Decomposing the Relationship Between Anxiety Sensitivity and Alcohol Use

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective:The misuse of alcohol is related to numerous detrimental health effects. Research has determined anxiety sensitivity (AS) to be a risk factor for problematic alcohol use. To date, no studies have investigated this relationship using a bifactor model of AS. This study used a bifactor model to determine the effects of the general AS factor and the cognitive, physical, and social concerns subfactors on alcohol-related outcomes. Method: The sample consisted of 329 participants selected from a larger sample of individuals in a brief smokingcessation intervention. Latent factor models were used to determine the effects of the bifactor model of AS on alcohol use behavior. Results: The general AS factor was significantly associated with alcohol use problems but not alcohol consumption. The AS subfactors of cognitive, physical, and social concerns were not significantly related to either alcohol variable. Conclusions: The findings are inconsistent with previous research that has found associations between the AS subfactors and alcoholrelated outcomes. The use of a bifactor model of AS allowed the variance associated with AS to be parceled out of the subfactors, indicating that general AS accounts for the relationship between AS and alcohol misuse. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 76, 957-961, 2015)

Interactive Effects of Traumatic Brain Injury and Anxiety Sensitivity on PTSD Symptoms: A Replication and Extension in Two Clinical Samples

“…The ASI-3 is composed of a total score and three lower-order subscales: AS cognitive concerns, AS physical concerns, and AS social concerns. The ASI-3 has exhibited strong psychometric properties, including internal consistency, factor stability, and divergent validity (Chavarria et al, 2015 ; Farris et al, 2015 ; Taylor et al, 2007). In the current study, the ASI-3 total, cognitive, physical, and social scores demonstrated good internal reliability ( α ’s = .93, .90, .89, and .83, respectively).…”

Is anxiety sensitivity a risk factor for, or complication of, alcohol misuse? A meta-analysis

“…We tested whether AS is a risk factor for, or complication of, alcohol misuse by conducting a comprehensive meta-analysis. While cross-sectional research has found conflicting evidence of AS's association with quantity of alcohol use (Stewart et al, 1995(Stewart et al, , 2001, research does suggest AS is related to increased frequency of alcohol consumption (Stewart et al, 2001), frequency of binge drinking (Stewart et al, 1995(Stewart et al, , 2001, and alcohol-related problems (Chavarria et al, 2015). Given these findings, we expected to find similar results in prospective research on AS.…”

Towards a greater understanding of anxiety sensitivity across groups: The construct validity of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3

“…Although preliminary work following the Taylor et al (2007) development of the ASI-3 confirmed the initial three-factor structure (Kemper et al, 2012; Wheaton et al, 2012), an emerging body of evidence now supports a bi-factor structure for the ASI-3 (Allan et al, 2015; Chavarria et al, 2015; Ebesutani et al, 2014; Osman et al, 2010; Rifkin et al, 2015). A bi-factor model separates a general factor (e.g., anxiety sensitivity) that is orthogonal with a set of subfactors (e.g., physical concerns, cognitive concerns, and social concerns) and can determine, based upon the degree to which individual items load onto the general factor and the specific subfactors, whether a scale is better represented as multidimensional or unidimensional (Reise et al, 2010).…”