Cross-cultural examination of the tripartite model with children: data from the Barretstown studies.

The Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children (PANAS-C) and the Physiological Hyperarousal Scale for Children (PH-C) were administered to a group of 240 children from European countries to determine their utility in examining the tripartite model of anxiety and depression in a cross-cultural sample. Most of the children (n = 196) had been diagnosed with a medical illness; the remainder were siblings of these youngsters (n = 44). Only slight variations were noted in items between this sample and samples from the United States. Despite these minor differences, 3 distinct scales measuring the positive affect, negative affect, and physiological hyperarousal constructs of the tripartite model were identified. These findings illustrate that the PH-PANAS-C provides a useful measure of the tripartite model in a cross-cultural sample of youth. The findings also demonstrate that the tripartite model is generalizable to a cross-cultural milieu.

Coping-related expectancies and dispositions as prospective predictors of coping responses and symptoms.

We used Rotter's (1954, 1982) social learning theory and Kirsch's (1985, 1999) response expectancy extension thereof to clarify distinctions between coping-related expectancies (beliefs about the outcomes of coping efforts) and coping dispositions (tendencies to use particular coping responses), specifically focusing on the role of generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation (NMR) as a predictor of individual differences in coping and well-being. Two studies using structural equation modeling provided support for direct and indirect associations between NMR expectancies and symptoms of depression. In Study 1 NMR expectancies predicted situational avoidance coping responses and symptoms of depression and anxiety, independent of dispositional avoidance coping tendencies. In Study 2, NMR expectancies were associated with depressive symptoms, concurrently and prospectively, independent of dispositional optimism and pessimism. Both studies indicated that NMR expectancies are more strongly associated with depressive symptoms than with symptoms of anxiety and physical illness. Results underscore the importance of distinguishing between expectancies and other personality variables related to coping.

Physiological hyperarousal: construct validity of a central aspect of the tripartite model of depression and anxiety.

Physiological hyperarousal (PH) is an understudied component of the tripartite model of depression and anxiety. This study contributes to the literature on PH, the tripartite model, and anxiety and its disorders, using data from psychotherapy outpatients (n = 2,448), air force cadets (n = 1,335), and undergraduates (n = 284). Psychometrics and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that PH is a reliable, cohesive, discriminable, and valid construct. Compared with subjective anxiety, PH was more associated to panic versus mood disordered status, and to panic versus generalized anxiety disordered status. As hypothesized, an aspect of anxiety sensitivity (i.e., fear of body sensations) was particularly related to subjective anxiety in the presence of PH. Results support the PH construct as replicable, valid, and clinically important and support the utility of the tripartite and related models for understanding the relation of depressive and anxious syndromes.

Factor structure of a measure of anxiety sensitivity in children.

Anxiety sensitivity (i.e., the disposition to react to autonomic arousal with fear) has taken a central role in recent conceptualizations of anxiety. However, questions regarding the dimensional nature of anxiety sensitivity remain. In particular, the factor structure of anxiety sensitivity is unexplored in nonadult populations. The factor structure of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index for Children (ASIC) was examined in three studies. Study 1 (N = 95) used a sample of school children in Grades 4-8 to investigate the reliability of items and factor structure. Items with weak psychometric properties were eliminated, and subsequent analyses revealed that the ASIC was best viewed as a hierarchical scale with a higher order factor (Anxiety Sensitivity) and two first-order factors (Fear of Physiological Arousal and Fear of Mental Catastrophe). Study 2 (N = 112) and Study 3 (N = 144) used more distressed samples of youngsters, and they also found the ASIC to be a hierarchical scale. These findings add a developmental perspective to the Anxiety Sensitivity Index factor analytic discussion and are highly consistent with emergent thinking in the adult anxiety sensitivity literature.

Stress, alcohol-related expectancies and coping preferences: a replication with adolescents of the Cooper et al. (1992) model.

