The Interactive Effect of Anxiety Sensitivity and Metacognitive Beliefs on Anxiety

Abstract

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) has been identified as a contributing factor to the development and maintenance of anxiety. Individuals with high AS are sensitive to bodily cues and anxiety-related thoughts and often misinterpret these stimuli as catastrophic or dangerous. Similarly, negative and positive metacognitive beliefs (i.e., beliefs about thinking) are believed to increase internal threat monitoring and the use of maladaptive coping strategies, which may increase the impact of AS on anxiety. As such, the purpose of the present study was to examine the moderating role of metacognitive beliefs on the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and anxiety. Adult participants (N = 417), recruited through an online crowdsourcing website, completed a battery of measures assessing the constructs of interest. Results from multiple linear regression indicated that the relationship between AS and anxiety became significantly stronger as negative and positive metacognitive beliefs increased, thus suggesting that negative and positive metacognitive beliefs may exacerbate the effect of AS on anxiety. The development of risk profiles that incorporate AS and negative and positive metacognitive beliefs may be beneficial for early identification of individuals at high risk for the development of anxiety.