Anxiety Stress and Coping最新文献

Background: Cognitive flexibility is a key factor underlying emotion regulation (ER) and mental health. However, the impact of cognitive flexibility on flexible deployment of ER strategies in changing contexts remains unknown. This study investigated the effects of cognitive flexibility on two noteworthy ER constructs (strategy use and flexibility) and examined downstream impacts on negative affect.

Methods: Healthy adult participants (N = 202) completed a 10-day experience sampling protocol. Cognitive flexibility, daily ER (including flexibility and ten specific strategies) and negative affect in daily life were measured. We conducted multilevel regression and mediation models to examine associations among cognitive flexibility, daily ER, and negative affect in daily life.

Results: Higher cognitive flexibility predicted higher ER flexibility - indicated by strategy - situation fit, use of meta-ER skills and between-strategy variability - as well as higher use of reappraisal and problem solving, but lower use of worry. Mediation analyses suggested that enhanced ER flexibility and reduced use of worry linked cognitive flexibility to reduced negative affect.

Conclusions: Overall, findings have important implications for understanding the effects of cognitive flexibility on rigid versus flexible ER in ever-changing situations.

Background and objectives: This multimodal two-phase study investigated the impact of trait social anxiety on exploration, social attention, and autonomic responses in a naturalistic setting. We expected higher avoidance of potentially crowded spaces, reduced visual attention on other people, and heightened physiological arousal in social situations for participants with higher social anxiety levels.

Design and methods: Eighty-seven participants, pre-screened for high variance in trait social anxiety, first completed a half-hour walk on a freely chosen route and subsequently had a staged social interaction with a confederate consisting of a non-interactive waiting phase and a short conversation.

Results: While social anxiety did not modulate the choice of route during the walk phase, socially anxious participants avoided gazing at other individuals in non-interactive situations, i.e., during the walk and the waiting phase. In contrast, during actual interaction, they showed increased visual attention towards the confederate's face. Across all experimental phases, highly socially anxious individuals showed elevated heart rates, but this effect was independent of the social context.

Conclusions: This study showed that social anxiety affects social exploration behavior not in a way of general avoidance, but rather in nuanced adaptations depending on the concrete situation, likelihood of interaction and associated socio-evaluative threat.

Background and objectives: During large-scale stressful events such as pandemics, situational uncertainty and daily routine disruptions increase anxiety prevalence, underscoring the need for research on approaches to promote effective coping. This study focused on the psychological function of benefit finding in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design and methods: Both Study 1a (a cross-sectional survey of 567 Chinese adults) and Study 1b (a two-wave longitudinal survey of 406 Chinese adults) examined the relationship between benefit finding and anxiety, with hope as the mediator. Study 2 used an interventional design to examine the efficacy of daily benefit-finding writing among 129 Chinese college students.

Results: In Studies 1a and 1b, benefit finding was positively associated with anxiety, which was mediated by hope. Study 2 showed that daily writing tasks significantly promoted benefit finding. Hope mediated the relationship between benefit finding and anxiety at both the within- and between-person levels.

Conclusions: Benefit finding can foster hope and relieve anxiety. Daily benefit-finding activities, which can be conducted online, can help improve mental health during pandemics.

Background and objectives: Suicidal ideation (SI) during the postpartum phase is linked with suicide, a leading cause of death during this period. Antenatal depression and anxiety symptoms have both been linked with increased risk for postpartum SI. However, research aimed at examining the relative contributions of antenatal anxiety and depression symptoms towards postpartum SI remains nascent. In this study, we investigated the relative contribution of antenatal anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and SI towards postpartum SI.

Design: These data are from a longitudinal study in which American mothers were assessed during pregnancy and again at six- to eight weeks postpartum.

Methods: Data were analyzed using correlations and logistic regression models.

Results: Antenatal anxiety symptoms and antenatal depression symptoms were significantly correlated with postpartum SI. Results from a logistic regression model indicated that antenatal anxiety symptoms (T1; OR = 1.185 [1.125, 1.245], p = .004), but not antenatal depression symptoms (T1; OR = 1.018 [0.943, 1.093], p = .812) or antenatal SI (T1; OR = 1.58 [0.11, 22.29], p = 0.73), were significantly associated with postpartum SI.

Conclusions: Antenatal anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and SI were positively associated with postpartum SI. When examined simultaneously, anxiety symptoms during the antenatal phase (but not depression symptoms or SI) predicted SI in the postpartum phase.

Background: Perpetrating or witnessing acts that violate one's moral code are frequent among military personnel and active combatants. These events, termed potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs), were found to be associated with an increased risk of depression, in cross-sectional studies. However, the longitudinal contribution of PMIEs to depression among combatants remains unclear.

Method: Participants were 374 active-duty combatants who participated in a longitudinal study with four measurement points: T1-one year before enlistment, T2-at discharge from army service, and then again 6- and 12-months following discharge (T3 and T4, respectively). At T1, personal characteristics assessed through semi-structured interviews. At T2-T4, PMIEs and depressive symptoms were assessed.

Results: At discharge (T2), a total of 48.7% of combatants reported experiencing PMIEs incident, compared with 42.4% at T3 and 30.7% at T4. We found a significant interaction effect in which combatants endorsing PMIEs at discharge reported higher severity of depression symptoms at discharge (T2) than combatants who reported no PMIEs. This effect decreased over time as depression levels were lower at T3 and T4.

