Exploring perceived control, a low-control task, and a brief acceptance intervention in a low and high transdiagnostic anxiety sample

Background

Limited perceived control has been theorized and measured to be a cognitive aspect of anxiety disorder development and maintenance. The goal of the present study was to investigate perceived internal and external control as transdiagnostic features of anxiety in a diverse urban sample.

Methods

We explored the relations between anxiety, perceived control, and acceptance skills experimentally using a low control computer task and a brief acceptance intervention between task trials.

Results

Data revealed significant negative correlations between perceived internal and external control and levels of transdiagnostic anxiety. The high anxiety group reported lower acceptance skills at baseline and greater levels of anxiety across trials of the low control task. There was evidence of an anxiety reduction effect via the acceptance intervention across all participants compared to the control group, but we did not see the hypothesized interaction between group and anxiety level (possibly due in part to sampling randomization failure, as acceptance group had significantly higher anxiety at baseline).

Discussion

Our findings validate previous research linking low trait perceived control and high trait anxiety in a diverse sample and provide evidence that acceptance-based interventions may provide more adaptive strategies for navigating low control situations.