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Perceived Emotion Control Moderates the Relationship Between Neuroticism and Generalized Anxiety Disorder

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Abstract

The relationships between neuroticism, perceived emotion control, and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) severity were examined in 293 individuals diagnosed with GAD at a specialty anxiety disorders clinic. Hierarchical regression analyses performed within a structural equation modeling framework revealed that (1) neuroticism and perceived emotion control both predicted a latent variable of GAD in the expected direction, and (2) perceived emotion control moderated the relationship between neuroticism and GAD severity, such that lower levels of perceived emotion control were associated with a stronger relationship between neuroticism and GAD severity. The other dimensions of perceived control (i.e., stress and threat control) did not moderate the effect of neuroticism on GAD severity. The findings are discussed with regard to their implications to conceptual models of the psychopathology of GAD, and theory-based differential relationships between dimensions of vulnerability, perceived control, and anxiety disorders.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Grant R01 MH039096 (PI: Timothy A. Brown) from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Conflict of Interest

Michelle L. Bourgeois and Timothy A. Brown declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Standard

The Boston University Institutional Review Board approved all procedures.

Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

Animal Rights

No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, 648 Beacon Street, 6th Floor, Boston, MA, 02215-2013, USA

    Michelle L. Bourgeois & Timothy A. Brown

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  1. Michelle L. Bourgeois
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  2. Timothy A. Brown
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Correspondence to Michelle L. Bourgeois.

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The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Mental Health or the National Institutes of Health.

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Bourgeois, M.L., Brown, T.A. Perceived Emotion Control Moderates the Relationship Between Neuroticism and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Cogn Ther Res 39, 531–541 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-015-9677-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-015-9677-5

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