Burgeoning literature in the field of social anxiety suggests that social phobia may diverge from the other anxiety disorders in terms of the association it shares with low positive affect. Research examining positive affect and social anxiety has contributed to the understanding of social phobia in non-Hispanic White populations, but the cross-cultural generalization of anxiety in African Americans remains unknown. The current study used receiver operating characteristic analysis to estimate the extent to which scores on the Positive and Negative Affect Scales of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Expanded form (PANAS-X) predicted anxiety disorder diagnoses in a sample of 91 community-dwelling African American females. Subsequent receiver operating characteristic analyses were conducted to evaluate the utility of the Positive and Negative Affect Scales of the PANAS-X in predicting social phobia specifically. Results suggest that the PANAS-X is a clinically useful measure for predicting anxiety disorder diagnosis and, more specifically, social phobia in African American females. Additionally, optimal cutoff scores were identified, underscoring the potential use of the PANAS-X as a screening device for anxiety in African American females.
Extant research has established a strong association between perceived control and anxiety; however, limited work has examined perceived control within the context of fear-based anxiety disorders and in ethnic minority populations. Further, scant attention has been paid to protective factors that may moderate the relationship between perceived control and anxiety. The current study investigated the relationship between perceived control, positive religious coping, and panic-related fears in a communitybased African American adult sample (N = 91, mean age = 38, 91% female). Results from hierarchical linear regression indicated that perceived control significantly predicted all panic subscales (i.e., total panic symptoms, agoraphobic fears, social phobia fears, interoceptive fears); however, positive religious coping moderated only the relationship between perceived control and agoraphobic fears. Simple slopes analyses revealed that increased levels of positive religious coping resulted in a strengthened negative relationship between perceived control and agoraphobic fears.
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