Relationship of affect intolerance with anxiety, depressive, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms in youth

Structural research on the construct of affect intolerance (an overarching latent construct indicated by distress tolerance and anxiety sensitivity) has only been conducted in adults. Given that a self-report measure of distress tolerance was recently validated for youth and affect intolerance may be a core mechanism of transdiagnostic interventions for internalizing disorders, we examined how affect intolerance relates to internalizing symptoms in youth. We predicted that a latent affect intolerance factor (indicated by distress tolerance and anxiety sensitivity) would be associated with self and parent-reports of youth anxiety, depressive, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, controlling for age and gender.

At a pre-treatment evaluation, youth with a primary depressive, anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder (N=277) aged 8-17, and their parent, completed questionnaires.

Greater levels of the affect intolerance factor predicted greater youth- and parent-reported youth anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, controlling for age.

Future research should replicate findings in a sample with a greater proportion of depressed youth and utilize experimental or longitudinal methods.

Importantly, distress tolerance and anxiety sensitivity are core transdiagnostic processes that can be targeted in cognitive-behavioral interventions. Future research should examine how transdiagnostic interventions for youth with internalizing disorders can target these cross-cutting emotional vulnerabilities.