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Evaluating anxiety sensitivity as a moderator of misophonia and dimensions of aggression
Status:: #status/reviewed
Metadata
- Item Type: #journalArticle
- Authors: Mary J. Schadegg, Heather L. Clark, Laura J. Dixon
- Date: 05/2021
- Date Added: 2021-04-20
- URL: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2211364921000373
- DOI: 10/gj4n4m
- Cite key: undefined
- Topics: ../Misophonia MOC
- Tags: #Misophonia
- PDF Attachments
Abstract
Misophonia is characterized by increased physiological and emotional reactivity to particular sounds (e.g., chewing), which has been associated with impulsive and aggressive behaviors. To better understand the expression of misophonia, the current study investigated the moderating role of anxiety sensitivity (AS) in the relation between misophonia and facets of aggression (i.e., anger, hostility, verbal aggression, and physical aggression). Participants (N = 470; Mage = 18.68 years; 74.0% female) included college students who endorsed misophonia symptoms and completed online self-report questionnaires. Four regression analyses were conducted to examine the interaction between misophonia symptoms and AS on each aggression facet. Results revealed that significant variance was accounted for in each facet of aggression, with the association between misophonia and anger, hostility, and verbal aggression (respectively) strengthening as increased. This study provides additional support for the association between misophonia and aggressive behavioral tendencies, suggesting AS may operate as a pivotal factor in the expression of anger and aggressive responses in misophonia. These findings implicate AS a potential treatment target that could enhance outcomes for patients struggling with misophonia.
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| Background/Purpose | Background- • anxiety sensitivity is a process implicated in many clinical syndromes, which may be relevant to misophonia. Purpose- • see if anxiety sensitivity (AS) has a moderating role between misophonia symptoms and facets of aggression. |
| Participants/samples | 470 undergraduate students whop endorsed sensitivity to at least one sound on the Misophonia Questionnaire |
| Measures | • the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire • The Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 • The Misophonia Questionnaire |
| Procedures | Hyps- • there would be a positive correlation b/w misophonia and the aggressive facets examined. • AS would moderate the association between misophonia and aggressive facets by strengthen the relationships between the two. Analysis • moderation analysis via PROCESS 3.2.01 model 1 (Hayes, 2018) for SPSS |
| Results | • misophonia symptoms were positively correlated associated with AS and all four aggression facets. • AS moderated association b/w Miso and anger, hostility, and verbal aggression. • men showed greater effect of AS in all aspects except physical aggression |
| Discussion/Limits | Conclusion- • results indicate that AS is a relevant process in miso. • targeting AS may aid in miso treatment |
| Limitations:: | • homogenous sample limits generalizability • cross-sectional design of study inhibits any claims of causation • Social desirability may have caused an underreporting of aggressive behavior. |
| Relevance:: | mildly interesting examination of a possible moderating variable for misophonia. |
Notes
key terms and concepts:
my questions
my comments
misc. notes
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Anxiety Sensitivity-
- a transdiagnostic process characterized by increased aversive responses to phycological symptoms and subsequent catastrophizing of said symptoms.
- is implicated in a number of clinical syndromes, mood and anxiety disorders, and predicts high risk behaviors (ex: non suicidal self injury), suicide, and substance abuse
- is theorized to amplify the experience of distress
- theoretical models see AS as moderating factor across a range of emotional/behavioral outcomes.
-
moderation analysis-
- analysis to determine what/if moderation role of a third variable between two variables.
Annotations
(1/10/2023, 7:11:43 PM)
To better understand the expression of misophonia, the current study investigated the moderating role of anxiety sensitivity (AS) in the relation between misophonia and facets of aggression (i.e., anger, hostility, verbal aggression, and physical aggression) (pdf)
Results revealed that significant variance was accounted for in each facet of aggression, with the association between misophonia and anger, hostility, and verbal aggression (respectively) strengthening as increased (pdf)
This study provides additional support for the association between misophonia and aggressive behavioral tendencies, suggesting AS may operate as a pivotal factor in the expression of anger and aggressive responses in misophonia. (pdf)
These findings implicate AS a potential treatment target that could enhance outcomes for patients struggling with misophonia. (pdf)
prevalence rates higher then I thought?
