Anxiety Stress and Coping最新文献

Background and objectives: Laboratory-based stress inductions are commonly used to elicit acute stress but vary widely in their procedures and effectiveness. We compared the effects of stress induction techniques on measures of two major biological stress systems: the early sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) and the delayed hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response.

Design: A review and meta-analysis to examine the relationship between stress induction techniques on cardiorespiratory and salivary measures of SAM and HPA system activity.

Methods: A systematic literature search identified 245 reports and 700 effects.

Results: The overall effect of stress induction techniques on the stress response was moderate (Fisher's z_r = 0.44), inducing stronger SAM-related (z_r = 0.48) versus HPA-related (z_r = 0.37) responses. Three factors moderated these associations: the stress system examined (SAM vs HPA), the specific stress induction technique employed (e.g., Cold Pressor), the physiological sampling time relative to the stress induction, and participant sex. Loud music elicited the most robust SAM-related effects, whereas combined stress inductions elicited the most robust HPA-related effects. Men showed stronger stress responses than women.

Conclusions: Stress induction techniques variably elicit SAM - and HPA-related responses. Results recommend specific induction techniques for targeting stress systems, highlighting the importance of carefully selecting methodologies in laboratory contexts.

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.

Social anxiety is a common experience that ranges from mild, temporary distress to excessive, persistent, and impairing fear. The current study tested whether perfectionism contributes to social anxiety symptoms and post-event processing (PEP) in the context of a contract-based manipulation to shift perfectionism. The manipulation asked participants to perform everything to a specific standard level for the following 24 hrs to shift perfectionism. Participants completed measures of social anxiety and perfectionism before delivering a speech. Next, participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: High Personal Standards, High Personal Standards with Evaluative Concerns (High PS+EC), and Low Personal Standards. The following day, participants completed the same measures, including a measure on PEP related to the speech. Consistent with hypotheses, results suggest that the contract manipulation significantly altered perfectionism, such that participants in the High PS+EC condition had an increase in perfectionism over time. Contrary to expectations, the contract manipulation did not affect social anxiety symptoms or PEP. Results suggest that focusing on evaluation concerns, rather than personal standards alone, may contribute to perfectionism. It is possible that a stronger or larger dose of the manipulation is needed to see effects on social anxiety symptoms.

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: Anxiety disorders are prevalent among youth and adults. Increasing studies examined the dynamic associations between momentary fluctuations of anxiety and well-being, primarily focusing on the severity of general anxiety. Scant research has explored the co-fluctuations between different anxiety symptoms and mental health outcomes.

Method: The current study evaluated the multi-level factor structure and assessed the subclinical symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social phobia (SP), and panic disorder (PD) in a sample of non-clinical young adults (N = 271, Mage = 18 years, 72% female, 68% non-White) who participated in a 30-day daily diary study.

Results: Between persons, GAD, SP, and PD were positively correlated with depressive symptoms, stress, as well as emotional and peer problems. Within persons, both SP and PD were positively associated with stress, peer and emotional problems on the same day. Across days, there was positive reciprocal relation between PD and stress, whereas negative reciprocal link was observed between SP and emotional problems.

Conclusions: Current findings showed dynamic and distinct patterns in the associations between different anxiety symptoms and several mental health outcomes, which emphasizes the need to disentangle between- and within-person variation of anxiety symptoms with intensive longitudinal designs.

Background: Individuals at a higher weight experience greater victimization and exclusion by peers, and limited research suggests that the salience of one's body image may increase negative emotional reactions to social rejection. Additionally, social exclusion is related to higher levels of social anxiety (SA). We examined how body salience interacts with SA and weight to predict anxiety, self-esteem, and negative affect following social rejection.

Methods: Participants were undergraduate women (N = 186). We explored the interactive effects of SA, body mass index (BMI), and body salience (i.e., face versus body photo condition) on emotional response to exclusion in a social ostracism paradigm, Cyberball. BMI and self-reported SA were collected at baseline. One week later, participants played Cyberball and reported state affect, anxiety, and self-esteem before and after the game.

Results: The 3-way interaction of BMI, SA, and photo condition did not significantly predict post-exclusion state measures. Photo condition moderated the relationship between SA and post-exclusion anxiety and between BMI and post-exclusion anxiety.

Conclusions: Those with higher SA were particularly anxious following exclusion if their bodies were visible to others. Additionally, those with lower BMI experienced greater anxiety after exclusion when their body was visible than those with higher BMI.

Background: College students face significant mental health challenges that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence suggests mental-health burdens are substantial and resources limited. We sought to replicate research supporting a one-time daily ambulatory intervention to facilitate regulation of negative emotion and increase generation of positive emotion. The Daily Coping Toolkit (DCT) was developed at the outset of the pandemic and was effective in boosting mood in front-line medical personnel in an open-trial (Coifman, K. G., et al. [2021]. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 78(8), 555-557. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2021-107427.

Design: This investigation replicated the DCT against a control condition in college students returning to campus in early 2021. N = 125 college students were randomized to experimental conditions (two-prompt v. one-prompt) or the control condition. Data analysis was preregistered.

Results: Analyses indicated students in experimental groups experienced significant decreases in negative and increases in positive emotion when compared to controls, providing evidence of efficacy. This was notable because a high proportion of participants reported prior mental illness. Although there was no difference by number of prompts (two-prompt v. one-prompt) on emotional reports, there was preliminary evidence the one-prompt condition was associated with greater self-care behaviors (e.g., exercise, social support seeking).

Conclusion: The results suggest the DCT is an efficacious emotion-regulation intervention that can boost mood during stress.

Background and objectives: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an important mental disorder that can develop after mass traumas such as earthquakes. In our study, we aimed to investigate the development of PTSD after the Turkey earthquake (6 February 2023) and its association with some demographic variables, personality traits, and psychological vulnerability.

Method: 547 participants completed assessments of personality, disaster exposure, and PTSD symptoms. Multiple regression analyses were used to identify predictors of PTSD symptoms.

Results: PTSD scores were higher in women, single people, those with low educational level, those who witnessed someone else's injury or death, those who were injured, and those whose homes were destroyed. Physical injury, conscientiousness, marital status, income, and agreeableness predicted PTSD. Among these variables, physical injury was the strongest predictor of PTSD.

Conclusions: Psychological vulnerability, conscientiousness, physical injury, employment, witnessing someone else's injury, gender, and emotional stability predicted PTSD score in a significant way. Physical injury, conscientiousness, marital status, income, agreeableness predicted PTSD in a significant way.

Background: Experiential avoidance (EA) may serve as a risk factor for a wide range of anxiety-related psychopathology. Anxiety is thought to trigger the use of EA, while also serving as a consequence of EA efforts. Previous ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies found that EA was associated with greater anxiety in nonclinical undergraduates and patients with social anxiety disorder.

Methods: The present study examined the in-the-moment, bidirectional relationship between EA, perceived stress, and two facets of anxiety (autonomic arousal and worry/misery) in a sample of treatment-seeking patients broadly diagnosed with an anxiety-related disorder (N = 46). Participants completed a baseline assessment followed by an EMA assessment period (assessments three times daily for seven days). We hypothesized that there would be a bidirectional relationship between EA and anxiety/stress.

Results: Results largely supported a unidirectional relationship such that greater EA at one time point predicted higher stress at a later time point controlling for previous stress levels and linear time. Trend-level associations between EA and anxiety symptoms are discussed.

Conclusions: The current study provides important insight into the relationship between EA and anxiety symptoms in a clinical sample of participants with anxiety-related disorders.