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Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic posed a threat to public health and psychological functioning, with early studies documenting higher rates of psychopathology within the United States and globally. Hope and optimism promote adjustment and are associated with positive physical and mental health outcomes. Thus, individual differences in hope and optimism may also foster resilience during a global health crisis., Aims: The current study examined how hope and optimism influenced longitudinal health-focused distress and wellbeing during the pandemic., Methods: Data were collected from 788 American adults across three periods during Spring-Summer 2020 using MTurk. Latent growth curve modeling examined whether hope and optimism predicted COVID stress, health anxiety, and wellbeing trajectories., Results: COVID stress and health anxiety decreased after the onset of the pandemic, whereas wellbeing was stable. Individually, hope and optimism predicted lower initial COVID stress and health anxiety, along with greater initial wellbeing. When examining the combined influence of hope and optimism, optimism was more strongly related to health-focused distress, though both were strong predictors of wellbeing., Conclusions: These findings indicate that Americans were resilient and positive expectancies, particularly optimism, predicted better initial adjustment to the early phases of the pandemic. Thus, positive expectancies appear to be protective during a global health crisis., (© 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Objective: Although parental threatening behaviors are associated with poor mental health outcomes among college students, the underlying mechanisms of this relationship are understudied. This investigation examined the underlying role of perceived anxiety control in the association between childhood exposure to maternal threatening behaviors and depression, worry, and attention/deficit hyperactivity disorder (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) symptoms. Participants: Participants ( N  = 862; M age = 18.75 years, SD  = 1.04, age range = 18-24) were recruited from a large state university in the northeast. Methods: Participants completed a battery of self-report questionnaires. Results: Tests of indirect effects indicated that greater childhood exposure to maternal threats was associated with lower perceived anxiety control, which in turn was associated with more severe depression, worry, and ADHD symptoms, respectively. Conclusions: Childhood exposure to maternal threatening behaviors may contribute to college students' low perceived anxiety control, which in turn increases the risk for these symptom clusters.

As a multi-systemic disease, COVID-19 infection engendered a rise in co-occurring mental and physical health symptoms, particularly affecting the Latinx population. The current work sought to evaluate the main and interactive influence of acculturative stress and anxiety sensitivity in terms of mental and physical health symptoms among 181 Latinx persons (30.4% female, M age  = 34.1 years, SD  = 8.20). Data were collected during a period of high COVID-19 impact (2020-2021) and analyses included five separate, two-step hierarchical regressions that were conducted for each of the criterion variables: (1) fear of coronavirus; (2) somatic symptoms; (3) fatigue severity; (4) anxiety symptoms; and (5) depression symptoms. For all analyses, step 1 covariates included years living in the U.S. COVID-19 impact, gender identity, education, and work life distress and home life distress. Results revealed an interactive effect of anxiety sensitivity and acculturative stress on COVID-19 fear, unique main effects for both anxiety sensitivity and acculturative stress on COVID-19 related fear and somatic symptoms, and main effects for anxiety sensitivity alone in relation to fatigue severity, anxiety, and depression. Overall, this study represents an initial investigation of the associations between acculturative stress, anxiety sensitivity, and a range of salient COVID-19 related outcomes among Latinx persons.

Introduction: Distress during pregnancy and postpartum is common and contributes to poor infant and maternal outcomes, such as developmental delays and mental health disorders, respectively. Anxiety sensitivity, or fear of the symptoms of anxiety (eg, palpitations, confusion), is a risk factor known to increase distress across psychological and health-related conditions. Given the physiologic and emotional changes that occur during the perinatal period, anxiety sensitivity may be a salient risk factor for maternal distress. In this pilot study, we aimed to understand the unique role of prenatal anxiety sensitivity in postpartum psychological and parenting distress., Methods: Twenty-eight pregnant women (mean age, 30.86 years) were recruited from the community in a Southeastern metropolitan area of the United States. Participants completed self-report measures during their third trimester of pregnancy and again within 10 weeks postpartum. The Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales-21 and the Parenting Distress subscale of the Parenting Stress Index-4-Short Form were the primary postpartum outcome measures., Results: Prenatal anxiety sensitivity was elevated in this sample relative to convenience samples. Prenatal anxiety sensitivity uniquely contributed to postpartum psychological (b, 1.01; P < .001) and parenting distress (b, 0.62; P = .008), after accounting for age, gravidity, and gestation., Discussion: Albeit preliminary, results suggest prenatal anxiety sensitivity may be an important and malleable risk factor associated with several mental health concerns common in the perinatal period. Anxiety sensitivity may be targeted with brief interventions to prevent or reduce postpartum distress. Reducing prenatal anxiety sensitivity has the potential prevent the onset or worsening of psychological disorders among women and, in turn, may improve infant and child outcomes. Future studies should replicate these findings in a larger sample., (© 2023 by the American College of Nurse-Midwives.)

