Broman-Fulks, J. J., Hall, C. A., Kelso, K. C., & Kundert, C. (2021). Incremental Validity of the AAQ-II for Anxiety Disorder Symptomology. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 22, 77-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2021.09.007
Experiential avoidance is conceptualized as a core psychopathological process in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Much of the empirical support for the theoretical conceptualization and efficacy of ACT interventions is based on operationally defining experiential avoidance as scores on the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II; Bond et al., 2011) and its predecessor, the AAQ (Hayes et al., 2004). However, both measures have been criticized for exhibiting poor discriminant validity from measures of related constructs. The present study sought to evaluate the incremental predictive validity of the AAQ-II for symptoms of panic, social anxiety, generalized anxiety, obsessive compulsive, and posttraumatic stress disorders after controlling for neuroticism, functional impairment, life satisfaction, anxiety sensitivity, quality of life, positive and negative affect, and distress tolerance in a large sample of adults (n = 552). A series of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that AAQ-II scores uniquely predicted anxiety symptoms over and above measures of related constructs for all outcomes except social anxiety. Relative weights analysis revealed that the AAQ-II accounted for 10.5–17.5% of the variance in outcome scores explained by regression models and emerged as one of the top three predictors by relative weight in all five models. The present findings support the empirical and clinical utility of the AAQ-II and indicate that its predictive power for anxiety disorder symptomology is not simply attributable to overlap with measures of related constructs.
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