When is experiential avoidance harmful in the moment? Examining global experiential avoidance as a moderator

Levin, Michael E.; Krafft, Jennifer; Pierce, Benjamin; Potts, Sarah

doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2018.07.005

Cited by 37 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…A second set of models (see Table 4) examined whether between-subjects variability in negative affect (trait negative affect) moderated the association day-to-day to variability in EA with solitary drinking that evening. This was intended to model concepts derived from newer research suggesting EA tends to be most harmful when deployed inflexibly and frequently (e.g., Kashdan et al, 2014;Levin et al, 2018). In other words, it may be more fruitful to examine between subject, trait-like moderators to identify for whom EA is more or less problematic, rather than examining within subject, state-like variables to identify when EA is problematic for all individuals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiential avoidance and negative affect as predictors of daily drinking.

Luoma¹,

Pierce²,

Levin³

2020

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

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People who drink alcohol to cope with negative affect tend to drink more and experience more frequent negative alcohol-related consequences. Experiential avoidance, the tendency to avoid, suppress, or otherwise attempt to control unwanted inner experiences, is a largely pathological process that may help account for how negative affect is linked to increased alcohol consumption. However, research to-date has typically used global, trait-like measures, which limit our understanding of the conditions under which experiential avoidance is problematic. The current study tested both between-person (trait) and within-person (daily) variation in experiential avoidance and negative affect as predictors of solitary and social drinking in a sample of 206 adult drinkers who completed daily diaries for 21 days. Participants higher in trait experiential avoidance drank alone more often, while those higher in trait negative affect consumed greater quantities when drinking alone. Although daily fluctuations in experiential avoidance did not predict solitary drinking, there was a significant interaction between daily experiential avoidance and trait negative affect. For participants high in trait negative affect, greater experiential avoidance on a given day predicted consuming more when drinking alone.For participants low in trait negative affect, greater experiential avoidance on a given day predicted drinking alone more often, but consuming fewer drinks on these occasions. Experiential avoidance did not predict social drinking in any model. Overall, results suggest that a broader tendency to experience negative affect sets the context for experiential avoidance to be linked to more harmful patterns of drinking.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiential avoidance and negative affect as predictors of daily drinking.

Luoma¹,

Pierce²,

Levin³

2020

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

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“…One item assessed a restructuring response to self-critical thoughts ("Overall, I was able to challenge my self-critical thoughts today" [Challenging]) and one item assessed the believability of thoughts, which might be relevant to both restructuring and defusion ("Overall, I didn't believe my self-critical thoughts were true today" [Not believing]. A final item asked about valued action (i.e., personally meaningful actions), "Overall, I was able to do what matters to me today" which was adapted from previous research (Levin, Krafft et al, 2018).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary findings on processes of change and moderators for cognitive defusion and restructuring delivered through mobile apps

Levin

Krafft

et al. 2021

Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science

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“…Yet, the effects for daily life openness are promising, given that multiple studies showed that low openness towards aversive mood states and cognitions is associated with reduced wellbeing and other negative outcomes including social anxiety and paranoia (Hershenberg et al, 2017;Levin et al, 2018;Machell et al, 2015;O'Toole et al, 2017;Udachina et al, 2009Udachina et al, , 2014Wenze et al, 2018). That is, low openness towards unwanted experiences may paradoxically exhaust the cognitive and emotional strategies needed to engage effectively in valued activities or important social interactions (Kashdan et al, 2014).…”

Section: Momentary Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological flexibility and the moderating role of the therapeutic working alliance in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Daily Life (ACT-DL) in an early psychosis sample

Aubel

Vaessen

Winkel

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Background: We investigated treatment effects of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Daily Life (ACT-DL) on psychological flexibility (PF) and the moderating role of the therapeutic working alliance on these effects in patients with early psychosis. Methods: ACT-DL is an ecological momentary intervention (EMI) combining face-to-face ACT with a smartphone app. In the multi-center INTERACT randomized controlled trial, n=148 early psychosis individuals were randomized to either treatment as usual (TAU as the control condition, n=77) or to ACT-DL in addition to TAU (ACT-DL + TAU as the experimental condition, n=71). We assessed global PF and the therapeutic alliance with self-report questionnaires. In addition, we used the experience sampling methodology (ESM) to assess PF with a momentary (in-the-moment and since-the-previous-beep openness) and an evening (daily PF) questionnaire. Assessments took place at baseline, post-intervention (POST), six (FU6), and twelve months (FU12) follow-up. Results: Global (B=19.49 to 33.14; all P-values<.001) and daily PF (B=0.68; P-value<.001) improved equally in both conditions at each time point. Individuals in the ACT-DL condition improved more than those in TAU on momentary openness (in-the-moment openness at POST (B=0.32; P-value=0.007) and since-the-previous-beep openness at POST (B=0.33; P<.001) and FU6 (B=0.23; P-value=0.025). Client-perceived working alliance moderated in-the-moment openness such that larger improvements in openness at POST (B=0.05; P-value<.001) were found in ACT-DL in individuals with higher working alliance scores. Conclusion: Our results provide partial support for the capability of ACT-DL to improve daily life measures of openness, and emphasize the importance of the therapeutic relationship in supporting processes of change.

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When is experiential avoidance harmful in the moment? Examining global experiential avoidance as a moderator

Abstract: Overall, these results suggest engaging in experiential avoidance in the moment has more negative, immediate effects particularly among those who engage in global, inflexible patterns of experiential avoidance.

Cited by 37 publications

References 24 publications

Experiential avoidance and negative affect as predictors of daily drinking.

Experiential avoidance and negative affect as predictors of daily drinking.

Preliminary findings on processes of change and moderators for cognitive defusion and restructuring delivered through mobile apps

Psychological flexibility and the moderating role of the therapeutic working alliance in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Daily Life (ACT-DL) in an early psychosis sample

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