Distress intolerance as a moderator of the relationship between daily stressors and affective symptoms: Tests of incremental and prospective relationships

Abstract

Background Distress intolerance (DI) is conceptualized as an individual difference reflective of the ability to tolerate aversive psychological states. Although high DI has demonstrated cross-sectional associations with multiple forms of psychopathology, few studies have tested key facets of its theoretical conceptualization. Specifically, little research has been conducted on DI's theorized role as an incrementally valid prospective moderator of the relationship between daily stressful events and affective symptoms reflective of preoccupation with aversive internal (e.g., depression, worry) rather than external stimuli (e.g., social anxiety). Method A non-clinical sample (N = 147; 77% female; M age = 19.32) in which high DI individuals were oversampled was recruited. Participants completed baseline measures of DI and trait negative affect followed by six diary entries over a two-week period in which participants reported on daily stressors, negative affect, worry, depressive, and social anxiety symptoms. Results Hierarchical linear models revealed that DI positively predicted depressive and worry, but not social anxiety symptoms, independent of daily stressors and negative affect. Further, a significant interaction effect was found such that the positive association between daily stressor(s) occurrence and daily worry was significant at high, but not low DI, and a similar trend-level interaction effect was observed for depressive symptoms. The interaction for social anxiety symptoms was non-significant Limitations Utilization of a non-clinical sample precludes generalization of results to clinical samples. Only self-reported DI was assessed, limiting conclusions to perceived as opposed to behaviorally-indexed DI. Conclusions Results largely supported DI's theoretical conceptualization as an incrementally valid moderator of stress responding with relevance to particular affective symptoms.

Distress tolerance and symptoms of depression: A review and integration of literatures

“…As anticipated, low self-reported DT has nearly unanimously been found to be associated with higher symptoms of depression Ameral et al, 2017;Anestis et al, 2007Anestis et al, , 2012Anestis et al, , 2013Banducci, Connolly, Vujanovic, Alvarez, & Bonn-Miller, 2017;Benfer, Bardeen, & Fergus, 2017;Bernstein et al, 2009Bernstein et al, , 2011Brandt, Zvolensky, & Bonn-Miller, 2012;Brooks Holliday, Pedersen, & Leventhal, 2016;Buckner et al, 2007;Capron et al, 2013;Chasson, Bello, Luxon, Graham, & Leventhal, 2017;Cougle et al, 2011;Cougle, Timpano, & Goetz, 2012;Dennhardt & Murphy, 2011;Elhai, Levine, O'Brien, & Armour, 2018;Hashoul-Andary et al, 2015;Huang, Szabo, & Han, 2009;Iverson et al, 2012;Kelly et al, 2014;Keough, Riccardi, & J., Timpano, K. R., Mitchell, M. A., & Schmitdt, N., B., 2010;Kiselica et al, 2015;Lin, You, Wu, & Jiang, 2018;Macatee, Albanese, Allan, Schmidt, & Cougle, 2016;Magidson et al, 2013;McDermott et al, 2018;McHugh et al, 2014;Norr, Allan, Macatee, Keough, & Schmidt, 2014;O'Cleirigh, Ironson, & Smits, 2007;Peterson, Davis-Becker, & Fischer, 2014;Shaw & Timpano, 2016;Timpano et al, 2009;…”

Distress intolerance moderation of motivated attention to cannabis and negative stimuli after induced stress among cannabis users: an ERP study

“…) and the bottom quartile score in a non‐clinical young adult sample (Macatee et al . ), respectively. Among the 489 individuals screened, 63 high DI users were recruited as part of a larger Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) evaluating the efficacy of a computerized DI treatment in regular cannabis users reporting difficulty managing negative emotions; the high DI group's baseline data were used in the present study.…”

“…; Macatee et al . ) during acute stress. DI has not been evaluated as a moderator of laboratory stressor responding in cannabis users, although two studies have evaluated stressor‐elicited craving and negative affect among frequent users, with mixed results (McRae‐Clark et al .…”

Attention bias towards negative emotional information and its relationship with daily worry in the context of acute stress: An eye-tracking study

“…The study was open to all students who expressed interest in participating, though individuals in the top quartile of scores on a measure of distress intolerance were oversampled as part of the larger study aims (Distress Intolerance Index; McHugh & Otto, 2012). Given that distress intolerance has been robustly linked to worry in multiple studies (Allan, Macatee, Norr, & Schmidt, 2014; Macatee, Capron, Guthrie, Schmidt, & Cougle, 2015; Macatee et al, 2016), we believed that the sample would provide a suitably wide range of negative attention bias and worry scores for testing our hypotheses. Participants earned course credit for completing the study.…”