OBJECTIVE: The present study attempted to replicate with adolescents the stressor vulnerability model of adult drinking proposed by Cooper et al. (J. Abnorm. Psychol. 101: 139-152, 1992). The Cooper et al. model simultaneously assesses the stress-moderating effects of gender, expectancies and coping on alcohol use and abuse. METHOD: Adolescents in Grades 7-12 (N = 184, 59% female) completed the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire-Adolescent form, the COPE, the Adolescent Perceived Events Scale and the Drinking to Cope scale. RESULTS: The pattern of results was very similar to those of earlier studies using adults or undergraduates. Generally, positive expectancies for alcohol, an avoidant coping preference and stress were predictive of drinking to cope, alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. A number of two-way interactions were also reported. Although gender did not play a prominent role in prediction, as it typically does with adults, grade was a significant predictor; older students reported more alcohol use and alcohol-related problems than younger students. CONCLUSIONS: Results were similar to those reported by Cooper et al. with adults and Evans and Dunn (J. Stud. Alcohol 56: 186-193, 1995) with undergraduates, and support the utility of the stressor vulnerability model for understanding alcohol use among adolescents.

Tripartite structure of positive and negative affect, depression, and anxiety in child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients.

The tripartite model of depression and anxiety suggests that depression and anxiety have shared (generalized negative affect) and specific (anhedonia and physiological hyperarousal) components. In one of the 1st studies to examine the structure of mood-related symptoms in youngsters, this model was tested among 116 child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients, ages 8-16 (M = 12.46; SD = 2.33). Consistent with the tripartite model, a 3-factor (Depression, Anxiety, and Negative Affect) model represented the observed data well. Follow-up analyses suggested that a nonhierarchical arrangement of the 3 factors may be preferable to a hierarchical one.

Mood regulation expectancies, coping responses, depression, and sense of burden in female caregivers of Alzheimer's patients.

This study focused on the role of generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation in coping among caregivers to Alzheimer's disease patients. Self-report measures were used to obtain information on expectancies, hassles, coping strategies, depressive symptoms, and sense of burden from 73 female primary caregivers in support groups. Stronger expectancies for negative mood regulation were associated with less severe depressive symptoms, even with stress levels and coping responses controlled. These expectancies were also associated with less avoidant coping, but were unrelated to active coping. Burden and depressive symptoms were strongly related, but correlated differently with other variables.

Mood regulation expectancies, anxiety sensitivity, and emotional distress.

Mood regulation expectancy is a behavior-outcome response expectancy; anxiety sensitivity can be conceptualized as a stimulus-outcome response expectancy. Current expectancy models of emotion and distress focus on stimulus-outcome expectancies, potentially neglecting behavior-outcome expectancies. In a sample of 502 college students, measures of each expectancy were independently related to distress, measured by the Beck Depression Inventory and Trait Anxiety Inventory: Those with weak beliefs about their ability to regulate negative moods and strong beliefs that the experience of anxiety causes further negative consequences reported the highest levels of distress. Implications for integrating behavior-outcome and stimulus-outcome response expectancies in models of emotion are discussed.

Adjustment, depression, and minimal goal setting: the moderating effect of performance feedback.

In this study I tested hypotheses about changes in expectancy and minimal goal statements and the relations of these variables to adjustment. Seventy-seven male college students completed the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank and the Beck Depression Inventory and subsequently received success or failure feedback on tasks for which they provided expectancy and minimal goal statements. Expectancies and minimal goals changed differently, relative to each other, as a function of performance feedback. Modest relations of adjustment and dysphoria with minimal goals were found, but these were moderated by performance feedback: Under failure, poorer adjustment and greater dysphoria were associated with higher minimal goals; under success, poorer adjustment and greater dysphoria were associated with lower minimal goals, contrary to a widely held hypothesis. Moreover, although the effects of adjustment and dysphoria on minimal goal setting were similar in strength and direction, these effects were independent of each other. Thus, adjustment-minimal goal relations must be understood in light of situational parameters and may reflect two processes, only one of which is related to mood.

Measuring generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation: initial scale development and implications.

A scale measuring generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation (NMR) was developed. The construct was defined as the expectancy that some behavior or cognition will alleviate a negative mood state. Data from five samples of college undergraduates (N = 1,630) were reported. Internal consistency, discriminant validity from social desirability, and temporal stability were demonstrated for a 30-item scale derived from an initial pool of 50 items. Further analyses revealed (a) modest correlations of the 30-item scale with internal-external control, (b) that high scorers on the NMR scale reported few symptoms of depression, and (c) that the NMR scale predicted a different pattern of emotions than the Beck Depression Inventory did. Discussion focused on possible roles for expectancies for negative mood regulation in the coping process and directions for future research on the mood regulation process.