Article archive / December 1, 2016
Originally published: . Volume 7, No. 12. Source pages: 7.
Clinical psychology graduate students from the Louisiana State University Anxiety and Addictive Behaviors Laboratory, under the direction of Dr. Julia Buckner, presented research at the 50th Annual Convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, held October 27–30 in New York City.
Presenting scientific research were doctoral students Kim Dean, Emily Jeffries, and Austin Lemke, students of Dr. Buckner, LSU Professor and Director of the laboratory.
Ms. Dean presented Anxiety sensitivity and cannabis use- related problems: the impact of race. This work was coauthored with A. H. Ecker and Dr. Buckner.
Ms. Jeffries presented Social anxiety and poor sleep quality: the mediating impact of anticipatory processing, coauthored with Dr. Buckner.
Mr. Lemke presented Social anxiety and suicidality: unique and additive mediational roles of perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness. The work was coauthored with Ms. Jeffries, Sonia Shah and Buckner.
Mr. Lemke presented Synthetic cannabinoid use among college students. The work was coauthored with Jeffries, E. Mathews, C., Hsieh, G. Jones, and Buckner.
The Times asked Mr. Lemke about his work on anxiety and suicide. “I'm interested in the relationship of social anxiety to suicidality,” he explained. “This poster, titled ‘Social Anxiety and Suicidality: Unique and Additive Mediational Roles of Perceived Burdensomeness and Thwarted Belongingness,’ examined the role that thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness play in the relationship of social anxiety and suicidal ideation.”
According to the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide, a theory by Joiner (2005), individuals are vulnerable to wanting to die by suicide in the presence of thwarted belongingness, which is a greater sense of alienation from others, Lemke explained. And also, because of a perceived burdensomeness, a sense that one is a burden to others.
“We tested whether each factor mediated the relation of social anxiety to suicidal ideation. Both thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness mediated the relation of social anxiety to suicidal ideation both independently and additively, even after controlling for other factors such as depression, alcohol problems, and marijuana problems.”
This was the first known test of the additive effect of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness on social anxiety and suicidal ideation, he noted. “This study highlighted the importance of assessing for suicide risk in individuals with elevated social anxiety and gave support to the Interpersonal- Psychological Theory of Suicide.”
In Ms. Jeffries work, she explored aspects of how social anxiety is related to poorer sleep quality among college students.
“Anticipatory processing is the ruminative cognitive processes individuals engage in prior to social situations,” Jeffries noted. “Our findings suggest that the link between social anxiety and poorer sleep quality is partially accounted for by anticipatory processing. College students with greater social anxiety may engage in anticipatory processing about upcoming social situations [for example, participating in class] while attempting to fall asleep, which may result in poorer sleep quality,” she noted.
In her work, one of the conclusions was that clinicians should assess for sleep quality in those with social anxiety disorder. Also, Cognitive-behavioral techniques that target other maladaptive cognitive processes could reduce anticipatory processing, which could improve sleep quality, Jeffries concluded.
Ms. Jeffries is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, and received her undergraduate from the University of Cincinnati in 2012. Mr. Lemke is from New Orleans.
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