Anxiety, worry, and difficulty concentrating: a longitudinal examination of concurrent and prospective symptom relationships

Blendermann, M.; Breaux, R.; Fried, E.I.; Naragon-Gainey, K.; Starr, L.R.; Stewart, J.; Teachman, B.A.; Hallion , L.S.

doi:doi:10.1016/j.beth.2025.01.004

Difficulty concentrating is an understudied cognitive phenomenon, despite its status as a diagnostic criterion for generalized anxiety disorder and contributor to clinically significant distress and impairment. Worry may constitute a cognitive mechanism by which anxiety leads to difficulty concentrating. The present study examined concurrent and prospective associations between self-reported anxiety, worry, and subjective difficulty concentrating across three timepoints (T1 April/May, T2 July/August, T3 October/ November 2020) in 198 adults (M age = 37.94, SD = 13.42; 81% women, 2% gender minority) drawn from a larger study of trajectories of psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic. In multilevel models, anxiety was associated with worry both between (/J = 0.65, SE = 0.13) and within participants (/J = 0.12, SE = 0.11). Difficulty concentrating was also associated with worry between (/J = 0.38, SE = 0.03) and within participants (b = 0.09, SE = 0.02). In a structural equation...Show moreDifficulty concentrating is an understudied cognitive phenomenon, despite its status as a diagnostic criterion for generalized anxiety disorder and contributor to clinically significant distress and impairment. Worry may constitute a cognitive mechanism by which anxiety leads to difficulty concentrating. The present study examined concurrent and prospective associations between self-reported anxiety, worry, and subjective difficulty concentrating across three timepoints (T1 April/May, T2 July/August, T3 October/ November 2020) in 198 adults (M age = 37.94, SD = 13.42; 81% women, 2% gender minority) drawn from a larger study of trajectories of psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic. In multilevel models, anxiety was associated with worry both between (/J = 0.65, SE = 0.13) and within participants (/J = 0.12, SE = 0.11). Difficulty concentrating was also associated with worry between (/J = 0.38, SE = 0.03) and within participants (b = 0.09, SE = 0.02). In a structural equation model worry partially mediated the longitudinal associatio between anxiety and difficulty concentrating, though thi effect was nonsignificant after controlling for difficulty concentrating at T2 and worry, depression, sleep distur bance, and difficulty concentrating at T1. The unadjuste mediation and these other findings are in line with theoret ical accounts of worry as a cognitive mechanism linking anxiety to subjective attentional problems.Show less

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Anxiety, worry, and difficulty concentrating: a longitudinal examination of concurrent and prospective symptom relationships