Associations among anxiety sensitivity, intolerance of uncertainty, and experiential avoidance: Are these key processes underlying anxiety-related pathology adequately distinct from each other?

Anxiety sensitivity (AS), Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU), and Experiential Avoidance (EA) have been conceptualized as key transdiagnostic processes underlying anxiety pathology. However, little work has been done to examine whether AS, IU, and EA are adequately distinct from one another in relation to concerns about jangle fallacies - whether two or more measures with different labels may actually assess the same construct. The present study used data from 300 treatment-seeking individuals with a primary diagnosis of one of five anxiety-related disorders-panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, or posttraumatic stress disorder-to examine the nature of shared variance among these variables. First, Pearson product-moment correlations were computed using total scores from pretreatment values for the ASI-3, IUS-27, and BEAQ. Second, these associations were re-examined accounting for general anxiety and depressive symptoms by calculating partial correlations. Third, to test whether the five scales represented distinct but correlated latent constructs, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) at the item level, and subsequently an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Fourth, in exploratory analyses, we examined unique prediction of anxiety for each of these measures and employed a recently-recommended strategy for assessing extrinsic convergent validity. Overall, our analyses indicated that these constructs are distinguishable from each other and general measures of anxiety and depression, yet their underlying structure is more fine-grained than reflected by total scores from these measures. Despite successful differentiation at a subfactor level, exploratory analysis revealed extrinsic convergent validity issues.