinical Psychology Review

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Should parents be co-clients in CBT for anxious youth?

Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology

Family treatment of childhood anxiety: A controlled trial

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Further evidence of association between behavioral inhibition and social anxiety in children

American Journal of Psychiatry

Behavioral inhibition as a risk factor for anxiety disorders. In Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents

Discriminating patterns of emotions in 10- and 11-year-old children's anxiety and depression

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Affect regulation and psychopathology: Bridging the mind-body gap

Canadian Journal of Psychiatry

Affect regulation and the development of psychopathology

Stress and Development: Behavioral and biological consequences

Development and Psychopathology

Thepsychophysiology of emotion

Origins and outcomes of individual differences in emotion regulation

Acceptability and suppression of negative emotion in anxiety and mood disorders

Emotion

Do anxiety and depression cluster into distinct groups?: A test of Tripartite model predictions in a community sample of youth

Depression and Anxiety

Temperamental origins of child and adolescent behavior problems: From age three to fifteen

Child Development

Tripartite model of anxiety and depression –Psychometric evidence and taxonomic implications

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation: A clinical perspective

Parental contributions to preschoolers’ emotional competence: Direct and indirect effects

Motivation and Emotion

Socialization of preschoolers’ emotion understanding

Developmental Psychology

Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R): administration, scoring, and procedures manual

How does family emotional expressiveness affect children's schemas?

New Directions for Child Development

Development of a unified protocol for the treatment of emotional disorders in youth

Child Family and Behavior Therapy

Contributions of behavioral genetics research: Quantifying genetic, shared environmental and nonshared environmental influences

Behavioral inhibition in young children

Child Development

Relationship between self-reported childhood behavioral inhibition and lifetime anxiety disorders in a clinical sample

Depression and Anxiety