Adaptive functions of self-focused attention: Insight and depressive and anxiety symptoms

作者：Nakajima Miho^*; Takano Keisuke; Tanno Yoshihiko

来源：Psychiatry Research, 2017, 249: 275-280.

DOI：10.1016/j.psychres.2017.01.026

• Self-focused attention
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Transdiagnostic factor

Maladaptive forms of self-focus, such as rumination, are considered transdiagnostic factors that contribute to depressive and anxiety symptoms. However, no or few studies have explored the possibility that adaptive forms of self-focus can also be a common factor that is negatively associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms. To test this possibility, we first examined the psychometric properties of a scale measuring adaptive forms of self focus (the Self-Reflection and Insight Scale) on Japanese undergraduates (n=117). We replicated the two-factor structure of the scale: (a) self-reflection, which is a tendency to focus purposefully on self for self-regulation, and (b) insight, which is a sense of clear self-understanding. Second, we tested our specific hypothesis that these two factors negatively predict a common factor of depressive and anxiety symptoms. The results of structural equation modeling showed that insight (but not self-reflection) has a significant negative association with a latent variable that explains both depressive and anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, this common-factor model explained the data better than a control model in which insight predicts depressive and anxiety symptoms individually. These results suggest that (lack of) insight plays an important role in psychological (mal) adjustment as a shared process in depressive and anxiety symptoms.

• 出版日期2017-3