Experiential avoidance, coping, and anxiety in students from a public university in Lima

• Autores: Valencia, Pablo, Paz, José, Paredes, Erick, León, Max, Zuñe, César, Falcón, César, Portal, Roberto, Cáceres, Rosmery, Murillo, Lourdes
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2017
• Institución: Instituto Peruano de Orientación Psicológica
• Repositorio: Interacciones
• Lenguaje: español
• OAI Identifier: oai:ojs.ejournals.host:article/32
• Enlace del recurso: https://revistainteracciones.com/index.php/rin/article/view/32
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Evitación experiencial; afrontamiento; ansiedad; terapia de aceptación y compromiso; experiential avoidance; coping; anxiety; Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Experiential avoidance (EA)—or psychological (in)flexibility—is a central concept in contextual therapies, and it has been proposed as a transdiagnostic dimension of psychopathology. We intended to test whether EA and other coping strategies independently predict both state and trait-anxiety. We administered a set of measures (the AAQ-II, a modified version of the Brief COPE, and the STAI) to 284 undergraduates from a public university in Lima, Peru. Results showed that EA, lack of problem solving, self-blame, and substance use were all significantly related to state and trait-anxiety. However, after submitting these variables to multiple regression analyses, only EA, lack of problem solving, and self-blame remained significant predictors of trait-anxiety; of these, only EA made a significant improvement to the model (ΔR² = .16). On the other hand, none of the variables under study were significant predictors of state-anxiety. We concluded that the effort to avoid unpleasant thoughts and emotions constitutes a central aspect of trait-anxiety. We discussed these findings in light of previous studies, and gave suggestions for future research.