1121 MORNINGNESS-EVENINGNESS AND SOCIAL ANXIETY: THE INDIRECT EFFECT THROUGH PUNISHMENT SENSITIVITY AND EXPERIENTIAL AVOIDANCE

• Published in: Sleep (New York, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2017-04, Vol.40 (suppl_1), p.A418-A418
• Main Authors: Markarian, SA, Warnke, AS, Pickett, SM
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Avoidance behavior; Social anxiety
• ISSN: 0161-8105; 1550-9109
• DOI: 10.1093/sleepj/zsx050.1120

Abstract Introduction: Chronotype, or the preference to organize daily activities in the morning or evening, has been linked to individual differences in a variety of outcomes, including personality, mood, and anxiety. Specifically, an evening preference, termed eveningness, has demonstrated poorer outcomes across various domains compared to morningness. One such outcome is increased risk for social anxiety (i.e., a fear that others will evaluate or notice their anxiety and become embarrassed or humiliated). Research suggests that evening-types have greater difficulty coping with social demands compared to morning-types and the organization of activities in the evening limits their positive social experiences, both of which have been shown to be important factors underlying social anxiety. Therefore, social encounters may become aversive and subsequently avoided. The current study examined whether eveningness was associated with increased punishment sensitivity and subsequent experiential avoidance, and whether these factors were associated with increased social anxiety. Methods: Using online survey methodology, 347 participants were recruited through Amazon MTURK. Morningness-eveningness (ME), punishment sensitivity, experiential avoidance and social anxiety were assessed using validated measures. Results: The PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to run a serial mediation model using 5,000 bootstrapped samples. ME was entered as the predictor variable, social anxiety as the outcome variable, and punishment sensitivity and experiential avoidance as serial mediators. The overall model was significant, F(3, 297) = 21.99, R2 = .18, p < .001 . The direct effect of ME on social anxiety (β = -.12, t = -2.14, p = .03) was no longer significant after the serial mediators were added to the model (β = -.00, t = -.11, p = .92), indicating a full indirect effect between ME and social anxiety through punishment sensitivity and experiential avoidance. Conclusion: Results indicate that eveningness is related to social anxiety through increased punishment sensitivity, which is subsequently related to increased experiential avoidance. Eveningness preference, which may foster sensitivity to perceived aversive experiences and increase avoidance of those experiences that subsequently leads to social avoidance/anxiety. Taken together, the findings suggest that increasing acceptance of aversive experiences may reduce avoidance in evening-types and reduce social anxiety. Support (If