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Perceived and behavioral distress tolerance: links with avoidance and anxiety
Hannah S Ishimuro1, Anne DePrince1, Kateri McRae1
1Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA.
Anxiety, Stress, and Coping
|September 29, 2025
Summary
Low distress tolerance (DT) is linked to anxious avoidance. Perceived DT, not behavioral DT, was most associated with anxiety and experiential avoidance in students.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Anxiety Disorders
Background:
- Distress tolerance (DT) theories link low DT to anxious avoidance.
- Inconsistent operational definitions and measurement of DT exist across studies.
- This study investigates DT's association with avoidance behaviors in anxiety.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the relationship between perceived and behavioral DT with experiential and anxiety-specific behavioral avoidance.
- To explore potential moderation of anxiety on DT-avoidance associations.
- To determine which DT measures predict anxiety when considered together.
Main Methods:
- 174 undergraduate students completed online questionnaires.
- Measures included perceived DT, anxiety symptoms, experiential avoidance, and anxiety-specific behavioral avoidance.
- A behavioral DT task was administered to assess distress responses.
Main Results:
- Perceived DT correlated with experiential and anxiety-specific behavioral avoidance.
- Anxiety did not moderate the associations between DT and avoidance.
- Higher anxiety was linked to greater distress during the behavioral DT task.
- Perceived DT and experiential avoidance were the strongest predictors of anxiety variance.
Conclusions:
- Perceived and behavioral DT measures capture distinct constructs.
- Behavioral DT tasks may be less effective in eliciting distress in highly anxious individuals.
- Perceived DT and experiential avoidance are significantly associated with anxiety.
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