The temporal precedence of metacognition in the development of anxiety and depression symptoms in the context of life-stress: a prospective study.

According to the metacognitive theory of psychological disorder, metacognitions are vulnerability factors in predicting development of psychological symptoms. The present study investigated metacognitive factors and life stress in a prospective test of their proposed temporal precedence in the development of anxiety and depression symptoms. Participants were 172 students and adults recruited in Ankara and Bolu, Turkey. Two separate sets of hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. In these analyses, Time 2 anxiety or depression was regressed on the main and interaction effects of metacognition and stress after controlling for baseline symptom levels measured at Time 1, age, and gender. Results revealed that negative metacognitive beliefs about the uncontrollability and danger of worry significantly predicted residual change in both anxiety and depression after controlling for the negative effect of stressful life events. Furthermore, lack of cognitive confidence interacted with daily hassles to predict the change in anxiety, when the baseline level of anxiety and other individual differences were controlled. Our results support the metacognitive theory of psychopathology.

Psychometric characteristics of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire and Metacognitions Questionnaire-30 and metacognitive predictors of worry and obsessive-compulsive symptoms in a Turkish sample.

The purpose of the present study was twofold. First, to examine the psychometric properties of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) and the Metacognitions Questionnaire-30 (MCQ-30) in a Turkish sample. Second, to investigate metacognitive predictors of pathological worry and obsessive-compulsive (o-c) symptoms in this group. The sample included 561 non-clinical participants. Consistent with non-English versions, the Turkish version of the PSWQ was found to have a two-factor structure. The MCQ-30 was shown to be composed of five factors similar to the English version. Reliability analyses indicated that both the PSWQ and MCQ-30 possessed high internal consistency, split-half reliability and test-retest coefficients. As expected, both scales positively correlated with measures of o-c symptoms, trait anxiety, and anxiety and depression, as well as with each other. Negative and positive metacognitive beliefs about worry were significant predictors of both pathological worry and o-c symptoms. Cognitive confidence emerged as a specific predictor of worry, while beliefs about the need to control thoughts emerged as a unique predictor of o-c symptoms.

Psychometric properties of the Thought-Action Fusion Scale in a Turkish sample.

The aim of the present study was to reveal the cross-cultural utility of the Thought-Action Fusion Scale (TAFS; J. Anxiety Disord. 10 (1996) 379). Thought-action fusion (TAF) refers to the tendency to overvalue the significance and the consequences of thoughts. Two hundred and fifty one undergraduate Turkish students participated in the current study. The reliability and validity analyses of the Turkish version of the scale indicated that the TAFS had adequate psychometric properties in a Turkish sample. Consistent with the original TAF, the Turkish version of TAFS revealed two subscales as TAF-Likelihood and TAF-Morality. Reliability analysis showed that TAF Scale and its factors had adequate internal consistencies and split-half reliability coefficients. Confirming the expectations, TAFS scores were found to be significantly and positively correlated with obsessive-compulsive symptoms, responsibility, and guilt measures. Moreover, it was found that people with high obsessive-compulsive symptoms had higher TAFS scores than those with low symptoms.