I Really Believe I Suffer From a Health Problem: Examining an Association Between Cognitive Fusion and Healthy Anxiety

Fergus, Thomas A.

doi:10.1002/jclp.22194

Cited by 25 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Cognitive fusion was positively correlated with anxiety and depression. Other studies have found a moderate association between CF and anxiety that was not due to negative affect; moreover, this association was independent of EA [53,54]. Furthermore, a study [55] examined the mediating effect of CF in a cross-sectional design.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive Fusion Mediates the Relationship between Dispositional Mindfulness and Negative Affects: A Study in a Sample of Spanish Children and Adolescent School Students

García-Gómez

Guerra

Ramos

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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Nowadays, mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) have experienced a remarkable development of studies among childhood and adolescent interventions. For this reason, dispositional mindfulness (DM) measures for children and adolescents have been developed to determine the effectiveness of MBI at this age stage. However, little is known about how key elements of DM (for example, cognitive de/fusion or experiential avoidance that both confirm psychological inflexibility) are involved in the mechanisms of the children and adolescents’ mental health outcomes. This research examined the mediating effect of cognitive fusion between DM and anxiety and other negative emotional states in a sample of 318 Spanish primary-school students (aged between 8 and 16 years, M = 11.24, SD = 2.19, 50.8% males). Participants completed the AFQ-Y (Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for youth), which is a measure of psychological inflexibility that encompasses cognitive defusion and experiential avoidance; CAMM (DM for children and adolescents), PANAS-N (positive and negative affect measure for children, Spanish version of PANASC), and STAIC (an anxiety measure for children). The study accomplished ethical standards. As MBI relevant literature has suggested, cognitive defusion was a significant mediator between DM and symptoms of both negative emotions and anxiety in children and adolescents. However, experiential avoidance did not show any significant mediating relationship. Probably, an improvement of the assessment of experiential avoidance is needed. MBI programs for children and adolescents may include more activities for reducing effects of the cognitive defusion on their emotional distress.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive Fusion Mediates the Relationship between Dispositional Mindfulness and Negative Affects: A Study in a Sample of Spanish Children and Adolescent School Students

García-Gómez

Guerra

Ramos

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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“…This is the case of global distress (Bolderston 2013), depression and/or anxiety (Bolderston 2013;Cvetanovski 2014;Dinis et al 2015;Gillanders et al 2014;Kerr 2010), health anxiety (Fergus 2015), anxiety sensitivity (Solé et al 2015a), stress (Cvetanovski 2014), burnout (Gillanders et al 2014), pain-related variables (Solé et al 2015b), experiential avoidance (Dinis et al 2015;Gillanders et al 2014;Reuman et al 2016), rumination (Gillanders et al 2014;Kerr 2010;Norman 2013), paranoia (Norman 2013), body image and eating disorder symptoms (Cvetanovski 2014;Trindade and Ferreira 2014), and obsessive beliefs and COGNITIVE FUSION'S PREDICTIVE POWER OF DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS 3 symptoms (Reuman et al 2016). Also, cognitive fusion and rumination were found to be predictors of depression severity (Kerr 2010), and the interactive effect between cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance was also found to be a predictor of different indices of psychological distress, such as anxiety, depression, stress, and posttraumatic stress (Bardeen and Fergus 2016).…”

Section: Concurrent Effects Of Different Psychological Processes In Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concurrent effects of different psychological processes in the prediction of depressive symptoms – the role of cognitive fusion

et al. 2018

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Cognitive fusion refers to the dominance of verbal processes over behavior regulation, in detriment of being sensitive to contextual contingencies and pursuing valued life goals. It is a core process within Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and seems to have a crucial role in the development and maintenance of psychopathology.The first goal of this investigation was to explore the factor structure, factorial invariance and psychometrics of the Portuguese version of the Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ). A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis attested the invariant one-dimensional factor structure of the CFQ across three samples from the general population (n = 408; n = 291; n = 101) with different demographic characteristics. Additionally, the CFQ showed to be a psychometrically robust and reliable measure.A second major goal was to investigate the convergent and incremental validity of this version of CFQ (n = 408).Convergent validity was explored and attested with several psychological indicators. Regarding incremental validity, the predictive power of depressive symptoms of cognitive fusion and three related processes, with origin in different conceptual frameworks, was tested. Results showed that even when the effects of decentering, mindfulness and metacognitions were controlled for, cognitive fusion consistently maintained a significant and unique predictive power over depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that these processes relate differentially and independently with depressive symptoms and, moreover, that cognitive fusion has a superior contribution to its explanation. Given the evidence that cognitive fusion plays an important role in the comprehension of depressive symptoms, conceptual and clinical implications were discussed.

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“…An opposing process of fusion occurs when such cognitive content dominates behavior by being held as literally true (Gillanders et al, 2014). Cognitive fusion has been associated with different forms of psychological distress (Ferreira et al, 2014;Fergus, 2015;Solé et al, 2015;Hapenny and Fergus, 2017), and several studies have found a relationship between cognitive fusion and depression (e.g., Zettle et al, 2011;Gillanders et al, 2014;Dinis et al, 2015;Bardeen and Fergus, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological Flexibility in Depression Relapse Prevention: Processes of Change and Positive Mental Health in Group-Based ACT for Residual Symptoms

et al. 2020

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Relapse rates following a depressive episode are high, with limited treatments available aimed at reducing such risk. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a cognitivebehavioral approach that has gained increased empirical support in treatment of depression, and thus represents an alternative in relapse prevention. Psychological flexibility (PF) plays an important role in mental health according to the model on which ACT is based. This study aimed to investigate the role of PF and its subprocesses in reducing residual symptoms of depression and in improving positive mental health following an 8-week group-based ACT treatment. Adult participants (75.7% female) with a history of depression, but currently exhibiting residual symptoms (N = 106) completed measures before and after intervention, and at 6 and 12-month follow-up. A growth curve model showed that positive mental health increased over 12-months. Multilevel mediation modeling revealed that PF significantly mediated these changes as well as the reduction of depressive symptoms, and that processes of acceptance, cognitive defusion, values and committed action, in turn, mediated increased PF.

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I Really Believe I Suffer From a Health Problem: Examining an Association Between Cognitive Fusion and Healthy Anxiety

Abstract: The present findings are consistent with the possibility that cognitive fusion contributes to health anxiety. Future multivariate experimental and longitudinal studies are required to establish causality.

Cited by 25 publications

References 44 publications

Cognitive Fusion Mediates the Relationship between Dispositional Mindfulness and Negative Affects: A Study in a Sample of Spanish Children and Adolescent School Students

Cognitive Fusion Mediates the Relationship between Dispositional Mindfulness and Negative Affects: A Study in a Sample of Spanish Children and Adolescent School Students

Concurrent effects of different psychological processes in the prediction of depressive symptoms – the role of cognitive fusion

Psychological Flexibility in Depression Relapse Prevention: Processes of Change and Positive Mental Health in Group-Based ACT for Residual Symptoms

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