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Background and Objectives: Safety behaviors display some similarities to coping behaviors, raising questions about whether the two sets of behaviors display distinct associations with anxiety symptoms., Design and Method: To examine this issue, we conducted two cross-sectional studies in which participants ( n  = 243 and 157) completed measures of the safety behaviors associated with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), the Brief Ways of Coping Scale (BWOC), and SAD and GAD symptom measures. In Study 1, extant safety-behavior and coping measures were used. In Study 2, the measures were modified so that they followed the same format and instructions., Results: Both studies indicated that the safety behavior measures displayed strong positive associations with their respective symptoms, as did several dysfunctional coping strategies, most notably wishful thinking., Conclusions: These findings provide preliminary empirical support for the conceptual distinction between safety behaviors and coping, and suggest that assessing both concepts provide a nuanced understanding of responding to anxiety-evoking situations., Highlights • Safety-seeking strategies and coping behaviors have striking similarities• We conducted two studies to compare extant measures of the two constructs• Participants were able to distinguish the two set of behaviors• Both safety behaviors and dysfunctional coping were associated with anxiety symptoms.

Objective: Despite the social impairment associated with social anxiety disorder (SAD), little research has examined the impact of treatment on positive relational functioning. Accordingly, the authors conducted a treatment outcome study to evaluate a cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) regimen augmented by a relational focus (CBT-R) relative to a graduated exposure-applied relaxation (GEAR) regimen and wait list (WL) control. To examine the mechanism(s) that underlies treatment effects, they used structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate two potential mediators, change in judgment biases and in safety behaviors., Method: Treatment-seeking adults who met SAD diagnostic criteria (n = 100; 50% women; mean age = 32.9 years.; 36% ethnic minority) were randomly assigned to CBT-R, GEAR, or WL. CBT-R and GEAR participants received 14 group treatment sessions. Social initiation, relationship satisfaction, and a SAD symptom composite were assessed at pre- and postassessment, and 6- and 12-month follow-ups., Results: Intent-to-treat multilevel modeling analyses indicated that the CBT-R regimen resulted in significantly greater improvement relative to GEAR on relationship satisfaction and SAD symptoms. SEM results revealed that change in safety behaviors partially mediated the superior performance of CBT-R on both variables with confidence intervals set at .90., Conclusions: These findings indicate that CBT-based regimens can improve social approach processes in individuals with SAD and that safety behavior reduction contributes to positive outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).)

Research has shown that there is a significant gender difference in the worry report of women and men, with women often reporting more worry than men. The present study investigated this phenomenon by looking at gender differences in cognitive variables associated with worry; namely, intolerance of uncertainty, negative problem orientation, positive beliefs about worry, and cognitive avoidance. The sample consisted of 217 female and 100 male university students who completed six questionnaires assessing worry and associated cognitive variables. Women reported more worry than men on two measures of the tendency to worry, as well as more worries about lack of confidence issues. Women also reported a more negative problem orientation and engaging in more thought suppression, a type of cognitive avoidance. Thought suppression and negative orientation were found to make a significant contribution to the prediction of worry scores. Moreover, when both variables were controlled, the significant prediction of gender to worry disappeared. Hypotheses accounting for gender differences in thought suppression and negative problem orientation are discussed.

Negative problem orientation, a dysfunctional set of attitudes related to problem-solving ability, has been implicated as a process variable in several psychological disorders, notably depression and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The goal of the present study was two-fold: (1) to further examine the construct validity of a new measure of negative problem orientation, the negative problem orientation questionnaire (NPOQ), through its relationship to conceptually similar variables, and (2) to investigate the specificity of negative problem orientation to worry, the cardinal feature of GAD, compared to depression. The sample consisted of 148 university students who completed six questionnaires, the NPOQ and measures of worry, depression, pessimism, self-mastery, and neuroticism. Multiple hierarchical regressions revealed that when entered in the last step following demographic information and personality variables (pessimism, self-mastery, and neuroticism), the NPOQ accounted for 5.6% of the variance in worry scores compared to 1.6% of the variance in depression scores. It was concluded that the NPOQ shows evidence of construct validity, and that the process variable of negative problem orientation appears to have greater specificity to worry than depression. Implications for the understanding of worry and GAD are discussed. Keywords: Problem-solving; Anxiety; Depression (emotion); Statistical validity; Personality measures