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Bernstein, Amit

Psychology

PhD

The proposed study represents an effort to better understand the latent structure of anxiety sensitivity (AS) among youth by means of employing taxometric and factor analytic approaches in an integrative manner. First, consistent with prediction, taxometric analyses indicated that AS, as indexed by the Child Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI; Silverman, Flesig, Rabian, & Peterson, 1991), demonstrates taxonic latent class structure in a large sample of youth from North America (N--4462). Second, consistent with prediction, confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the latent continuous, multidimensional, four-factor model of AS among youth (Silverman, Goedhart, Barrett, & Turner, 2003) provided good fit for the ASI data among the complement class ("normative form" of AS) but not among the taxon class ("vulnerability-conferring form" of AS). Finally, exploratory factor analyses supported the prediction that the AS taxon demonstrates a unique, heretofore unexplored latent continuous, unidimensional factor structure among youth, distinct from that observed among the complement class (normative form) and previous factor analytic studies of mixed-class samples. These findings suggest that (a) the latent structural nature of AS among youth may be conceptualized as discontinuous or taxonic, composed of two types or forms of AS; and (b) each of these forms may be characterized by its own unique, systematically meaningful latent continuity and dimensional structure. These results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and clinical implications for the study of AS and vulnerability for anxiety psychopathology.