(PS8-D76) Examining Trait Distress Tolerance and Change in Momentary Distress Intolerance After Mood-induction Tasks

Distress tolerance (DT) is often defined as the perceived capacity to withstand distress, including negative emotional distress (Zvolensky et al., 2010) and may be an important transdiagnostic factor (Leyro et al., 2010). Trait DT and negative affect have been associated with momentary distress intolerance (Veilleux et al., 2018); however, it is unclear how trait DT relates to distress intolerance in the moment across different affect states. The current study further explored these associations, specifically examining the relationship between trait DT and changes in self-reported momentary distress intolerance after a positive, negative, or neutral mood induction.

Method: Participants were 596 college students (57.21% female, 80.98% Non-Hispanic White) ages 18 years or older (Mage = 19.31, SDage = 1.91). All study procedures were completed online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants completed the Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS; Simons & Gaher, 2005) as a measure of trait DT prior to being randomly assigned to a negative (n = 200), neutral (n = 197), or positive (n = 198) mood induction (Vanderveen et al., 2016). Before and after the mood indication, participants also completed the Momentary Distress Intolerance Scale (MDIS; Veilleux et al., 2018) as a measure of in-the-moment distress intolerance and the Affect Grid (Russell et al., 1989) to evaluate changes in affective valence.  Change in MDIS was calculated by subtracting pre- from post-mood induction scores.

Results: Preliminary analyses confirmed effectiveness of mood inductions; there was a significant reduction in affective valence from pre- to post-negative mood condition, t(199) = 13.653 , p < 0.001, and a significant increase in valence for the neutral and positive mood conditions, t(197) = -4.600, p < 0.001 and t(196) = -10.295, p < 0.001 respectively. A multiple regression analysis was fit predicting MDIS change score from DTS, mood condition, and their interactions. The overall model fit was significant, F(3, 591) = 9.263, p < 0.001, R² = 0.040. This analysis indicated that DTS significantly predicted MDIS change, b = -0.056, p < 0.05, ηp² = 0.003. Additionally, there was a significant difference in MDIS change between groups, such that MDIS change scores were significantly higher in the negative mood induction (M = 0.395, SD = 1.069), compared to the positive condition (M = -0.047, SD = 0.823), b = -0.462, p < 0.001, ηp² = 0.037, and neutral condition (M = 0.024, SD = 0.890), b = -0.387, p < 0.001, ηp² = 0.026. DTS did not interact with condition to predict MDIS change.

Conclusions:  These results support previous findings that changes in perceived distress intolerance are related to trait DT and negative affect. Furthermore, positive changes in affect, as were seen in the neutral and positive conditions, were not associated with a significant change in perceived distress intolerance. Understanding in-the-moment ability to tolerate distress as it relates to altered mood states may be an important treatment target for individuals experiencing psychological distress (e.g. after a traumatic experience).