Dataset Information

Disentangling the effects of attentional difficulties on fears of social evaluation and social anxiety symptoms: Unique interactions with sluggish cognitive tempo.

ABSTRACT: Although fears of negative and positive social evaluation are hallmark cognitive features of social anxiety, attentional difficulties may exacerbate the relation between fears of social evaluation and social anxiety. Thus, the goal of the current study was to test whether two different types of self-reported attentional difficulties, specifically sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) inattention symptoms, moderate the relation between fears of social evaluation and social anxiety. Participants (N = 4756; Mage = 19.28 years; 72.7% female) enrolled in five universities across the United States completed self-report measures of fears of negative and positive evaluation and psychopathology symptoms. Results indicated a significant two-way interaction of fear of negative evaluation and SCT in relation to social anxiety symptoms, as well as a significant two-way interaction of fear of positive evaluation and SCT in relation to social anxiety symptoms. In both instances, the associations between fears of negative and positive evaluation in relation to social anxiety became increasingly stronger at higher levels of SCT. Conversely, the interactions between fears of negative and positive evaluation with ADHD inattentive symptoms were non-significant. These results are the first to report that self-reported SCT, but not ADHD inattentive symptoms, exacerbate the relation between fears of social evaluation and social anxiety, and suggest that attentional difficulties characteristic of SCT may prolong engagement in fears.

SUBMITTER: Fredrick JW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7669641 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:ObjectiveSluggish cognitive tempo refers to a constellation of symptoms that include slowed behavior/thinking, reduced alertness, and getting lost in one's thoughts. Despite the moniker "sluggish cognitive tempo," the evidence is mixed regarding the extent to which it is associated globally with slowed (sluggish) mental (cognitive) information processing speed (tempo).MethodA well-characterized clinical sample of 132 children ages 8-13 years (M = 10.34, SD = 1.51; 47 girls; 67% White/non-Hispanic) were administered multiple, counterbalanced neurocognitive tests and assessed for sluggish cognitive tempo symptoms via multiple-informant reports.ResultsBayesian linear regressions revealed significant evidence against associations between sluggish cognitive tempo and computationally modeled processing speed (BF01 > 3.70), and significant evidence for associations with slower working memory manipulation speed. These findings were consistent across parent and teacher models, with and without control for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder inattentive symptoms and IQ. There was also significant evidence linking faster inhibition speed with higher parent-reported sluggish cognitive tempo symptoms.ConclusionsThese findings provide strong evidence against characterizing children with sluggish cognitive tempo symptoms as possessing a globally sluggish cognitive tempo. Instead, these symptoms appear to be related, to a significant extent, to executive dysfunction characterized by working memory systems that are too slow and inhibition systems that are too fast. Behaviorally, these findings suggest that requiring extra time to rearrange the active contents of working memory delays responding, whereas an overactive inhibition system likely terminates thoughts too quickly and therefore prevents intended behaviors from starting or completing, thereby giving the appearance that children are absent-minded or failing to act when expected. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Project description:BackgroundAlexithymia (difficulties in identifying and describing emotion) is a transdiagnostic trait implicated in social-emotional and mental health problems in the general population. Many autistic individuals experience significant social-communication difficulties and elevated anxiety/depression and alexithymia. Nevertheless, the role of alexithymia in explaining individual variability in the quality/severity of social-communication difficulties and/or anxiety and depression symptoms in autism remains poorly understood.MethodsIn total, 337 adolescents and adults (autism N = 179) were assessed for alexithymia on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and for social-communication difficulties, anxiety and depression symptoms. A total of 135 individuals (autism N = 76) were followed up 12-24 months later. We used regression models to establish cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between alexithymia, social-communication difficulties, anxiety and depression symptoms.ResultsAutistic individuals reported significantly higher alexithymia than comparison individuals (p < 0.001, r effect size = 0.48), with 47.3% of autistic females and 21.0% of autistic males meeting cut-off for clinically relevant alexithymia (score ⩾61). Difficulties in describing feelings were particularly associated with current self-reported social-communication difficulties [p < 0.001, β = 0.57, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.44-0.67] and predicted later social-communication difficulties (p = 0.02, β = 0.43, 95% CI 0.07-0.82). Difficulties in identifying feelings were particularly associated with current anxiety symptom severity (p < 0.001, β = 0.54, 95% CI 0.41-0.77) and predicted later anxiety (p = 0.01; β = 0.31, 95% CI 0.08-0.62).ConclusionsOur findings suggest that difficulties in identifying v. describing emotion are associated with differential clinical outcomes in autism. Psychological therapies targeting emotional awareness may improve social-communication and anxiety symptoms in autism, potentially conferring long-term benefits.

Dataset Information

Disentangling the effects of attentional difficulties on fears of social evaluation and social anxiety symptoms: Unique interactions with sluggish cognitive tempo.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets