Anxiety Sensitivity and Panic-Related Symptomatology in a Representative Community-Based Sample: A 1-Year Longitudinal Analysis

Anxiety sensitivity is the fear of anxiety sensations based on beliefs that they have harmful physical, psychological, or social consequences. Anxiety sensitivity may represent a psychological vulnerability for panic attacks, but much of the research to date has been limited to selective college student or treatment-seeking samples. There is a paucity of research based on representative community-based samples. There is also a lack of longitudinal research in this regard. The current study addressed both of these issues by investigating the impact of anxiety sensitivity in a large community sample (N = 585) assessed longitudinally over a 1-year period. A hierarchical regression model was used to determine whether baseline scores on the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) could prospectively predict scores on the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), a continuous scale that is largely a measure of panic-related symptomatology. Baseline BAI scores, neuroticism and stressful life events’ main effects, their interaction, and the ASI were all significant predictors of Time 2 BAI scores. The results thereby show that anxiety sensitivity predicts subsequent panic-related symptomatology even after adjusting for the effects of neuroticism, stressful life events, and their interaction.

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Self-Criticism, Maladaptive Perfectionism, and Depression Symptoms in a Community Sample: A Longitudinal Test of the Mediating Effects of Person-Dependent Stressful Life Events

Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy ◽

10.1891/0889-8391.23.4.336 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 336-349 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Brian J. Cox ◽

Ian P. Clara ◽

Murray W. Enns

Keyword(s):

Life Events ◽

Stressful Life Events ◽

Longitudinal Research ◽

Community Sample ◽

Stressful Life ◽

Depression Symptoms ◽

Mediation Model ◽

Socially Prescribed Perfectionism ◽

Maladaptive Perfectionism ◽

The Relationship

Both self-criticism and maladaptive dimensions of perfectionism have been associated with depression symptoms, based on cross-sectional and some longitudinal research with selective clinical and student samples. The present study evaluated a mediation model involving self-criticism, maladaptive dimensions of perfectionism, and depression-related symptoms at baseline (Time 1), and person-dependent stressful life events and depression-related symptoms 12 months later (Time 2), in a more representative noninstitutionalized sample. Participants included 723 community-based adults in an urban area. A proposed mediation model based on recent theoretical writings was evaluated, whereby the effects of self-criticism and maladaptive perfectionism on subsequent depression symptoms were hypothesized to be mediated by person-dependent stressful life events. In female respondents, the relationship between self-criticism and Time 2 depression was not mediated by person-dependent stressful life events and the relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism and Time 2 depression was fully mediated by person-dependent life events. In male respondents, self-criticism showed evidence of partial mediation while doubts about actions and socially prescribed perfectionism did not have significant main effects on Time 2 depression. Clinical and research implications of this important cognitive diathesis domain in association with person-dependent stressful life events and subsequent depression are discussed.

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Adverse life events and coping skills in panic disorder

Revista do Hospital das Clínicas ◽

10.1590/s0041-87812004000600005 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 59 (6) ◽

pp. 337-340 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Mariângela Gentil Savoia ◽

Márcio Bernik

Keyword(s):

Panic Disorder ◽

Life Events ◽

Stressful Life Events ◽

Rating Scale ◽

Coping Skills ◽

Stressful Events ◽

Panic Attacks ◽

Stressful Life ◽

Life Event ◽

The Impact

Research literature and clinical experience shows that panic patients are often able to identify stressors that preceded the onset of their first attacks. In this study we investigated the relation between life events, coping skills, and panic disorder. METHODS: Forty-tree panic patients were compared with 29 control subjects regarding the occurrence and the impact of stressful life events in a 1-year period preceding the onset of panic attacks using the Social Readjustment Rating Scale and London Life Event and Difficulty Schedule. Coping skills were measured using the Ways of Coping Questionnaire. RESULTS: No differences were observed between panic patients and controls regarding the number of reported stressful life events in the previous year. Panic patients compared to controls reported loss of social support as the most meaningful class of events significantly more often. In response to stressful situations, panic patients more often used coping skills judged as ineffective. CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests that the type of life event and the coping skills used in response to them, more than the occurrence of stressful events itself, may be associated with the onset of panic disorder.

