Stewart S H, Taylor S, Baker J M
Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Life Sciences Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
J Anxiety Disord. 1997 Mar-Apr;11(2):179-200. doi: 10.1016/s0887-6185(97)00005-4.
Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is the fear of anxiety-related sensations arising from beliefs that these sensations have harmful physical, psychological, or social consequences. AS is measured using the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI), a 16-item self-report questionnaire. Little is known about the origins of AS, although social learning experiences (including sex-role socialization experiences) may be important. The present study examined whether there were gender differences in: (a) the lower- or higher-order factor structure of the ASI; and/or (b) pattern of ASI factor scores. The ASI was completed by 818 university students (290 males; 528 females). Separate principal components analyses on the ASI items of the total sample, males, and females revealed nearly identical lower-order three-factor structures for all groups, with factors pertaining to fears about the anticipated (a) physical, (b) psychological, and (c) social consequences of anxiety. Separate principal components analyses on the lower-order factor scores of the three samples revealed similar unidimensional higher-order solutions for all groups. Gender x AS dimension analyses on ASI lower-order factor scores showed that: females scored higher than males only on the physical concerns factor; females scored higher on the physical concerns factor relative to their scores on the social and psychological concerns factors; and males scored higher on the social and psychological concerns factors relative to their scores on the physical concerns factor. Finally, females scored higher than males on the higher-order factor representing the global AS construct. The present study provides further support for the empirical distinction of the three lower-order dimensions of AS, and additional evidence for the theoretical hierarchical structure of the ASI. Results also suggest that males and females differ on these various AS dimensions in ways consistent with sex role socialization practices.
焦虑敏感性（AS）是指因相信焦虑相关的感觉会产生有害的身体、心理或社会后果而对这些感觉产生恐惧。AS通过焦虑敏感性指数（ASI）来测量，这是一份包含16个条目的自我报告问卷。尽管社会学习经历（包括性别角色社会化经历）可能很重要，但关于AS的起源人们知之甚少。本研究考察了在以下方面是否存在性别差异：（a）ASI的低阶或高阶因子结构；和/或（b）ASI因子得分模式。818名大学生（290名男性；528名女性）完成了ASI问卷。对总样本、男性和女性的ASI条目分别进行主成分分析，结果显示所有组的低阶三因子结构几乎相同，这些因子分别与对焦虑的预期（a）身体、（b）心理和（c）社会后果的恐惧有关。对三个样本的低阶因子得分分别进行主成分分析，结果显示所有组的高阶解都是类似的单维结构。对ASI低阶因子得分进行性别×AS维度分析，结果表明：女性仅在身体担忧因子上得分高于男性；女性在身体担忧因子上的得分相对于她们在社会和心理担忧因子上的得分更高；男性在社会和心理担忧因子上的得分相对于他们在身体担忧因子上的得分更高。最后，在代表整体AS结构的高阶因子上，女性得分高于男性。本研究为AS的三个低阶维度的实证区分提供了进一步支持，并为ASI的理论层次结构提供了更多证据。结果还表明，男性和女性在这些不同的AS维度上存在差异，这些差异与性别角色社会化实践一致。
