Fear of Anxiety in Fearful Adults: An Analysis of Heterogeneity Among Phobia Types

Abstract

Fear of anxiety, the fear of developing physiological symptoms associated with anxiety, is investigated in this study and the extent to which fear of anxiety is differentially present in the various subtypes of specific phobias. Participants were 260 undergraduate students divided into those having fears corresponding to one of the specific phobia types and those having no reported fears. Participants completed a variety of measures including the Agoraphobic Cognitions Questionnaire and the Body Sensations Questionnaire. Results indicated fearful participants had more fear of anxiety than non-fearful participants. In addition, non-fearful participants reported significantly less frequent catastrophic cognitions than fearful participants of the situational and other types. Non-fearful control participants also reported less fear of bodily sensations than fearful participants of the animal and other subtypes. This study provides supporting evidence that the phenomenon of fear of anxiety is present in fears similar to specific phobias.