THE LOOMING MALADAPTIVE STYLE AS A CORE COGNITIVE RISK FACTOR TO VARIOUS ANXIETY SYMPTOMS: A MULTIVARIATE META-ANALYSIS

Abstract

Cognitive vulnerability models of anxiety posit that patterns of distorted cognitions inflate the risk of individuals developing anxiety disorders. One such model that gained recent attention is the looming maladaptive style (LMS). LMS is the tendency to perceive threats as dynamically increasing in danger and risk. Moreover, it is advocated as a vulnerability factor that is specific to anxiety, but not to depression. Employing multivariate meta-analysis, the current study examined the strength of the relationships between LMS and the different conditions of anxiety (general anxiety, social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, fears, and worry) and depression, and how different moderators affected these relationships. Results from 69 studies with 141 effect sizes indicated significant mean effect sizes of moderate magnitude, and the relationships between LMS and the conditions of anxiety were all stronger than that with depression. This supports the specificity of LMS to anxiety but not to depression, as originally proposed.