Do appearance related safety behaviors contribute to distress intolerance? A Multi-method examination

Abstract

Individuals elevated in distress intolerance (DI) may engage in dysfunctional behavioral strategies to cope with their distress. One behavioral strategy that may be related to DI is appearance related safety behavior (ARSB; i.e., maladaptive behavior that seeks to mitigate the feared consequences of the negative evaluation of appearance). We examined the relationship between DI and ARSBs in two separate samples of women. In Study 1 (N = 91), we found in an unselected sample that ARSBs were robustly associated with DI cross-sectionally while accounting for symptoms of depression and body dysmorphia. Further, greater ARSBs predicted increases in DI longitudinally. In Study 2, among a clinical sample of women with elevated appearance concerns (N = 94), we examined the experimental effect of reducing ARSBs compared to a self-monitoring control. Relative to control, instructions to reduce ARSBs led to lower DI, but this effect was only found for individuals low in baseline DI. Overall, we found preliminary evidence that ARSBs may be a salient factor in contributing to and maintaining DI; and SB fading may be a helpful strategy for reducing DI. We discuss these findings in the context of existing literature and provide directions for future research.