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Testing the Relationship Between Social Anxiety Schemas, Mindfulness Facets, and State and Trait Social Anxiety Symptoms

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Abstract

The current study evaluated the extent to which facets of trait mindfulness moderate the relationship between social anxiety schemas and responses to a social anxiety stressor task. We also evaluated whether specific trait mindfulness facets uniquely predicted state stressor responding and trait social anxiety symptoms, controlling for social anxiety schemas and other mindfulness facets. Participants’ (N = 235; 70.6% female) social anxiety schemas were assessed by a measure of early maladaptive schemas. Participants also engaged in a speech task, following which behavioral avoidance (speech time) and self-reported desired avoidance and state anxiety were assessed. Results were analyzed using structural equation modeling and indicated that mindfulness facets were not a significant moderator of the relation between schemas and behavioral avoidance. However, results suggested that specific mindfulness facets function as unique predictors of responses to a social anxiety stressor and trait anxiety symptoms, above and beyond social anxiety schemas and other facets of mindfulness. Interestingly, results indicated that the Describe facet of mindfulness was the most robust predictor of state stressor responding. Given their differential prediction of social anxiety symptoms, results highlight the importance of individually evaluating the unique components of mindfulness, as opposed to testing mindfulness as a unified construct.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism R21AA021151 grant awarded to the last author. The second author, Dr. Luebbe, is supported by the Robert H. and Nancy J. Blayney Professorship at Miami University.

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Correspondence to E. Marie Parsons.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Parsons, E.M., Luebbe, A.M. & Clerkin, E.M. Testing the Relationship Between Social Anxiety Schemas, Mindfulness Facets, and State and Trait Social Anxiety Symptoms. Mindfulness 8, 1634–1643 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-017-0738-6

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