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The present investigation examined the interactive effects of anxiety sensitivity and mindful attention in relation to anxiety and depressive symptoms and psychopathology among 145 adult Latinos (85.5% female; Mage=39.9, SD=10.8 and 98.6% used Spanish as their first language) who attended a community-based primary healthcare clinic. As expected, the interaction between anxiety sensitivity and mindful attention was significantly related to number of mood and anxiety disorders, social anxiety, and depressive symptoms. No significant interaction, however, was evident for panic (anxious arousal) symptoms. The form of the significant interaction indicated that Latinos reporting co-occurring higher levels of anxiety sensitivity and lower levels of mindful attention evinced the greatest levels of anxiety/depressive psychopathology, social anxiety, and depressive symptoms. These data provide novel empirical evidence suggesting that there is clinically-relevant interplay between anxiety sensitivity and mindful attention in regard to a relatively wide array of anxiety and depressive variables among Latinos in a primary care medical setting.
We tested whether reduced thought suppression and reactivity to thought content (i.e., cognitive defusion) mediate the effects of a four-session mindfulness training intervention on clinical outcomes important to recovery in a general community-sample of adults (N = 38) recently exposed to potentially traumatic event (PTE). Thought suppression mediated the effects of mindfulness training on all studied distal risk factors and symptom outcomes—anxiety sensitivity, rumination, and negative affect, as well as posttraumatic stress and depression symptoms. Cognitive defusion mediated the effects of mindfulness training on anxiety sensitivity, negative affect, and posttraumatic stress symptoms, but not rumination or depression symptoms. Thus, we found that reduced reactivity to and reduced suppression of thoughts mediated the effects of mindfulness training on recovery outcomes following exposure to PTE. Findings are discussed with respect to their theoretical and clinical implications for the potential role and mediating mechanisms of mindfulness in recovery following trauma.
The present investigation sought to examine the interactive effects of anxiety sensitivity [AS; Reiss, S., & McNally, R. J. (1985). Expectancy model of fear. In S. Reiss, & R. R. Bootzin (Eds.), Theoretical issues in behavior therapy (pp. 107-121). San Diego: Academic Press] and mindfulness [Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefit of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822-848] in predicting panic-relevant processes. A community sample of 248 individuals participated in the study by completing a battery of self-report instruments. Consistent with prediction, the interaction between AS and mindfulness significantly predicted anxious arousal symptoms and agoraphobic cognitions, above and beyond the individual main effects, and did not significantly predict anhedonic depression symptoms. Contrary to prediction, the AS by mindfulness interaction did not significantly predict body vigilance. Theoretical implications are discussed and future directions are delineated.