Shared Variance Among Self-Report and Behavioral Measures of Distress Intolerance
Submitted on Saturday, 6 February 2010
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Abstract Distress intolerance may be an important individual difference variable in understanding maladaptive coping responses across
diagnostic categories. However, the measurement of distress intolerance remains inconsistent across studies and little evidence
for convergent validity among existing measures is available. This study evaluated the overlap among self-report and behavioral
measures of distress intolerance in four samples, including an unselected sample, a sample of patients with drug dependence,
and two samples of cigarette smokers. Results suggested that the self-report measures were highly correlated, as were the
behavioral measures; however, behavioral and self-report measures did not exhibit significant associations with each other.
There was some evidence of domain specificity, with anxiety sensitivity demonstrating strong associations with somatic distress
intolerance, and a lack of association between behavioral measures that elicit affective distress and those that elicit somatic
distress. These findings highlight a potential divergence in the literature relative to the conceptualization of distress
intolerance as either sensitivity to distress or as the inability to persist at a task when distressed. Further research is
needed to elucidate the conceptualization and measurement of distress intolerance to facilitate future clinical and research
applications of this construct.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Category Original Article
- DOI 10.1007/s10608-010-9295-1
- Authors
- R. Kathryn McHugh, Boston University Department of Psychology 648 Beacon Street, 6th Floor Boston MA 02215 USA
- Stacey B. Daughters, University of Maryland Department of Public and Community Health College Park MD 20742 USA
- Carl W. Lejuez, University of Maryland Center for Addiction, Personality, and Emotion Research, Department of Psychology College Park MD 20742 USA
- Heather W. Murray, Boston University Department of Psychology 648 Beacon Street, 6th Floor Boston MA 02215 USA
- Bridget A. Hearon, Boston University Department of Psychology 648 Beacon Street, 6th Floor Boston MA 02215 USA
- Stephanie M. Gorka, University of Maryland Department of Public and Community Health College Park MD 20742 USA
- Michael W. Otto, Boston University Department of Psychology 648 Beacon Street, 6th Floor Boston MA 02215 USA
- Journal Cognitive Therapy and Research
- Online ISSN 1573-2819
- Print ISSN 0147-5916
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