Eating expectancies among trauma-exposed Latinx college students: The role of mindful attention.

Objective: Emergent research suggests that trauma-exposed Latinx college students are a particularly at-risk group for eating-related problems. For this reason, there is a need to further understand the cognitive processes that may underpin maladaptive eating among this vulnerable segment of the population. Participants: Participants included 304 trauma exposed Latinx college students (84.5% females; Mage = 22.8 years, SD = 5.79). Methods: The current study examined the role of mindful attention in relation to several distinct expectancies related to eating. Results: Results indicated that lower reported levels of mindful attention were associated with greater levels of expectancies of eating to help manage negative affect, expectancies that eating will alleviate boredom, and expectancies that eating will lead to feeling out of control. Conclusions: These findings suggest that it may be beneficial to assess for mindful attention among Latinx college students with a history of trauma exposure presenting with problematic eating behaviors.

Anxiety Sensitivity Moderates the Impact of COVID-19 Perceived Stress on Anxiety and Functional Impairment.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound negative impact on mental health symptoms and daily life functioning across the United States and worldwide. Past work has revealed that perceived stress relates to poorer outcomes, however, little work to date has examined factors that may exacerbate these outcomes, and no work to date has examined this relation in terms of COVID-19. Anxiety sensitivity is a promising individual difference factor that has shown to be related to mental health and functional impairment. Anxiety Sensitivity is also a vulnerability factor related to heightened stress perception. METHOD: Therefore, the current study sought to examine the potential moderating role of anxiety sensitivity in the relation between COVID-19 specific perceived stress and global anxiety symptom severity, anxious arousal symptom severity, and functional impairment among 563 adults (58.1% male; M age = 38.3 years; SD = 12.15). RESULTS: Results indicated a statistically significant interaction between COVID-19 perceived stress and anxiety sensitivity with global anxiety symptom severity, anxious arousal symptom severity, and functional impairment. Post-hoc analysis indicated that COVID-19 perceived stress was associated with an increased likelihood of clinically significant global anxiety symptom severity and anxious arousal symptom severity at higher levels of anxiety sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS: The current study provides support for the role of anxiety sensitivity in identifying individuals at risk for clinically significant global anxiety symptom severity and anxious arousal symptom severity.