(PS8-C68) Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression Impact Momentary Action Urges and Subsequent Impulsive Actions in Daily Life

Background: Emotion-related impulsivity refers to reflexively responding to emotions (Carver et al., 2011) and is associated with a broad range of psychopathology. Carver et al. (2008) proposed that both rash action (impulsive responses to emotion that are active, such as hitting a wall when angry) and rash inaction (impulsive responses to emotion that are passive in nature, such as reflexively staying in bed when sad) may be associated with emotion-related impulsivity. It is thus predicted that those with higher symptoms of psychopathology would display a greater tendency to act on urges for rash action/inaction. Here, we tested this prediction via an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) investigating the relationship between trait symptoms of anxiety and depression, momentary urges for rash action/inaction, and subsequent engagement in rash action/inaction.

Methods: Participants (N = 151) included college students (n = 57) and community members (n = 94). Participants completed baseline measures including the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales short form (DASS-21; Henry & Crawford, 2005) and then completed one week of EMA via their smartphone. Participants responded to random prompts 5 times per day where they answered questions regarding urges for rash actions and inactions (experiential avoidance urges), as well as current affective state that included a subjective determination of whether they felt “better” or “worse” than usual. Reports of feeling better or worse than usual triggered follow-up prompts an hour later to assess if participants engaged in rash actions/inactions.

Results: Analyses were conducted using multilevel modeling to account for nested momentary data within people. We sought to investigate whether symptoms of anxiety and depression (as quantified by DASS-21 scores) moderated relationships between momentary affect, urges, and subsequent rash actions/inactions. We found that, among those low in symptoms of anxiety and depression, greater urges for rash action predicted greater engagement in rash action. In contrast, increased symptoms of anxiety and depression disrupted the link between urges and action, such that greater urges for rash action were associated with less engagement in rash action. We also determined that negative affect predicted increased engagement in rash inaction when people had both high experiential avoidance urges and high levels of anxiety and depression symptoms.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that symptoms of anxiety and depression impact urges and engagement in rash action/inaction in daily life. These results also align with research establishing the link between emotion-related impulsivity and psychopathology, further underlining emotion-related impulsivity as a crucial transdiagnostic factor.