Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T12:26:54.479Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Comparison of Death Anxiety, Intolerance of Uncertainty and Self-Esteem as Predictors of Social Anxiety Symptoms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2019

Juanita Lowe Open the ORCID record for Juanita Lowe [Opens in a new window]  and
Lynne M. Harris
Juanita Lowe
Affiliation:
Australian College of Applied Psychology, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Lynne M. Harris*
Affiliation:
Australian College of Applied Psychology, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
*
*Corresponding author: Lynne Harris, Australian College of Applied Psychology, Level 11, 255 Elizabeth Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia. Email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

This study sought to examine the role of death anxiety as a transdiagnostic predictor of social anxiety symptomatology compared to self-esteem and intolerance of uncertainty, and to examine the relationship between measures of intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity and death anxiety. A total of 591 participants, 445 females, average age 38.0 years (SD = 14.5), completed an online survey including background questions, the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale, the Social Interaction Anxiety and Social Phobia Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale, the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire, the Spirituality Scale, and the Death Anxiety Scale. No significant, independent relationship was found between death anxiety and social anxiety symptomatology, although self-esteem and intolerance of uncertainty were significant predictors of both measures of social anxiety, confirming the importance of these key transdiagnostic mediators as predictors of social anxiety symptomatology. A strong negative correlation was found between death anxiety and measures of both intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity in this general population sample not selected for high religious affiliation.

Keywords

death anxietyreligiositysocial anxietytransdiagnostic
Type
Standard Paper
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 165 - 179
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdel-Khalek, AM (2004). The Arabic scale of death anxiety (ASDA): Its development, validation, and results in three Arab countries. Death Studies, 28, 435–457.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Arndt, J, Routledge, C, Cox, C and Goldenberg, JL (2005). The worm at the core: A terror management perspective on the roots of psychological dysfunction. Applied and Preventative Psychology, 11,191–213.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2008). National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing: Summary of results, Australia, 2007 (ABS cat. no. 4326.0). Canberra, Australia: Author.Google Scholar
Barlow, DH, Allen, L and Choate, ML (2004). Toward a unified treatment for emotional disorders. Behavior Therapy, 35, 205–230.Google Scholar
Boelen, PA and Reijntjes, A (2009). Intolerance of uncertainty and social anxiety. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 23, 130–135.Google Scholar
Brown, TA, Campbell, LA, Lehman, CL, Grisham, JR and Mancill, RB (2001). Current and lifetime comorbidity of the DSM-IV anxiety and mood disorders in a large clinical sample. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 585–599.Google Scholar
Carleton, RN, Norton, MA and Asmundson, GJG (2007). Fearing the unknown: A short version of the intolerance of uncertainty scale. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 21, 105–117.Google Scholar
Carleton, RN, Mulvogue, MK, Thibodeau, MA, McCabe, RE, Antony, MM and Asmundson, GJG (2012). Increasingly certain about uncertainty: Intolerance of uncertainty across anxiety and depression. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 26, 468–479.Google Scholar
Carleton, RN (2016). Into the unknown: A review and synthesis of contemporary models involving uncertainty. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 39, 30–43.Google Scholar
Cohen, AB, Pierce, JD, Chambers, J, Meade, R, Gorvine, BJ and Koenig, HG (2005). Intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity, belief in the afterlife, death anxiety, and life satisfaction in young Catholics and Protestants. Journal of Research in Personality, 39, 307–324.Google Scholar
Counsell, A, Furtado, M, Iorio, C, Anand, L, Canzonieri, A, Fine, A and Katzman, MA (2017). Intolerance of uncertainty, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety: Differences by diagnosis and symptoms. Psychiatry Research, 252, 63–69.Google Scholar