Hispanic/Latinx (hereafter Latinx) smokers in the United States (US) experience unique smoking cessation-related challenges. Smoking outcome expectancies (i.e., positive and negative beliefs about the consequences of smoking behavior) have been linked to the maintenance of smoking and comorbidity with negative emotional states such as anxiety among Latinx smokers. However, past work has not characterized rates of probable anxiety disorder and elevated levels of anxiety sensitivity among English-speaking daily Latinx smokers from the United States or concurrently evaluated the explanatory relevance of anxiety symptoms and anxiety sensitivity for negative and positive smoking outcome expectancies. The present investigation sought to (a) determine the base rate of probable anxiety disorder and elevated anxiety sensitivity and (b) explore the unique roles of anxiety symptoms and anxiety sensitivity in relation to negative and positive smoking outcome expectancies. Participants included 338 English-speaking Latinx adult daily cigarette smokers from the United States ( M age = 35.53 years; SD = 8.65; age range 18-61; 37.3% female). Findings revealed high rates of probable anxiety disorder (50.9%) and elevated anxiety sensitivity (73.4%) among English-speaking Latinx smokers from the United States. Anxiety sensitivity, but not anxiety symptoms or disorders, was significantly related to negative consequences, negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement, and appetite/weight control smoking outcome expectancies. Overall, anxiety experiences were common among Latinx smokers, and anxiety sensitivity was a relatively more consistent and robust predictor of negative and positive outcome expectancies relative to anxiety symptoms and probable anxiety disorder. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Hispanic/Latina students experience elevated rates of binge drinking, interpersonal trauma, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Research has indicated anxiety sensitivity (AS; i.e., fear of anxiety-related bodily sensations) and distress tolerance (DT; i.e., ability to tolerate negative emotional states) are modifiable psychological mechanisms related to alcohol use and PTSD symptoms. However, a dearth of literature has focused on factors that may account for associations between alcohol use and PTSD among Hispanic/Latina students., Method: The project examined, among 288 Hispanic/Latina college students ( M age = 23.3 years, SD = 5.4) with interpersonal trauma histories, the indirect effects of PTSD symptom severity on (a) alcohol use and (b) alcohol use motives (i.e., coping, conformity, enhancement, social) via DT and AS, evaluated as parallel statistical mediators., Results: Results PTSD symptom severity had an indirect effect on (a) alcohol use severity; (b) conformity motives for alcohol use; and (c) social motives for alcohol use via AS but not DT. PTSD symptom severity was associated with coping-oriented drinking via both AS and DT., Conclusions: This research has the potential to advance culturally-informed literature on factors that may impact co-occurring PTSD symptoms and alcohol use. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Anxiety disorders are the most common class of psychiatric conditions among children and adolescents. The cognitive behavioral model of childhood anxiety has a strong theoretic and empirical foundation that provides the basis for effective treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), with an emphasis on exposure therapy, is the gold standard treatment for childhood anxiety disorders, with strong empirical support. A case vignette demonstrating CBT for childhood anxiety disorders in practice, as well as recommendations for clinicians, are also provided., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The present study investigated the interactive effect of reactive (negative emotionality) and regulatory (effortful control) aspects of temperament in the prediction of child anxiety and depressive symptoms. Clinically anxious children and their mothers completed a battery of questionnaires that included self- and mother-ratings of child effortful control, negative emotionality, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the moderating effect of effortful control on the relation between negative emotionality and child anxiety and depressive symptom severity. The interaction between negative emotionality and effortful control was statistically significant and simple slopes revealed that as effortful control increased, the relationship between negative emotionality and anxiety and depressive symptoms weakened. Among anxious children high in negative emotionality, greater effortful control was related to less severe anxiety and depressive symptoms. Future work should evaluate whether targeting effortful control leads to reductions in internalizing symptoms among clinically anxious youth., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Rates of traumatic event exposure, posttraumatic stress (PTS), and co-occurring mental health symptoms and disorders are conditionally higher among Latinx individuals compared to other racial/ethnic populations. Importantly, Latinx persons are a heterogeneous population, and certain subgroups endorse higher rates of negative mental health outcomes than others, including Latinx young adults born in the USA. Yet, there is little understanding of individual difference factors among trauma-exposed US born Latinx young adults that may be involved in mental health burden among this group. The present investigation sought to evaluate the potential explanatory relevance of heart-focused anxiety as an individual difference factor regarding some of the most common co-occurring mental health problems among trauma-exposed populations. Specifically, we tested whether heart-focused anxiety was related to increased co-occurring anxious arousal symptoms, depression, social anxiety, and suicidality among 169 (84% female, M age =23.15 years, SD=6.07) trauma-exposed Latinx young adults. Results indicated that heart-focused anxiety was a statistically significant predictor of general depression (ΔR 2 = .02, F(1, 161) = 4.25, p = .041), suicidality (ΔR 2 = .10, F(1, 161) = 21.49, p < .001), anxious arousal (ΔR 2 = .11, F(1, 161) = 27.31, p < .001), and social anxiety (ΔR 2 = .03, F(1, 161) = 7.93, p = .005). Overall, this work offers empirical evidence that individual differences in heart-focused anxiety are related to more severe co-occurring anxiety and depressive symptomatology among a particularly at risk Latinx segment of the Latinx population (non-immigrant Latinx young adults s with previous trauma history)., (© 2021. W. Montague Cobb-NMA Health Institute.)

