Taxometric and factor analytic models of anxiety sensitivity among youth: exploring the latent structure of anxiety psychopathology vulnerability.

This study represents an effort to better understand the latent structure of anxiety sensitivity (AS), a well-established affect-sensitivity individual difference factor, among youth by employing taxometric and factor analytic approaches in an integrative manner. Taxometric analyses indicated that AS, as indexed by the Child Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI; Silverman, Flesig, Rabian, & Peterson, 1991), demonstrates taxonic latent class structure in a large sample of youth from North America (N=4,462; M(age)=15.6 years; SD=1.3). Subsequent confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the latent continuous, multidimensional, 4-factor model of AS among youth (Silverman, Goedhart, Barrett, & Turner, 2003) provided good fit for the CASI data among the complement class ("normative form" of AS), but not among the taxon class ("high-risk form" of AS). EFAs supported the prediction that the AS taxon demonstrates a unique, heretofore unexplored latent continuous, unidimensional factor structure among youth. Findings are discussed in relation to refining our understanding of the latent structure of AS and the clinical implications that arise from it.

Efficacy of cognitive-behavioral interventions targeting personality risk factors for youth alcohol misuse.

Sensation seeking, anxiety sensitivity, and hopelessness are personality risk factors for alcohol use disorders, each associated with specific risky drinking motives in adolescents. We developed a set of interventions and manuals that were designed to intervene at the level of personality risk and associated maladaptive coping strategies, including alcohol misuse. Manuals contained psychoeducational information on the target personality risk factor and how it is associated with maladaptive coping, as well as exercises targeting maladaptive cognitions and behaviors specific to each personality type. We tested the efficacy of these novel interventions on reducing drinking behavior by randomly assigning 297 Canadian high school students (56% girls, mean age 16, mean grade 11) to personality-targeted interventions (group format; 2 sessions) or to a no-treatment control group. Intent-to-treat analyses indicated beneficial effects of the intervention and Intervention x Personality interactions on drinking rates, drinking quantity, binge drinking, and problem drinking symptoms at 4-month follow-up.

Gender differences in Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI) dimensions.

We examined the hierarchical structure of the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI) as a function of gender and examined the occurrence of gender differences in anxiety sensitivity (AS) dimensions in a large nonclinical sample of children and adolescents (N = 1698). Separate principal components analyses (PCAs) on the 18 CASI items for the total sample, boys, and girls revealed similar lower-order three-factor structures for all groups. The three factors reflected Physical, Social/Control, and Psychological Concerns. PCAs on the lower-order factor scores revealed similar unidimensional higher-order solutions for all groups. Girls scored higher than boys on the Physical and, to a lesser extent, Social/Control Concerns factors; girls scored higher on the Physical Concerns factor relative to their scores on the Social/Control and Psychological Concerns factors; and boys scored higher on the Social/Control and Psychological Concerns factors relative to their scores on the Physical Concerns factor. Girls also scored higher than boys on the higher-order factor representing the Global AS construct. The present study provides additional support for the theoretical hierarchical structure of AS and suggests that there is a difference in the manifestation of AS between girls and boys.