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Leen-Feldner, Ellen W.

Psychology

2004

Ph. D.

The current study provided a test of a cognitive diathesis-stress model of panic vulnerability among adolescents using a convergence of multimethod laboratory-based assessment and multi-informant questionnaire data. Specifically, the main and interactive effects of anxiety sensitivity and stressful life events were examined in relation to multiple indices of panic and anxious responding. The sample was comprised of 160 psychologically healthy adolescents, as indexed by the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual- Fourth Edition (DSM-IV): Child Version (ADIS-C; Silverman & Albano, 1996), between the ages of 12 and 17 (M = 14.62). Participants and their parents completed self-report indices of panic and anxiety twice across a one-month interval, and adolescents participated in a three-minute hyperventilation challenge. Results indicated: 1) main effects as expected for anxiety sensitivity; 2) a general absence of main effects for stress; and 3) interactions for adolescent-reported panic, but not general anxious, responding; these findings were partially consistent with hypotheses. Findings are discussed in relation to etiological theories of panic disorder among youth.