Fearful temperament-the tendency to exhibit apprehension and/or avoidance in novel situations-is a well-established risk factor for childhood anxiety in general, and social anxiety in particular. Yet, there is little understanding of parent emotion socialization strategies that influence the association between fearful temperament and child social anxiety symptoms. The present investigation addresses this gap in the literature by examining maternal punitive responses to clinically anxious children's negative emotions as a moderator of the covariance between fearful temperament and social anxiety symptom severity. Clinically anxious children ages 8-12 years (N = 105; 57.1% female; 61.9% racial/ethnic minority) and their mothers completed measures assessing child fearful temperament, maternal punitive emotion socialization responses, and child social anxiety symptoms. Children also participated in an anxiety-provoking speech task during which manifest social anxiety was coded by trained observers. Children's fearful temperament coupled with greater maternal punitive responses to children's negative emotions was associated with lower child-reported social anxiety symptoms. Models predicting manifest social anxiety were not significant. Maternal punitive responses to children's negative emotions may encourage clinically anxious youth to approach feared situations and therefore result in lower anxiety. Yet, the potentially negative effects of punitive responses on other aspects of anxious children's socioemotional development warrant scientific attention. Future research should examine the phenomenology of punitive parental responses among parents of anxious youth to better understand their effects on child behavior., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature.)

Objectives: The opioid epidemic is a significant public health problem largely driven by opioid prescriptions for chronic pain. Among those with chronic pain, anxiety and depressive symptoms have been linked to opioid misuse, and individual differences in anxiety and depressive symptoms among adults with chronic pain may be important for better understanding pain. Yet, little work has examined mechanisms that may link anxiety and depressive symptoms to opioid misuse among adults with chronic pain. Anxiety sensitivity (AS), or the fear of anxiety-related physical sensations, may be one candidate construct that has been linked independently to anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as opioid misuse., Methods: The current survey-based study examined the indirect association of AS in the relation between anxiety and depressive symptoms and opioid misuse among 429 adults with chronic pain currently using prescription opioid medication (73.9% female, Mage=38.32 y, SD=11.07)., Results: Using structural equation modeling, it appears that AS is a potential construct in the interrelation between anxiety and depressive symptoms and opioid misuse. However, an alternative model found equally strong empirical support, as mental health symptoms may serve as an explanatory factor between AS and opioid misuse., Discussion: Bi-directional effects are apt to be involved among the studied variables. Prospective research is needed to replicate the study results and isolate the temporal patterning between the studied constructs. Nonetheless, the data overall highlight the importance of both AS and anxiety and depressive symptoms in terms of understanding opioid misuse among adults with chronic pain.

This investigation examined the synergistic role of parental emotion-focused socialization behaviors and children's perceptual sensitivity on children's fear reactivity. A sample of 105 children with anxiety disorders (8-12 years; M = 10.07 years, SD = 1.22; 57% female) and their clinically anxious mothers (M = 39.35 years, SD = 7.05) completed an assessment battery that included a diagnostic interview and questionnaires regarding anxiety symptoms, perceptual sensitivity, and emotion socialization behaviors; children also completed a 5-min, videotaped speech task, and rated their fear levels before and after the task. Analyses revealed a significant interaction between perceptual sensitivity and emotion-focused strategies predicting fear change scores from pre- to post-speech. Higher perceptual sensitivity was related to greater reductions in fear from pre- to post- speech (adjusting for pre-speech fear scores), yet only among anxious children whose mothers reported high use of emotion-focused strategies. Maternal emotion-focused socialization strategies may increase anxious children's ability to modulate their affective responses during stressful situations.

