Well-Being and Generalized Anxiety in Japanese Undergraduates: A Prospective Cohort Study

Takebayashi Yoshitake

Tanaka Keisuke

Sugiura Yoshinori

Sugiura Tomoko

Journal of Happiness Studies

Psychological well-being is thought to protect against common mental health problems. This study investigated the buffering effects of psychological well-being on the relationships between cognitive vulnerabilities (fear of anxiety and negative beliefs about worry) and GAD symptoms among 297 Japanese undergraduates (female = 62%, age = 18.91 ± 1.61) in a two-wave prospective cohort study. Participants completed the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire for DSM-IV, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, anxiety control subscale of Affective Control Scale, negative belief about worry subscale of Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire, and Nishida’s psychological well-being scale. A moderated regression analysis tested the buffering effect of psychological well-being sub-dimensions on the relationship between cognitive vulnerabilities and generalized anxiety symptoms. Fear of anxiety (β = 0.16, p＜0.01) and negative beliefs about worry (β = 0.16, p＜0.01) at baseline predicted generalized anxiety at follow-up, after controlling for baseline symptoms, and three interaction terms significantly predicted generalized anxiety symptoms. Purpose in life and autonomy buffered the negative relationship between cognitive vulnerabilities and generalized anxiety symptoms. Contrary to the hypothesized relationship, positive relationships with others at baseline facilitated a positive relationship between fear of anxiety and generalized anxiety symptoms. Those results suggested that enhanced Purpose in life and Autonomy dimension of Psychological well-being may be useful in preventing GAD, while the enhanced positive relationship with others dimension of Psychological well-being may facilitate generalized anxiety, as a function of fear of anxiety. In a primary prevention setting, it may be useful to consider the dimensions of Psychological well-being.

Generalized anxiety disorder

Psychological well-being

Fear of anxiety

Negative beliefs about worry

eng

Springer Verlag

 The Author(s) 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

[ISSN] 1389-4978

[ISSN] 1573-7780

[DOI] 10.1007/s10902-017-9852-3

[DOI] https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-017-9852-3