This study investigated relationships among proactive coping, positive emotions, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity for 182 undergraduate women with trauma histories. Participants were administered the Life Events Checklist (LEC), PTSD Checklist, Proactive Coping Inventory, Proactive Attitude Scale, General Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale, and measures of posttrauma gratitude and emotional growth. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with proactive coping, proactive attitude, and self-efficacy items indicated a one-factor solution. The proactive coping style factor and posttrauma gratitude were independently negatively associated with current PTSD symptom level, above and beyond the effects of trauma severity, trauma history, and time elapsed since the trauma. The implications of these results for future research and understanding of the development of PTSD and its treatment are discussed.
Understanding the primary triggers of anxiety for African Americans, and the cultural factors associated with these triggers, can enhance our knowledge of emotional responding in African Americans and can ultimately influence how we assess and treat anxiety disorders in this population. In the current study, we investigated the experience of anxiety for African Americans following physical stressors, with an emphasis on cardiovascular arousal. Specifically, anxious responding, following cardiovascular arousal, other physical stressors, and a control task, was evaluated among African American (n = 23) and European American (n = 23) groups on affective, cognitive, and physiological measures of anxiety. Findings suggest physical stressors in general (as opposed to cardiovascular arousal specifically) may be a prominent trigger of anxiety for African Americans. Discussion centers on the idea that the observed relationship between anxiety and physical stressors for African Americans may stem from a cultural sense of vulnerability regarding physical disease.
Information processing bias was evaluated in a sample of 25 older adults with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) over the course of 12 weeks of escitalopram pharmacotherapy. Using the CANTAB Affective Go/No Go test, treatment response (as measured by the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, Penn State Worry Questionnaire, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Severity Scale) was predicted from a bias score (i.e., difference score between response latencies for negative and positive words) using mixed-models regression. A more positive bias score across time predicted better response to treatment. Faster responses to positive words relative to negative words were associated with greater symptomatic improvement over time as reflected by scores on the GADSS. There was a trend towards significance for PSWQ scores and no significant effects related to HAMA outcomes. These preliminary findings offer further insights into the role of biased cognitive processing of emotional material in the manifestation of late-life anxiety symptoms.
Current treatments for disorders of emotion, like pathological anxiety, are often less effective in older adults than in younger adults and have poorly understood mechanisms, pointing to the need for psychopathology models that better account for age-related changes in normative emotional functioning and the expression of disordered emotion. This article describes ways in which the healthy aging and emotion literature can enhance understanding and treatment of symptoms of anxiety and depression in later life. We offer recommendations for how to integrate the healthy aging literatures' theories and findings with psychopathology research and clinical practice, and highlight opportunities for future research.
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