Latinx young adults in college (ages 18-25 years) are at an elevated risk for somatic and mental health disparities. Although the experience of pain is among the most common health complaints among Latinx young adults, there is no scientific information about how cognitive-based responses to pain relate to somatic vigilance and mental health among this group. The current study therefore investigated the explanatory role of pain-related anxiety (worry about negative consequences of pain) in terms of body vigilance, worry, anxious arousal, and general depression among Latinx young adults. Participants were Latinx college students (M age  = 21 years; SD = 2.02; 83% female) at a large, southwestern university. Results indicated that greater levels of pain-related anxiety were associated with significantly greater bodily vigilance, worry, anxious arousal, and general depression after adjusting for age, gender, physical functioning, subjective social status, and pain intensity. The current investigation suggests that Latinx young adults who experience elevated levels of pain-related anxiety may be at greater risk for somatic hypervigilance and negative affect symptoms. Therefore, reducing pain-related anxiety among Latinx young adults may be an important therapeutic strategy in efforts to reduce somatic and mental health disparities among this group.

This investigation examined vagal modulation of arousal, as indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), as a moderator of the covariance between interpretation biases and anxiety disorder symptom severity in a diverse sample of clinically anxious youth. A sample of 105 children with anxiety disorders (M age  = 10.07 years, SD = 1.22; range = 8-12 years; 57.1% female; 61.9% ethnic minority) and their mothers completed a battery of measures assessing interpretation biases and anxiety disorder symptom severity. Children also completed a behaviorally-indexed assessment of interpretation biases and participated in an anxiety-provoking speech task. Physiological assessment of RSA was collected at baseline (i.e., baseline RSA) and during the speech task (i.e., challenge RSA). The interaction between challenge RSA and both self-reported and behaviorally-indexed interpretation biases (adjusting for baseline RSA) was significant (ΔR 2  = .05 and .04 respectively) in relation to maternal report of child anxiety symptoms. Specifically, among children with low (vs. high) challenge RSA, greater self-reported interpretation biases were significantly associated with maternal report of more severe child anxiety symptoms, and greater behaviorally-indexed interpretation biases were marginally associated with maternal report of more severe child anxiety. Interactions predicting child self-report of anxiety symptoms were not significant. Greater child interpretation biases coupled with lower challenge RSA were associated with maternal report of more severe child anxiety symptoms. Future work should examine whether interventions targeting RSA weaken the association between interpretation biases and anxiety symptoms in youth.

Parental threatening behaviors have emerged as a subset of negative parental behaviors strongly related to internalizing symptoms among youth, yet the underlying mechanisms in this association have remained unexplored. The current investigation examined the role of difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior while emotionally distressed in the association between exposure to maternal threatening behaviors and internalizing symptoms among trauma-exposed inpatient psychiatric youth. Participants (N = 50; mean [SD] age, 15.1 [0.51] years; age range, 12-17 years) completed measures of emotion dysregulation, exposure to maternal threatening behaviors, depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, as well as trauma-related functional impairment. Results revealed that inability to engage in goal-directed behavior while distressed significantly explained associations between exposure to maternal threatening behaviors and each of the three symptom classes, but not the association between exposure to maternal threatening behaviors and trauma-related functional impairment. These novel findings underscore the need for interventions that target the capacity for goal-directed behavior in the context of emotional distress, especially among trauma-exposed youth who have experienced parental threatening behaviors.

Latinx are one of the largest and most rapidly growing segments of the United States (U.S.) population that is significantly impacted by health disparities, including somatic health problems. Young Latinx adults (ages 18-25 years) are at a greater risk for being affected by such health inequalities and there is a need to understand individual-based differences that may contribute to and maintain somatic symptoms, including pain experience, pain beliefs, and perceptions of health. Thus, the current study investigated the explanatory role of worry in association between pain intensity, pain disability, pain-related anxiety, and perceived health among Latinx college students. Participants included 401 (M age  = 21 years; SD = 2.02; 83% female) Latinx students at a large, southwestern university. Results indicated that greater levels of worry were related to increased levels of pain intensity, pain disability, pain-related anxiety, and lower levels of perceived health. These findings were evident above and beyond variance accounted for by gender, age, physical functioning, and subjective social status. Overall, the results from the present investigation suggest that there is greater risk for more severe pain experiences, maladaptive beliefs regarding pain, and worse perceptions of health status among Latinx young adults who experience elevated levels of worry.

