Citation

Reitzel LR, Childress SD, Obasi EM, Garey L, Vidrine DJ, McNeill LH, Zvolensky MJ. Behav. Med. 2016; 43(4): 268-276.

Affiliation

The University of Houston , College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences , Department of Psychology , 126 Heyne Building, Suite 104, Houston , TX 77204.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/08964289.2016.1150805

PMID

26963636

Abstract

Anxiety sensitivity is the fear of anxiety-related sensations and subjective social status is a self-perception of social standing relative to others: both constructs have been linked to psychological symptomatology. This study investigated the interactive effects of anxiety sensitivity and social status in relation to anxiety and depressive symptomatology expression among 124 Black adults. Participants provided sociodemographics and completed self-report questionnaires. The interactive associations between anxiety sensitivity and social status on anxiety symptomatology and depressive symptomatology were examined with hierarchical linear regressions adjusted for sociodemographics and negative affectivity. Significant interactions between anxiety sensitivity and social status were evident only for anxiety symptoms: specifically, the association between anxiety sensitivity and anxiety symptoms was much stronger for individuals with lower (versus higher) subjective social status. Black adults with this higher anxiety sensitivity/lower social status phenotype may be at heightened risk for the expression of anxiety symptomatology, and may benefit from interventions to reduce anxiety sensitivity.

Language: en