Emotional responding: Integration of multiple constructs and association with psychological health

Numerous psychological constructs exist to describe different facets of emotional responding, but they have rarely been examined together. We empirically modeled the associations between four psychological constructs (mindfulness, emotional nonacceptance, experiential avoidance, and anxiety sensitivity) of individuals' responses to their affective experience, hypothesizing that a bifactor model would fit the data best.

We used exploratory structural equation modeling, a novel latent variable modeling framework, to compare five measurement models of emotional responding in an online community sample (N = 307).

A bifactor model including a general emotional responding factor had substantial factor loadings from nearly all items, with mixed results for specific factors. Exploratory analyses supported the significant association of avoidant emotional responding and psychopathology/well-being.

The general avoidant emotional responding factor appears to overlap most directly with experiential avoidance and may be a transtheoretical construct relevant to mental health.