Childhood exposure to parental threatening behaviors places adolescents at greater risk for depression. However, the association between parental threatening behaviors and depressive symptoms among trauma-exposed inpatient youth, and potential factors that exacerbate the harmful effects of such parenting, have remained unexplored. One factor that may contribute to depression is low emotional clarity, which is characterized by difficulties recognizing and understanding one's emotions. The current investigation examined the interactive effects of childhood exposure to maternal threatening behaviors and emotional clarity deficits in relation to depressive symptoms among inpatient psychiatric youth who had been exposed to a potentially traumatic event (i.e., exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence). Participants (N = 50, M age  = 15.1 years, SD = 0.51, range 12-17) completed measures of emotion dysregulation, childhood exposure to maternal threatening behavior, and depressive symptoms. A significant interaction was found between exposure to maternal threatening behaviors and deficits in emotional clarity in relation to depressive symptom severity. Greater exposure to maternal threatening behaviors was related to more severe depressive symptoms, yet only among children with greater deficits in emotional clarity. Findings underscore the need for interventions that target emotional clarity among trauma-exposed youth who have experienced parental threats., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Latinos, one of the fastest growing populations in the United States, suffer from high rates of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS) and its clinical correlates (e.g., disability). Although research suggests the experience of pain is closely related to PTS among trauma-exposed groups, there has been little exploration of the processes that may link pain intensity to greater PTS among trauma-exposed Latinos. The current study explored insomnia, a common problem associated with both pain intensity and PTS, as a mechanism in the association between pain intensity and PTS among trauma-exposed Latinos (N = 208, M age  = 39.39 years, SD = 11.48) attending a Federally Qualified Health Center. Results indicated that insomnia partially explained the relationship between pain intensity and PTS total score (B = 0.25, 95% CI [0.12, 0.43]), as well as re-experiencing (B = 0.09, 95% CI [0.04, 0.17]), avoidance (B = 0.09, 95% CI [0.04, 0.17]), and arousal symptoms (B = 0.10, 95% CI [0.04, 0.17]). Future work is needed to explore the extent to which insomnia accounts for relations between pain and PTS using longitudinal designs to further clarify theoretical health disparity models involving these comorbid conditions.

Although several investigations-on primarily adult samples-demonstrate a potential role of emotion dysregulation in the etiology and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), investigations into the mechanisms that may underlie these associations in general and among adolescents in particular are lacking. The present study examined associations among emotional clarity (i.e., the extent to which individuals are confused about the specific emotions they are experiencing), (Gratz, Journal of Psychopathology Behavioral Assessment 26(1):41-54, 2004) anxiety sensitivity, and DSM-IV PTSD symptom cluster severity (i.e., re-experiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal symptoms) in a diverse sample of trauma-exposed inpatient adolescents. It was hypothesized that anxiety sensitivity would underlie association between emotional clarity and PTSD symptoms. Participants (N = 50; 52.0% female; M age  = 15.1 years, SD = 0.51; 44% White) completed measures of emotion dysregulation, anxiety sensitivity, and PTSD. Lower emotional clarity was significantly associated with greater total PTSD symptoms, as well as re-experiencing, avoidance, and arousal symptoms. Additionally, there were indirect effects for lack of emotional clarity via anxiety sensitivity in relation to total PTSD symptoms [B = 0.17, SE = 0.08, BC 95% CI (0.04, 0.35)], re-experiencing symptoms [B = 0.15, SE = 0.08, BC 95% CI (0.03, 0.36)], avoidance symptoms [B = 0.12, SE = 0.07, BC 95% CI (0.02, 0.29)], and hyperarousal symptoms [B = 0.17, SE = 0.08, BC 95% CI (0.04, 0.36)]. Reversed models were violated, supporting the direction of hypothesized effects. Difficulties recognizing and accurately understanding emotions may increase risk for PTSD symptoms among trauma-exposed youth. Furthermore, anxiety sensitivity may be a promising intervention target among youth at risk for PTSD, especially among those demonstrating poorer emotional clarity.

