Dimensions of anxiety sensitivity in the anxiety disorders: evaluation of the ASI-3.
Anxiety sensitivity (AS), the fear of sensations of anxious arousal based on beliefs about their harmful consequences, is increasingly recognized as a multidimensional construct. The recently developed Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 [ASI-3; Taylor, S., Zvolensky, M., Cox, B., Deacon, B., Heimberg, R., Ledley, D. R., et al. (2007). Robust dimensions of anxiety sensitivity: Development and initial validation of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 (ASI-3). Psychological Assessment, 19, 176-188] measures three dimensions of AS: physical concerns, social concerns, and cognitive concerns. The ASI-3 shows promise, although further evaluation of its psychometric properties and validity in independent samples is needed. We evaluated the ASI-3 in a mixed sample of anxiety disorder patients (N=506) and undergraduate student controls (N=315). The measure demonstrated a stable 3-factor structure and sound psychometric properties, with the three factors showing theoretically consistent patterns of associations with anxiety symptoms and diagnoses. ASI-3 total scores were less discriminative. Implications for conceptual models of anxiety are discussed.
Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States.
Michael G
MG
Wheaton
Brett J
BJ
Deacon
Patrick B
PB
McGrath
Noah C
NC
Berman
Jonathan S
JS
Abramowitz
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires