Anxiety Sensitivity in Adolescents at Risk for Psychopathology

Abstract

Examined the associations of adolescents' self-reported anxiety sensitivity with semistructured, interview-based anxiety and depressive symptoms and anxiety disorders. The sample included 121 adolescents and their parents who participated in a larger epidemiological, high-risk family study of substance abuse and anxiety disorders (Merikangas, Dierker, & Szatmari, 1998). A series of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed the incremental validity of anxiety sensitivity, beyond the contribution of self-rated anxiety, to anxiety symptoms and comorbid anxiety disorders. Furthermore, familial risk for anxiety moderated the association between anxiety sensitivity and number of anxiety symptoms as well as number of comorbid anxiety disorders. Analyses of high- and low-risk groups demonstrated that the association between anxiety sensitivity and anxiety symptoms and disorders was evident in high-risk adolescents only. Although self-reported anxiety was associated with depressive symptoms, anxiety sensitivity was not. Results from this investigation further support the utility of assessing anxiety sensitivity in an adolescent population and suggest it as a trait marker of anxiety among at-risk individuals.