An examination of the fear of bodily sensations and body hypervigilance as predictors of emotion regulation difficulties among individuals with a recent history of uncued panic attacks

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that individuals with a history of uncued panic attacks exhibit heightened difficulties in emotion regulation, including experiential avoidance, emotional non-acceptance, and lack of emotional clarity. The purpose of this study was to extend these findings by examining whether the fear of bodily sensations predicted the presence of experiential avoidance and emotional non-acceptance and whether body hypervigilance predicted a lack of emotional clarity in a sample of 91 individuals with a recent history (past year) of uncued panic attacks. Findings indicated that the fear of bodily sensations predicts experiential avoidance, emotional non-acceptance, and lack of emotional clarity above and beyond other panic-relevant variables. No evidence was found for a relationship between body hypervigilance and any emotion regulation difficulty. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for improving the understanding of the development and treatment of emotion regulation difficulties among individuals with a history of panic attacks.