Conclusions: PMIE experiences, and especially PMIE-Betrayal experiences, were found to be valid predictors of higher severity of depression symptoms after the first year following discharge.

Background and objectives: Examination anxiety is a common occurrence, and is potentially detrimental to student attainment. In recent theorizing, it has been suggested that cognitive appraisals, as put forth in cognitive appraisal theory, and irrational beliefs, as put forth in rational emotive behavior therapy, may interact to predict affectivity. The current research examines the antecedents and associates of examination affect and academic self-concept in undergraduate students.

Design: A preliminary study applied confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the factor structure of an irrational beliefs inventory. Study 1 utilized a cross-sectional and correlational approach to testing core theoretical assumptions. Study 2 took a two-wave longitudinal and path analytical approach to examine temporal effects between target variables.

Method: All self-report data collection took place in the United Kingdom with university students. We recruited n = 1150, n = 362, n = 662 for preliminary, study 1, and study 2, respectively.

Results: Across studies, data indicated that a pattern of adaptive cognitive appraisal was associated with more advantageous affectivity, and better academic self-concept.

Conclusions: Reciprocal temporal relationships were revealed between many variables, supporting an interactive and bidirectional view of how cognition and affect are related pertaining to examination anxiety.

Background: Problematic internet use (PIU), which includes social media misuse (SMM) and gaming misuse (GM), is uncontrollable and associated with significant psychological impairment. PIU is a coping behavior for COVID-19-related stress. We explored distress-related predictors of PIU in a young adult racially diverse sample during the pandemic.

Methods: Analyses used cross-sectional survey data (N = 1956). Psychological diagnoses, financial distress, COVID-19-related emotions, psychological distress, distress tolerance, social support, loneliness, SMM and GM were measured. Hierarchical multiple regressions identified predictors of PIU. Race-stratified exploratory analyses sought to understand if predictors held true across racial groups.

Results: Low distress tolerance was associated with SMM and GM, as were depression symptoms, with racial differences observed. SMM was associated with younger age, and GM was associated with male gender. PTSD symptoms predicted more GM. SMM and GM rates varied between racial groups. COVID-19-related adjustment challenges and stress predicted SMM and GM respectively, with racial differences observed.

Conclusion: Individual psychological distress and low distress tolerance markedly increased PIU risk. Clinicians should screen for stress-related PIU risk factors and bolster distress tolerance in vulnerable patients. Comparing PIU to different forms of coping in a larger sample would further clarify groups differences in stress coping behaviors.

Background: Moral injury is a potentially debilitating outcome of exposure to events involving transgressions against an individual's moral code. It is often observed in the context of PTSD; however, treatments that do not differentiate the two are often ineffective for moral injury, suggesting different mechanisms contribute to the conditions. The most widely accepted model of moral injury proposes an important role for self-discrepancy processes in generating and maintaining event-related distress, but this has yet to be examined.

Methods: This study recruited 172 adults online who had been exposed to a potentially morally injurious event in the previous 5 years. Participants completed measures of event-related distress, PTSD, depression, and anxiety, as well as a self-discrepancy task involving subjective representations of their ideal, ought, and feared selves.

Results: Multiple regression analyses found a small but significant relationship between self-discrepancy and event-related distress, with higher levels of ought self-discrepancy independently predicting higher event-related distress scores.

Conclusions: This study provides the first empirical evidence of the relationship between self-discrepancy and moral injury. We identified the ought self as a domain of self-discrepancy salient to moral injury, further differentiating moral injury from PTSD.

Background: Worry is frequently associated with reduced cognitive performance, through consumption of attention control resources. Assessing attention control during acute worry may better reflect cognitive performance in real-world scenarios. This study examined whether attention control (assessed at rest and under acute worry) moderates the relationship between worry and academic performance.

Methods: Worry (Penn State Worry Questionnaire) and academic performance (examination grades) were assessed in 87 undergraduates, with attention control (antisaccade performance) measured at baseline and following worry induction.

Results: When assessed at rest, attention control did not moderate the relationship between trait worry and academic performance. However, under acute worry, attention control significantly moderated the relationship between worry and academic performance (p = .05, f²= 0.14), such that at low levels of attention control under worry, higher trait worry was significantly associated with lower academic performance. At high levels of attention control under worry, however, the relationship between trait worry and academic performance was not significant.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that worry may shape performance according to attention control levels, with attention control's moderating role being more pronounced under conditions of acute worry. These results provide preliminary evidence that attention control assessed under worry may better predict real-world performance, compared to assessment at rest.

Context sensitivity refers to the ability to identify cues regarding the nature of stressor situations. This skill is a necessary precursor to successful emotion regulation and may involve detecting the presence or absence of stressor cues. Previous research has suggested that context sensitivity relies in part on working memory (WM), one component of cognitive control or executive functioning. We explored this potential relationship in an empirical study (N = 112) that assessed WM via WAIS-IV Digit Span as well as the ability to detect the presence or absence of stressor cues via the Context Sensitivity Index. Results demonstrated that detection of both cue presence and absence were significantly associated with the ability to apply semantic knowledge to information held in WM. Our findings expand upon a potential cognitive mechanism for context sensitivity.