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The Impact of Stressful Life Events and Social Support on Drinking among Older Adults: A General Population Survey

The International Journal of Aging and Human Development ◽

10.2190/f6g4-xlv3-5kw6-vmba ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 99-123 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Karen M. Jennison

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Older Adults ◽

Life Events ◽

Stressful Life Events ◽

Prolonged Exposure ◽

Drinking Behavior ◽

National Sample ◽

Stressful Life ◽

Stress Buffering ◽

The Impact

This article is an analysis of stressful life events, the buffering hypothesis, and alcohol use in a national sample of 1,418 respondents 60 years of age and over. The results indicate that older adults who experience stressful losses are significantly more likely to drink excessively than those who have not experienced such losses or who have experienced them to a lesser extent. Increased drinking among older adults may therefore be a reaction to life circumstances in which alcohol represents an attempt to cope with traumatic loss, personal as well as within the kinship network. Supportive resources of spouse, family, friends, and church appear to have a stress-buffering effects that reduces the excessive-drinking response to life crisis. Data suggest, however, that older persons are vulnerable to the magnitude of losses experienced as they grow older and lose more of their family, friends, and peers. These stressors appear to seriously impact their drinking behavior and are not effectively buffered. Respondents report that drinking may increase during periods of prolonged exposure to emotionally depleting life change and loss, when supportive needs may exceed the capacities of personal and social support resources.

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Longitudinal investigation of the role of temperament and stressful life events in childhood anxiety

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579413000989 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 437-449 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Suzanne Broeren ◽

Carol Newall ◽

Helen F. Dodd ◽

Ruth Locker ◽

Jennifer L. Hudson

Keyword(s):

Anxiety Disorder ◽

Life Events ◽

Stressful Life Events ◽

Negative Life Events ◽

Childhood Anxiety ◽

Diagnostic Interview ◽

Anxiety Symptoms ◽

Positive Behavior ◽

Stressful Life ◽

The Impact

AbstractThe current study investigated the longitudinal relationships among behavioral inhibition (BI), life events, and anxiety in a sample of 102 BI children and 100 behaviorally uninhibited (BUI) children aged 3 to 4 years. Children's parents completed questionnaires on BI, stressful life events, and anxiety symptoms, and were administered a diagnostic interview three times in a 5-year period. In line with our hypotheses, negative life events, particularly negative behavior-dependent life events (i.e., life events that are related to the children's own behaviors), and the impact of negative life events were predictive of increases in subsequent anxiety symptoms, the likelihood of having an anxiety disorder, and increased number of anxiety diagnoses over the 5-year follow-up period. Experiencing more positive, behavior-independent life events decreased the risk of being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Furthermore, differences were found in life events between BI and BUI children. That is, BI children experienced fewer positive and specifically positive behavior-dependent life events, and the impact of these positive life events was also lower in BI children than in BUI children. However, BI did not interact with life events in the prediction of anxiety problems as hypothesized. Therefore, this study seems to indicate that BI and life events act as additive risk factors in the development of anxiety problems.

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The Impact of Stressful Life Events on Excessive Alcohol Consumption in the French Population: Findings from the GAZEL Cohort Study

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0087653 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. e87653 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Sara L. Tamers ◽

Cassandra Okechukwu ◽

Alex A. Bohl ◽

Alice Guéguen ◽

Marcel Goldberg ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cohort Study ◽

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Life Events ◽

Stressful Life Events ◽

Stressful Life ◽

French Population ◽

Excessive Alcohol Consumption ◽

Excessive Alcohol ◽

The Impact

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Ex post-facto study of long-term stress in a sample of adoptees

Anales de Psicología ◽

10.6018/analesps.32.1.184541 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

pp. 9

Author(s):

Amelia Díaz ◽

Eugenia Infanzón ◽

Ángela Beleña

Keyword(s):

Life Events ◽

Spanish Civil War ◽

Stressful Life Events ◽

Stressful Life ◽

Adoption Process ◽

Posttraumatic Symptoms ◽

Ex Post ◽

Ex Post Facto ◽

Ex Post Facto Study ◽

The Impact

In this work we study the impact of relinquishment and the adoption process in posttraumatic symptoms and stressful life events in a group of 55 adults that were adopted as children after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The effects of institutionalization, maltreatment and traumatic revelation of the adopted status have also been studied. No significant differences were found between institutionalized and non-institutionalized adoptees in posttraumatic symptomatology and stressful life events frequency. However, maltreated adoptees scored significantly higher in intrusion, arousal and stressful life events frequency than non-maltreated. Similar differences were found in the comparison between adoptees with and without traumatic revelation; those adoptees who suffered traumatic revelation presented significantly higher intrusion, arousal and stressful life events frequency than those who did not suffer traumatic revelation. Traumatic revelation, alone or in association with maltreatment, seems to play an important role in posttraumatic symptoms in the sample studied.

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ANXIETY SENSITIVITY IN ADOLESCENCE AND YOUNG ADULTHOOD: THE ROLE OF STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS, 5HTTLPR AND THEIR INTERACTION

Depression and Anxiety ◽

10.1002/da.21921 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 29 (5) ◽

pp. 400-408 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Helena M.S. Zavos ◽

Chloe C.Y. Wong ◽

Nicola L. Barclay ◽

Robert Keers ◽

Jonathan Mill ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Events ◽

Young Adulthood ◽

Anxiety Sensitivity ◽

Stressful Life Events ◽

Stressful Life ◽

Adolescence And Young Adulthood

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Do “Dark” Personality Features Buffer Against Adversity? The Associations Between Cumulative Life Stress, the Dark Triad, and Mental Distress

SAGE Open ◽

10.1177/2158244018822383 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 215824401882238 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Minna Lyons ◽

Kate Evans ◽

Samuli Helle

Keyword(s):

Life Events ◽

Life Stress ◽

Mental Distress ◽

Stressful Life Events ◽

Dark Triad ◽

Stressful Events ◽

Stressful Life ◽

Online Study ◽

The Face ◽

The Impact

Stressful life events have a major impact on adverse mental health outcomes, although not all individuals are equally affected. According to the buffering hypothesis, there may be personality traits that protect individuals against mental distress in the face of adversity, playing thus a moderating role between life stressors and mental distress. In the present online study ( N = 574), Dark Triad of personality (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) were investigated as moderators between cumulative stressful life events and mental distress (i.e., psychosis, anxiety, and depression). Those who experienced more stressful events during lifetime, and scored higher in Machiavellianism, had higher scores on a psychosis instrument. Narcissism buffered the impact of stressful events on psychosis and depression. The results are discussed in terms of unique profiles associated with each of the traits.

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The revolving door to homelessness. The influence of health, alcohol consumption and stressful life events on the number of episodes of homelessness.

Anales de Psicología ◽

10.6018/analesps.35.2.297741 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 175-180 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Pablo Roca ◽

Sonia Panadero ◽

Sara Rodríguez-Moreno ◽

Rosa María Martín ◽

José Juan Vázquez

Keyword(s):

Chronic Illness ◽

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Life Events ◽

Stressful Life Events ◽

Homeless People ◽

Revolving Door ◽

Stressful Life ◽

Excessive Alcohol Consumption ◽

Excessive Alcohol ◽

The Impact

Objectives.- To analyse the impact of different variables on repeated episodes of homelessness. Method.- The study was conducted based on data obtained from a representative sample of homeless people in Madrid (Spain) (n = 188). Results.- Suffering from a serious or chronic illness has an effect on the revolving door to homelessness, which is mediated by a highly negative subjective perception of the individual's own health, which is in turn mediated by suffering from a disability. Excessive alcohol consumption has an effect on the revolving door to homelessness, mediated by access to treatment for problems caused by alcohol consumption. Suffering from a serious or chronic illness correlates with having problems caused by excessive alcohol consumption. Experiencing multiple stressful life events has a direct effect on the revolving door to homelessness. Conclusions.- To prevent the revolving door to homelessness, it is necessary to remove the barriers that hinder access to normal health resources which are experienced by people suffering from social exclusion, while implementing ongoing support programmes for homeless people or those at risk of homelessness, which primarily deal with health issues.

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