Title:
Emotion regulation difficulties associated with chronic worry and generalized anxiety disorder: further exploration
Author:
Katherine Abigail Robinson
Committee Member:
Martin F. Sherman
Committee Member:
Kristalyn Salters-Pedneault
Committee Member:
Amanda Thomas
Degree Granting Institution:
Loyola University Maryland--College of Arts and Sciences
Place:
Baltimore (Md.)
Publisher:
Loyola University Maryland
Date Created:
2009
Type of Resource:
text
Genre:
thesis
Language:
eng
Format:
application/pdf
Physical Form:
electronic
Digital Source:
born digital
Abstract:
This study contributes to a growing body of empirical evidence for the presence of emotion regulation deficits in individuals with GAD. Previous studies (Mennin, Heimberg, Turk, and Fresco, 2005; Salters-Pedneault, Roemer, Tull, Rucker, and Mennin, 2006) have found emotion regulation deficits are associated with GAD, and with GAD's cardinal feature, worry, and that this association remains significant while controlling for negative affectivity. However, one limitation of existent studies is their reliance on participants' self-reports of emotion dysregulation. GAD and worry are associated with negative problem orientation, or a lack of confidence in one's ability to solve problems (e.g., Davey, 1994). Therefore, it may be that participants with chronic worry/GAD report difficulties in emotion regulation not because they actually experience these difficulties, but because they perceive emotional states as a problem and doubt their ability to effectively cope with them. In order to add to the validity of self-reports of emotion dysregulation associated with worry/GAD, the present study obtained acquaintance ratings of emotion dysregulation and controlled for negative problem orientation using scores on the newly-established Negative Problem Orientation Questionnaire. Consistent with previous findings, self-reported emotion dysregulation was associated with worry and GAD status at the zero-order level. Acquaintance ratings of emotion dysregulation were moderately correlated with self ratings of emotion dysregulation and were also associated with self-reported worry and GAD status at the zero-order level. This finding suggests that emotion dysregulation associated with worry and GAD exists in a manner that is observable to others and is not merely a product of self-report bias. However, multiple hierarchical regressions revealed that when controlling for negative affectivity and negative problem orientation, neither self nor acquaintance-reported emotion dysregulation accounted for significant variance in worry scores or predicted GAD status. This finding was unexpected and calls for closer examination of the relations and potential areas of conceptual overlap among predictor, control, and outcome variables.
Subject:
Electronic dissertations
Degree:
Doctor of Psychology
Level:
Doctoral
Discipline:
Psychology
Restrictions on Access:
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Identifier:
RobinsonKA-09
