A Comparison of Repetitive Negative Thinking and Post-Event Processing in the Prediction of Maladaptive Social-Evaluative Beliefs: A Short-Term Prospective Study

© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York. Theoretical models propose that transdiagnostic and disorder-specific repetitive thinking processes each interact with individual environmental conditions to predict symptoms. The current study aimed to test this hypothesis in the context of social an...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wong, Q., McEvoy, Peter, Rapee, R.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Springer New York LLC 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18568
_version_ 1848749782355410944
author Wong, Q.
McEvoy, Peter
Rapee, R.
author_facet Wong, Q.
McEvoy, Peter
Rapee, R.
author_sort Wong, Q.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description © 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York. Theoretical models propose that transdiagnostic and disorder-specific repetitive thinking processes each interact with individual environmental conditions to predict symptoms. The current study aimed to test this hypothesis in the context of social anxiety. Specifically, we aimed to predict future maladaptive social-evaluative beliefs (high standard, conditional, and unconditional beliefs) from: (a) the transdiagnostic tendency to engage in repetitive negative thinking (RNT), (b) the social anxiety-specific tendency to engage in post-event processing (PEP), and (c) the interaction of these repetitive thinking tendencies with the frequency of recent negative social events and social anxiety levels. An initial undergraduate sample (N = 331) was recruited and 215 participants completed measures of the constructs of interest at two time points within an acceptable timeframe (average 8.44 days apart). Using hierarchical linear modelling, significant interactions were only obtained for conditional and unconditional beliefs with a specific component of PEP that focuses on thinking about the past involved in prediction. Follow-up simple slopes analyses indicated mainly no change in these beliefs or decreasing trajectories over time for different combinations of levels on the predictor variables. However, for participants with high social anxiety levels who experienced a high number of recent negative social events, those who reported low levels of thinking about the past exhibited a pattern of increasing trajectories for conditional and unconditional beliefs. These findings indicate that RNT and PEP differ in their ability to predict social-evaluative beliefs, and highlight the importance of research comparing different types of repetitive thinking to better understand these processes.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T07:26:24Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-18568
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T07:26:24Z
publishDate 2015
publisher Springer New York LLC
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-185682017-09-13T13:44:34Z A Comparison of Repetitive Negative Thinking and Post-Event Processing in the Prediction of Maladaptive Social-Evaluative Beliefs: A Short-Term Prospective Study Wong, Q. McEvoy, Peter Rapee, R. © 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York. Theoretical models propose that transdiagnostic and disorder-specific repetitive thinking processes each interact with individual environmental conditions to predict symptoms. The current study aimed to test this hypothesis in the context of social anxiety. Specifically, we aimed to predict future maladaptive social-evaluative beliefs (high standard, conditional, and unconditional beliefs) from: (a) the transdiagnostic tendency to engage in repetitive negative thinking (RNT), (b) the social anxiety-specific tendency to engage in post-event processing (PEP), and (c) the interaction of these repetitive thinking tendencies with the frequency of recent negative social events and social anxiety levels. An initial undergraduate sample (N = 331) was recruited and 215 participants completed measures of the constructs of interest at two time points within an acceptable timeframe (average 8.44 days apart). Using hierarchical linear modelling, significant interactions were only obtained for conditional and unconditional beliefs with a specific component of PEP that focuses on thinking about the past involved in prediction. Follow-up simple slopes analyses indicated mainly no change in these beliefs or decreasing trajectories over time for different combinations of levels on the predictor variables. However, for participants with high social anxiety levels who experienced a high number of recent negative social events, those who reported low levels of thinking about the past exhibited a pattern of increasing trajectories for conditional and unconditional beliefs. These findings indicate that RNT and PEP differ in their ability to predict social-evaluative beliefs, and highlight the importance of research comparing different types of repetitive thinking to better understand these processes. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18568 10.1007/s10862-015-9506-x Springer New York LLC restricted
spellingShingle Wong, Q.
McEvoy, Peter
Rapee, R.
A Comparison of Repetitive Negative Thinking and Post-Event Processing in the Prediction of Maladaptive Social-Evaluative Beliefs: A Short-Term Prospective Study
title A Comparison of Repetitive Negative Thinking and Post-Event Processing in the Prediction of Maladaptive Social-Evaluative Beliefs: A Short-Term Prospective Study
title_full A Comparison of Repetitive Negative Thinking and Post-Event Processing in the Prediction of Maladaptive Social-Evaluative Beliefs: A Short-Term Prospective Study
title_fullStr A Comparison of Repetitive Negative Thinking and Post-Event Processing in the Prediction of Maladaptive Social-Evaluative Beliefs: A Short-Term Prospective Study
title_full_unstemmed A Comparison of Repetitive Negative Thinking and Post-Event Processing in the Prediction of Maladaptive Social-Evaluative Beliefs: A Short-Term Prospective Study
title_short A Comparison of Repetitive Negative Thinking and Post-Event Processing in the Prediction of Maladaptive Social-Evaluative Beliefs: A Short-Term Prospective Study
title_sort comparison of repetitive negative thinking and post-event processing in the prediction of maladaptive social-evaluative beliefs: a short-term prospective study
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18568