Support for the general and specific bifactor model factors of anxiety sensitivity

Anxiety sensitivity and post-traumatic stress reactions: Evidence for intrusions and physiological arousal as mediating and moderating mechanisms

“…Although previous research suggests that the somatic component of AS may account for the association between AS and symptoms of PTSD (Brown & McNiff, 2009;Collimore, McCabe, Carleton, & Asmundson, 2008), it is interesting to note that physiological arousal during initial exposure to the traumatic film did not moderate the association between AS specifically for physical concerns and the number of intrusions the day after viewing the film. One explanation for this is that, because physical concerns are a fundamental component of AS, the general AS factor better captures AS physical concerns (Allan et al, 2015). This finding appears to be consistent with recent bifactor models of AS that highlight the utility of a general AS factor and multiple group factors (Ebesutani et al, 2014;Osman et al, 2010).…”

“…For example, research has shown that the physical (Asmundson & Stapleton, 2008) and psychological (Feldner, Lewis, Leen-Feldner, Schnurr, & Zvolensky, 2006;Lang et al, 2002) dimensions of AS may be the most predictive of PTSD. However, the bifactor model highlights the importance of examining the extent to which a general AS dimension and distinct physical, cognitive, and social concerns dimensions may be differentially related to PTSD-relevant processes (Allan, Albanese, Short, Raines, & Schmidt, 2015).…”

Examining the unique relations between anxiety sensitivity factors and suicidal ideation and past suicide attempts

“…2012b), implying that high AS physical concerns might act as a protective factor for the development of suicidal ideation. However, given that prior bifactor studies indicate that global AS encompasses the core features of AS, including most of the variance attributable to AS physical concerns (Allan et al, 2015), the positive relation between the global AS factor and suicidal ideation contradicts these prior studies. The bivariate relations in these prior studies support the findings of the current study and suggests suppression effects were accounting for the significant negative relation between AS physical concerns and suicidal ideation (controlling for AS cognitive concerns), as bivariate correlations between AS physical concerns and suicidal ideation and suicidality were positive and significant across most studies (although all bivariate correlations were positive, not all were significantly so (Capron et al, 2012a(Capron et al, , 2012b.…”

“…Second, we hypothesized that there would be a significant negative relation between the global AS factor and suicidal ideation and past attempts. This hypothesis was based on past studies demonstrating a negative relation between AS physical concerns and suicidality (Capron et al, 2012a) as well as studies indicating that the global AS factor predominantly captures AS physical concerns (Allan et al, 2015). We hypothesized that AS physical and social concerns would not be associated with suicidal ideation or past attempts after accounting for the relations between AS cognitive concerns and the global AS factor.…”

“…In this approach, common variance, representing AS more generally, can be distinguished from variance specific to the lowerorder factors (i.e., cognitive, physical, and social concerns). In fact, several authors have used this approach to validate and implement a bifactor model of AS (Mohlman and Zinbarg, 2000;Osman et al, 2010;Ebesutani et al, 2013;Allan et al, 2015). Thus, a bifactor model of AS will allow for the investigation of both the global AS factor and specific AS dimensions simultaneously in the prediction of suicidality.…”