Prevalence rates in undergraduate samples suggest as many as 20% of individuals experience misophonia symptoms (Wu et al., 2014; Zhou et al., 2017), (pdf)
Miso linked with impulse control disorders? need to make sure to have this study.
impulse control disorders (Robinson et al., 2018 (pdf)
Miso linked to eating disorders?! need to make sure I have this study.
eating disorders (Kluckow et al., 2014) (pdf)
new details about responses. need to make sure to have this source.
reactions to misophonia stimuli tend to emphasize the emotional, physiological, and behavioral signatures of anger (Potgieter et al., 2019) (pdf)
Anxiety sensitivity (AS): what it is and it's relevance to Misophonia.
Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a well-established transdiagnostic process that has been implicated in a broad range of clinical syndromes (Smits et al., 2019). Individuals with elevated AS are likely to misinterpret physiological symptoms as aversive and catastrophize consequences of these symptoms as harmful, dangerous, or embarrassing (Reiss & McNally, 1985). In addition to its role in mood and anxiety disorders (Naragon-Gainey, 2010), AS predicts engagement in high risk behaviors, such as non-suicidal self-injury (Dixon et al., 2019), suicide (Stanley et al., 2018) and substance use (Keough et al., 2018; McCaul et al., 2017). Across conditions, AS is theorized to amplify physiological arousal and the experience of distress (Taylor et al., 2007); thus, in the context of misophonia, AS may similarly exacerbate reactions to aversive sounds. To this end, preliminary research has demonstrated AS is significantly correlated with misophonia severity (Cusack et al., 2018; McKay et al., 2018); however, the impact of AS on outcomes relevant to misophonia have not been investigated. (pdf)
goal of study
The purpose of the current study is to enhance our understanding of misophonia by examining the moderating role of AS in the relation between misophonia symptoms and facets of aggression, including anger, hostility, verbal aggression, and physical aggression (Buss & Perry, 1992). (pdf)
what is moderation analysis
Moderation analyses evaluate how a third variable effects the relationship between two variables by determining under what circumstances a relationship exists and whether it is strengthened or weakened by the third variable (Hayes & Rockwood, 2017).To better understand the expression of misophonia, the current study investigated the moderating role of anxiety sensitivity (AS) in the relation between misophonia and facets of aggression (i.e., anger, hostility, verbal aggression, and physical aggression) (pdf)
Moderation analyses (pdf)
As hypothesized, misophonia symptoms were found to be positively associated with AS and each of the four facets of aggression (pdf)
AS moderated the association between misophonia and three of the dimensions of aggression – anger, hostility, and verbal aggression. In addition, significant conditional effects were observed, wherein male sex, greater misophonia symptoms, and higher levels of AS contributed to increases in aggressive tendencies. Specifically, the association between misophonia and each of these aggression facets strengthened as levels of AS increased, and this interactive effect accounted for 1.2% unique variance in anger, 1.1% unique variance in hostility, and 2.0% unique variance in verbal aggression (pdf)
These results highlight AS a relevant cognitive-emotional process in misophonia, which extends the characterization of misophonia and informs future studies investigating key psychological mechanisms in misophonia. (pdf)
results suggest that targeting AS may help ameliorate these and other adverse outcomes associated with misophonia. (pdf)
Unexpectedly, while physical aggression was predicted by the conditional effects of male sex, misophonia, and AS, findings did not support AS as a factor contributing to physical aggression by magnifying misophonia reactivity (pdf)
future work (pdf)
Several limitations should be noted and addressed in future research (pdf)
Accordingly, a critical next step is the use of experimental designs to explicate the role of AS on aggressive responses to misophonia sounds. If supported, such findings have the potential to inform investigations aimed at improving outcomes for individuals with misophonia. For instance, the potential utility of brief AS reduction interventions is supported by research demonstrating the positive impact of reducing AS on improving outcomes for related conditions, such obsessive-compulsive spectrum symptoms (Timpano et al., 2016) and tinnitus (Andersson et al., 2005); however, it is unclear if similar effects would be expected for aggression. (pdf)