A Bi-Factor Approach to Modeling the Structure of Worry and Rumination

Abstract

It remains unclear whether worry and rumination represent the same functional process, or if they are unique constructs. The current study examined the relationship between worry and rumination, focusing on the potential utility of a bi-factor approach as an alternative to "common" vs. "distinctive" approaches. The results indicated that the structural relationship between worry and rumination is best represented by a bi-factor model (compared to singlefactor and two-factor models), which is comprised of a single factor that captures common variance in worry and rumination, as well as separate worry-specific and rumination-specific factors that capture unique variance. Furthermore, three orthogonal factors derived from the bi-factor model showed diverging associations with motivational traits (avoidance and approach temperament) and distinct anxiety/depression symptoms. The bi-factor conceptualization provides a framework for reconciling the diverging perspectives regarding worry and rumination, suggesting the need to pay attention to both common and unique aspects of worry and rumination.

Repetitive negative thinking as a predictor of depression and anxiety: A longitudinal cohort study

“…These results concur with those of previous studies (Arditte et al, 2016;Hur et al, 2017;McEvoy and Brans, 2012;Topper et al, 2014) and our own cross-sectional study of the same participants at T6 showing that the common dimension of RNT was significantly associated with each of the depressive and anxiety disorders, comorbidity among depressive and among anxiety disorders, as well as the common core of depressive, anxiety and avoidance symptoms (Spinhoven et al, 2015). However, in contrast to the rather large cross-sectional relations in our previous study (>.50), the prospective relations in the present study had a small effect size (<.30).…”

“…These results are in accordance with most previous cross-sectional studies using a "distinctive" approach showing that rumination is most strongly associated with MDD and worry with GAD, although elevated across disorders (Olatunji et al, 2010;Olatunji et al, 2013). Critically, previous crosssectional studies examining both common and unique aspects of RNT also found an association of unique variance in rumination or brooding with depression (McEvoy and Brans, 2012;Segerstrom et al, 2000;Spinhoven et al, 2015) and unique variance in worry with anxiety outcomes (Hur et al, 2017;Spinhoven et al, 2015) (but see Topper (Topper et al, 2014) for an exception). However, the prospective associations of the unique aspects of RNT may be confounded by content-or disorder-specific depression and anxiety items included in our measures of rumination and worry inflating relations with specific disorders (McEvoy et al, 2013).…”

“…thinking, worry and rumination scales is very large and that an underlying factor for RNT is associated with severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms (Arditte et al, 2016;Hur et al, 2017;McEvoy and Brans, 2012;Segerstrom et al, 2000;Spinhoven et al, 2015) as well as with individual depressive and anxiety disorders and comorbidity among depressive and among anxiety disorders (Spinhoven et al, 2015). However, over and above a general factor accounting for the commonality shared by the RNT measures, rumination and worry measures still show a differential and unique although smaller effect on measures for symptom severity.…”

“…In addition, it has been found that PTQ scores prospectively predict severity of depressive symptoms in a nonclinical sample (Topper et al, 2014), also after controlling for baseline severity (Raes, 2012). Given the high overlap among different measures for RNT, a few studies have tried to identify common variance across measures of RNT using structural equation modelling (Arditte et al, 2016;Hur et al, 2017;McEvoy and Brans, 2012;Segerstrom et al, 2000;Spinhoven et al, 2015). Overall, these studies show that the shared variance of perseverative…”

“…However, over and above a general factor accounting for the commonality shared by the RNT measures, rumination and worry measures still show a differential and unique although smaller effect on measures for symptom severity. In these studies the unique variance in rumination or brooding proved to be related with depression (McEvoy and Brans, 2012;Segerstrom et al, 2000;Spinhoven et al, 2015) and the unique variance in worry with anxiety outcomes (Hur et al, 2017;Spinhoven et al, 2015) (but see Topper et al (2014) for an exception). Besides some prospective studies of RNT for the course of anxiety and depression symptoms in nonclinical student samples (Raes, 2012;Topper et al, 2014), there are no clinical studies examining the degree to which RNT or shared versus unique aspects of RNT are prospectively associated with depression and anxiety outcomes.…”