The present investigation examined the moderating role of mindful attention in the relation between rumination and posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms (i.e., re-experiencing, avoidance, arousal, and total PTSD symptoms) among trauma-exposed Latinos in a primary care medical setting. It was hypothesized that mindful attention would moderate, or lessen, the relation between rumination and all facets of PTS, even after controlling for clinically relevant covariates. Participants included 182 trauma-exposed adult Latinos (89.0% female; M age = 37.8, SD = 10.6% and 95.1% reported Spanish as their first language) attending a community-based integrated healthcare clinic in the Southwestern United States. Mindful attention was a significant moderator of relations between rumination and all PTS facets. Specifically, rumination and PTSD symptoms were significantly related yet only in the context of low (vs. high) levels of mindful attention. Mindfulness-based skills may offer incremental value to established treatment protocols for traumatic stress, especially when high levels of rumination are present. Rumination may also serve to identify those who are at greatest risk for developing PTSD after trauma exposure and, therefore, most likely to benefit from mindfulness-based strategies., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Youth with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms have significant difficulties regulating affective experiences; as a result, many engage in nonadaptive coping behaviors including deliberate self-harm (DSH). To identify youth with PTSD symptoms who may be most at risk for DSH, this study examined anxiety sensitivity (AS) as a moderator of the relationship between PTSD symptoms and DSH in a diverse sample of psychiatric inpatient youth with a history of potentially traumatic events (PTE)., Method: Participants (N = 50; 52.0% female; Mage = 15.1 years, SD = .51; 44% White) completed a test battery that included measures of DSH frequency, depression, AS and PTSD symptomatology., Results: The proposed model accounted for 53.6% of variance in DSH, with PTSD symptoms being a significant predictor (sr2 = .11). The interaction of PTSD symptoms and AS accounted for an additional 4.5% of variance above and beyond covariates and main effects. Simple slopes revealed that the association between PTSD symptoms and DSH was significant for individuals scoring high (b = .25, SE = .06; t(50) = 3.83, p < .01) but not low (b = .03, SE = .10; t(50) = 0.30, p = .765) on the AS., Conclusions: Findings are consistent with theoretical and empirical work suggesting that DSH may be used to reduce emotional distress in the presence of maladaptive cognitive and emotional processes. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).)

Although behavioral inhibition (BI) is clearly identified as a temperamental risk factor for childhood anxiety psychopathology, much less is known about whether the strength of this association may vary as a function of parasympathetic nervous system regulation in children with anxiety disorders. To build upon extant research in this area, the present study examined whether respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) can explicate the conditions in which BI is linked to increased symptom severity among anxiety-disordered children (N = 44; M = 9.61 years, SD = 1.63; 52% female and African American, respectively). We examined RSA responding both during a basal period and during a stressor ("challenge" RSA): interacting with a "mystery guest" who was wearing a mask. As hypothesized, the interaction between BI and both basal and challenge RSA was significantly related to anxiety disorder symptom severity, even after controlling for depressive symptoms. The form of the interaction indicated that highest levels of anxiety disorder symptoms were found among children with high levels of BI and low basal and challenge RSA, respectively. These data provide novel empirical evidence of a clinically-relevant interplay between RSA and BI in relation to anxiety disorder symptom severity among clinical youth. Future work is needed to expand on the specific mechanisms that may be responsible e for the interplay between temperamental and psychobiological risks for childhood anxiety., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Anxiety symptoms commonly occur in dermatological patients and can affect the severity of dermatological symptoms. Anxiety sensitivity (AS), defined as the fear of anxiety symptoms, is a well-supported cognitive vulnerability factor that may be particularly significant in these patients., Objective: This study compared the severity of AS between patients with psychodermatological (e.g., psoriasis) and nonpsychodermatological disorders (e.g., skin cancer). It was predicted that individuals with psychodermatological disorders would evidence significantly greater AS compared to individuals with nonpsychodermatological disorders., Method: Adults presenting to outpatient dermatology clinics with psychodermatological (n = 63) and nonpsychodermatological (n = 52) conditions completed self-report questionnaires assessing sociodemographic characteristics, general anxiety, and AS., Results: Individuals with psychodermatological conditions reported significantly greater AS compared to individuals with nonpsychodermatological conditions (p < 0.05). Social concerns of AS emerged as the only significant factor that differentiated these categories of dermatological diseases, odds ratio = 1.13, 95% CI: 1.02-1.24, after adjusting for general anxiety., Conclusions: These findings contribute to an advancing area of research linking AS and physical health problems. The results suggest that adjunctive cognitive-behavioral treatments targeting AS reductions could help patients with psychodermatological conditions., (Copyright © 2016 The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)