Dalrymple, KL (2012). Issues and controversies surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of social anxiety disorder. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 12, 993–1009.Google Scholar
Dalrymple, KL and Zimmerman, M (2011). Treatment-seeking for social anxiety disorder in a general outpatient psychiatry setting. Psychiatry Research, 187, 375–381.Google Scholar
Delaney, C (2005). The Spirituality Scale: Development and psychometric testing of a holistic instrument to assess the human spiritual dimension. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 23, 1–23.Google Scholar
Edwards, SD (2012). Standardization of a Spirituality Scale with a South African sample. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 22, 649–658.Google Scholar
Ellis, L and Wahab, EA (2013). Religiosity and fear of death: A theory-oriented review of the empirical literature. Review of Religious Research, 55, 149–189.Google Scholar
Finch, EC, Iverach, L, Menzies, RG and Jones, M (2016). Terror mismanagement: Evidence that mortality salience exacerbates attentional bias in social anxiety. Cognition and Emotion, 30, 1370–1379.Google Scholar
Freeston, MH, Rheaume, J, Letarte, H, Dugas, MJ and Ladouceur, R (1994). Why do people worry? Personality and Individual Differences, 17, 791–802.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J, Solomon, S, Pyszczynski, T, Rosenblatt, A, Burling, J, Lyon, D and Pinel, E (1992). Why do people need self-esteem? Converging evidence that self-esteem serves an anxiety-buffering function. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 913–922.Google Scholar
Gumley, A, O'Grady, M, Power, K and Schwannauer, M (2004). Negative beliefs about self and illness: A comparison of individuals with psychosis with or without comorbid social anxiety disorder. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 38, 960–964.Google Scholar
Harding, SR, Flannelly, KJ, Weaver, AJ and Costa, KG (2005). The influence of religion on death anxiety and death acceptance. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 8, 253–261.Google Scholar
Harvey, AG, Watkins, E, Mansell, W and Shafran, R (Eds.). (2004). Cognitive behavioural processes across psychological disorders: A transdiagnostic approach to research and treatment. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Heflick, NA and Goldenberg, JL (2012). No atheists in foxholes: Arguments for (but not against) afterlife belief buffers mortality salience effects for atheists. British Journal of Social Psychology, 51, 385–392.Google Scholar
Iverach, L, Menzies, RG and Menzies, RE (2014). Death anxiety and its role in psychotherapy: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct. Clinical Psychology Review, 34, 580–593Google Scholar
Jong, J, Ross, R, Philip, T, Chang, S-H, Simons, N and Halberstadt, J (2018). The religious correlates of death anxiety: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Religion, Brain and Behavior, 8, 4–20.Google Scholar
Juhl, J and Routledge, C (2016). Putting the terror in terror management theory: Evidence that the awareness of death does cause anxiety and undermine psychological well-being. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25, 99–103.Google Scholar
Kessler, RC, Berglund, P, Demler, O, Jin, R, Merhikangas, KR and Walters, EE (2005). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 593–602.Google Scholar
Khawaja, NG and Yu, LNH (2010). A comparison of the 27-item and 12-item intolerance of uncertainty scales. Clinical Psychologist, 14, 97–106.Google Scholar
Koenig, HG, McCullough, ME and Larson, DB (2001). Handbook of religion and health. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lovibond, SH and Lovibond, PF (1995). Manual for the depression anxiety and stress scales (5th ed.). Sydney, Australia: Psychology Foundation.Google Scholar
Maldonado, L, Huang, Y, Chen, R, Kasen, S, Cohen, P and Chen, H (2013). Impact of early adolescent anxiety disorders on self-esteem development from adolescence to young adulthood. Journal of Adolescent Health, 53, 287–292.Google Scholar
McManus, F, Shafran, R and Cooper, Z (2010). What does a ‘transdiagnostic’ approach have to offer the treatment of anxiety disorders? British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 49, 491–505.Google Scholar
McMordie, WR (1981). Religiosity and fear of death: Strength of belief system. Psychological Reports, 49, 921–922.Google Scholar
Merikangas, KR, He, J, Burstein, M, Swanson, SA, Avenevoli, S, Cui, L … Swendsen, J (2010). Lifetime prevalence of mental disorders in US adolescents: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication — Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 49, 980–989.Google Scholar
Norenzayan, A and Hansen, IG (2006). Belief in supernatural agents in the face of death. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 174–187.Google Scholar
Paulus, DJ, Talkovsky, AM, Heggeness, LF and Norton, PJ (2015). Beyond negativity affectivity: A hierarchical model of global and transdiagnostic vulnerabilities for emotional disorders. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 44, 389–405.Google Scholar
Peters, L, Sunderland, M, Andrews, G, Rapee, RM and Mattick, RP (2012). Development of a short form Social Interaction Anxiety (SIAS) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS) using nonparametric item response theory: The SIAS-6 and the SPS-6. Psychological Assessment, 24, 66–76. doi:10.1037/a0024544Google Scholar
Plante, TG and Boccaccini, MT (1997). The Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire. Pastoral Psychology, 45, 375–387.Google Scholar
Plante, TG, Vallaeys, CL, Sherman, AC and Wallston, KA (2002). The development of a brief version of the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith questionnaire. Pastoral Psychology, 50, 359–368.Google Scholar
Plante, TG (2010). The Santa Clara strength of religious faith questionnaire: Assessing faith engagement in a brief and nondenominational manner. Religions, 1, 3–8.Google Scholar
Ramsawh, HJ, Raffa, SD, Orlando Edelen, M, Rende, R and Keller, MB (2009). Anxiety in middle adulthood: Effects of age and time on the 14-year course of panic disorder, social phobia and generalised anxiety disorder. Psychological Medicine, 39, 615–624.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, M (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rossellini, A, Rutter, LA, Bourgeois, ML, Emmert-Aronson, BO and Brown, TA (2013). The relevance of age of onset to the psychopathology of social phobia. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 35, 356–365.Google Scholar
Routledge, C, Ostafin, B, Juhl, J, Sedikides, C, Cathey, C and Liao, J (2010). Adjusting to death: The effects of self-esteem and mortality salience on well-being, growth motivation, and maladaptive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 897–916.Google Scholar
Royal, KD and Elahi, FE (2011). Pyschometric properties of the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) among terminally ill cancer patients. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 29, 359–371.Google Scholar
Schmitt, DP and Allik, J (2005). Simultaneous administration of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in 53 nations: Exploring the universal and culture-specific features of global self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 623–642.Google Scholar
Sinclair, SJ, Blais, MA, Gansler, DA, Sandberg, E, Bistis, K and LoCicero, A (2010). Psychometric properties of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: Overall and across demographic groups living across the United States. Evaluation and the Health Professions, 33, 56–80.Google Scholar
Stein, MB and Stein, DJ (2008). Social anxiety disorder. Lancet, 371, 1115–1125.Google Scholar
Strachan, E, Schimel, J, Arndt, J, Williams, T, Solomon, S, Pyszcnynski, T and Greenberg, J (2007). Terror mismanagement: Evidence that mortality salience exacerbates phobic and compulsive behaviours. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 1137–1151.Google Scholar
Tabachnick, BG & Fidell, LS (2014). Using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson Education.Google Scholar
Templer, DI (1970). The construction and validation of a death anxiety scale. The Journal of General Psychology, 82, 229–233.Google Scholar
Tomás-Sábado, J and Gómez-Benito, J (2002). Psychometric properties of the Spanish form of Templer's Death Anxiety Scale. Psychological Reports, 91, 1116–1120.Google Scholar
Torrey, WC, Mueser, KT, McHugo, GH and Drake, RE (2000). Self-esteem as an outcome measure in studies of vocational rehabilitation for adults with severe mental illness. Psychiatric Services, 51, 229–233.Google Scholar
Vail, KE III, Arndt, J and Abdollahi, A (2012). Exploring the existential function of religion and supernatural agent beliefs among Christians, Muslims, Atheists, and Agnostics. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 1288–1300.Google Scholar
Wink, P and Scott, J (2005). Does religiousness buffer against the fear of death and dying in late adulthood? Findings form a longitudinal study. Journal of Gerontology, 60B, 207–214.Google Scholar