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Are worry, rumination, and post-event processing one and the same? Development of the repetitive thinking
Peter M McEvoy1, Alison E J Mahoney, Michelle L Moulds
1Centre for Clinical Interventions, Perth, Western Australia 6003, Australia. peter.mcevoy@health.wa.gov.au
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
|April 23, 2010
Summary
Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a transdiagnostic phenomenon. A new scale measuring RNT and its absence (ART) shows reliability and links to distress and cognitive factors.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Background:
- Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is recognized as a transdiagnostic phenomenon.
- Existing measures of RNT (worry, rumination, post-event processing) are disorder-specific.
- A unified transdiagnostic measure of RNT is needed for efficiency and identifying shared maintaining factors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a single, transdiagnostic measure of repetitive negative thinking (RNT).
- To assess the psychometric properties of the new RNT scale.
- To examine the relationship between the RNT scale and theoretically relevant cognitive constructs.
Main Methods:
- Items from three existing RNT measures were adapted to be diagnosis-neutral.
- Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify underlying factors in a sample of 284 undergraduate students.
- Internal reliability, convergent validity (associations with distress and cognitive factors), and predictive utility were assessed.
Main Results:
- Factor analysis yielded two scales: Repetitive Negative Thinking (RNT) and Absence of Repetitive Thinking (ART).
- The RNT scale demonstrated high internal reliability.
- The RNT scale was significantly associated with anxiety, depression, anger, shame, general distress, metacognitions, cognitive avoidance, thought suppression, and thought control.
Conclusions:
- The developed RNT scale is a reliable and valid transdiagnostic measure.
- The findings support the role of RNT as a transdiagnostic process.
- The RNT scale can facilitate research and clinical assessment of repetitive negative thinking.
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