Positive and Negative Affect as Links Between Social Anxiety and Depression: Predicting Concurrent and Prospective Mood Symptoms in Unipolar and Bipolar Mood Disorders

Abstract

The co-occurrence of social anxiety and depression is associated with increased functional impairment and a more severe course of illness. Social anxiety disorder is unique among the anxiety disorders in sharing an affective profile with depression, characterized by low levels of positive affect (PA) and high levels of negative affect (NA). Yet it remains unclear how this shared affective profile contributes to the covariation of social anxiety and depressive symptoms. We examined whether self-reported PA and NA accounted for unique variance in the association between social anxiety and depressive symptoms across three groups (individuals with remitted bipolar disorder, type I [BD; n = 32], individuals with remitted major depressive disorder [MDD; n = 31], and nonpsychiatric controls [n = 30]) at baseline and follow-ups of 6 and 12 months. Low levels of PA, but not NA, accounted for unique variance in both concurrent and prospective associations between social anxiety and depression in the BD group; in contrast, high levels of NA, but not PA, accounted for unique variance in concurrent and prospective associations between social anxiety and depression in the MDD group. Limitations include that social anxiety and PA/NA were assessed concurrently and all measurement was self-report. Few individuals with MDD/BD met current diagnostic criteria for social anxiety disorder. There was some attrition at follow-up assessments. Results suggest that affective mechanisms may contribute to the high rates of co-occurrence of social anxiety and depression in both MDD and BD. Implications of the differential role of PA and NA in the relationship between social anxiety and depression in MDD and BD and considerations for treatment are discussed.

Psychopathological Consequences Related to Problematic Instagram Use Among Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Body Image Dissatisfaction and Moderating Role of Gender

“…Body image dissatisfaction (BID) has been defined as "the discrepancy between identification of one's own figure (actual) and the figure one chose as the desirable self-image (ideal)" (Forrest and Stuhldreher 2007;p.18) and is highly prevalent among adolescents (Neumark-Sztainer et al 2002). According to body dissatisfaction theory, BID is associated with higher negative affect (Stice and Shaw 2002), which is a general predictor of elevated psychopathological symptoms and psychiatric disorders (Cohen et al 2017;Watson et al 1988). In addition, BID is associated with elevated depression, general anxiety, loneliness, and social anxiety (Aderka et al 2014;Liang et al 2016;Sharpe et al 2018;Sujoldžić and De Lucia 2007).…”

Manifestaciones afectivas en jóvenes con discapacidad intelectual

“…Desde el ámbito de la Psicopatología, se describieron alteraciones y trastornos que dan apoyo a la idea de que estados de ánimo positivos y negativos pueden ser experimentados de forma muy intensa (emociones positivas y negativas) en períodos de tiempo muy breves e incluso en el mismo momento (Padrós, Soriano & Navarro, 2012).…”

Positive and Negative Affect Changes during Gender-Affirming Hormonal Treatment: Results from the European Network for the Investigation of Gender Incongruence (ENIGI)

“…From previous studies we know that transgender people suffer more from psychiatric complaints (especially problems with mood, anxiety and substance use/abuse) compared to cisgender individuals [ 7 , 8 ]. Depression and anxiety complaints are characterized by high negative affect (NA), which corresponds to a high level of distress and unpleasurable feelings [ 9 , 10 ]. Affect refers to the outward expression of feelings and emotions.…”