Health anxiety, rumination, and negative affect: A mediational analysis

Abstract Objective A ruminative cognitive style has been associated with a variety of mood and anxiety disorders. This study examined whether a ruminative cognitive style is associated with health anxiety, even when controlling for negative affect. Method College students ( N =198) completed measure...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of psychosomatic research 2008-05, Vol.64 (5), p.495-501
Main Authors: Marcus, David K, Hughes, Kathleen T, Arnau, Randolph C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Affect
Anxiety
Anxiety Disorders - diagnosis
Anxiety Disorders - epidemiology
Anxiety Disorders - psychology
Attitude to Health
Biological and medical sciences
Cognitive model
Cognitive styles
Female
Health anxiety
Health beliefs
Health Status
Humans
Hypochondriasis
Male
Medical sciences
Negative affect
Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Rumination
Severity of Illness Index
Somatoform disorders. Psychosomatics
Structural equation modeling
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary:Abstract Objective A ruminative cognitive style has been associated with a variety of mood and anxiety disorders. This study examined whether a ruminative cognitive style is associated with health anxiety, even when controlling for negative affect. Method College students ( N =198) completed measures of health anxiety, rumination, and negative affect and estimated the likelihood that ambiguous symptoms were indicative of catastrophic illnesses. These data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results A ruminative cognitive style was both indirectly associated with health anxiety via its strong relationship with negative affect and was also directly associated with health anxiety. Furthermore, catastrophizing ambiguous symptoms was also directly related to health anxiety. Conclusion High health anxiety individuals not only hold dysfunctional beliefs about health and illness but they also think about their distress in a ruminative manner. A more complete cognitive–behavioral model of health anxiety should include not only cognitive contents (“what”) but also cognitive style (“how”).
ISSN:0022-3999
1879-1360
DOI:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2008.02.004