The structure of social-evaluative threat detection in social anxiety disorder.

J Anxiety Disord

Centre for Emotional Health, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Published: August 2020

The integrated aetiological and maintenance (IAM) model of social anxiety disorder (SAD) conceptualises four social-evaluative cognitive processes (anticipatory processing, attention to the self, attention to threat in the environment, and post-event processing) as facets of a social-evaluative threat detection construct. The current study tested this by examining potential factor structures underlying the four social-evaluative cognitive processes. Baseline data from two randomised controlled trials, consisting of 306 participants with SAD who completed measures of the four social-evaluative cognitive processes in relation to a speech task, were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. Model fit indices and bifactor model indices showed that the optimal factor structure was a bifactor model with a Social-evaluative Threat Detection General Factor and two group factors corresponding to anticipatory processing and post-event processing. Analyses also indicated that the Social-evaluative Threat Detection General Factor had moderate to large associations with other constructs in the IAM model, whereas the two group factors only had small associations with these constructs. These findings suggest that the four social-evaluative cognitive processes can be unified as facets of a social-evaluative threat detection process, consistent with the IAM model, although group factors for anticipatory processing and post-event processing need to be taken into account.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102273DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

social-evaluative threat
20
threat detection
20
social-evaluative cognitive
16
cognitive processes
16
iam model
12
anticipatory processing
12
post-event processing
12
group factors
12
social anxiety
8
anxiety disorder
8

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!