Positive affect regulation in anxiety disorders
Section snippets
Method
Participants were 248 undergraduate students (54% female) at the University of Miami. Measures were administered in large group sessions in partial fulfillment of a course requirement. Age and ethnicity information was not collected in connection with responses, but the sample presumably did not differ materially from the University of Miami's student body, which is ethnically diverse (23% Hispanic, 6% African American, 8% Asian, 55% non-Hispanic White, and 7% other).
Results
Bivariate correlations among symptom indices are shown in Table 1. As one would expect, symptom indices were positively correlated. The correlations between symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder with other anxiety disorders and depression were particularly robust. The social phobia scale also had robust correlations with the OCD and agoraphobia scales. As expected, the panic disorder and agoraphobia scales were substantially correlated with one another.
Correlations among the subscales of the
Discussion
This study examined self-reported regulatory responses to PA among people with symptoms of anxiety disorders. Consistent with previous findings, lifetime depressive symptoms were independently related to measures of downward regulation of PA. Even after controlling for these lifetime depressive symptoms, tendencies to endorse dampening of PA were also positively related to symptoms of panic disorder, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and OCD. Similarly, after controlling for lifetime
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