nfluence of age , thought content , and anxiety on suppression f intrusive thoughts

Understanding differences in responses following attempts to suppress versus simply monitor intrusive thoughts is important given the established relationship between intrusive thinking and numerous forms of psychopathology. Moreover, these differences may vary as a function of age. Because of the links between aging and both enhancement in emotion regulation skills and decline in inhibition skills, older and younger adults were expected to differ in their responses (e.g., experience of negative affect and thought recurrence) to attempts at suppressing intrusive thoughts. This study examined whether efforts to suppress thought content that varied in valence and age-relevance differentially affected older (N = 40, aged 66–92) and younger (N = 42, aged 16–25) adults’ ability to inhibit intrusive thought recurrence and their resulting negative affect. Interestingly, older adults experienced less recurrence for most thoughts than younger adults. Also, for several dependent variables (negative affect and perceived difficulty suppressing intrusive thoughts), older adults showed less decline in their magnitude of response across thinking periods (i.e., from suppression to monitoring) than did younger adults. These age effects were not generally moderated by level of trait anxiety, though higher anxiety did predict intrusive thought responding in expected directions, such as greater negative affect. These findings point to independent influences of age and anxiety, and suggest a complex mix of risk and protective factors for older adults’ responses to intrusive thoughts. Although most everyone experiences intrusive thoughts on ccasion (Rachman & de Silva, 1978; Salkovskis & Harrison, 1984), ognitive theories of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) suggest hat it is the manner in which one interprets and responds to these epetitive, unwanted thoughts that influences both the negative ffect associated with the thought and the frequency with which he thought recurs (e.g., Langlois, Freeston, & Ladouceur, 2000; bsessive Compulsive Cognitions Working Group, 1997; Rachman, 998; Salkovskis, 1998). Ongoing attempts to suppress unwanted Please cite this article in press as: Beadel, J. R. , et al. Influence of age, thoug of Anxiety Disorders (2013), http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.janxdis. 2012.12. 002 houghts, for example, is one response that has been found to romote later thought recurrence1 and negative affect (Trinder Salkovskis, 1994; Wegner & Zanakos, 1994). Studies examining ∗ Corresponding author at: University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400400, Charlottesville, A 22904, United States. Tel. : +1 434 243 7646; fax: +1 434 982 4766. E-mail address: jrb2mx@virginia.edu (J.R. Beadel). 1 We use the term “recurrence” to reference any occurrence of the thought during thinking period, regardless of whether it was a suppression or monitoring period. ote, we construe the term “rebound” to have a more specific meaning, reflecting he recurrence of a thought following a period of prior suppression. Given rebound is ypically measured as degree of recurrence following suppression relative to degree f recurrence following monitoring, we do not use the term rebound in this study ecause the current study design did not contrast suppression versus monitoring nstructions during the first thinking period. 887-6185/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ttp://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.janxdis. 2012.12. 002 © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. responses to intrusive thoughts have primarily focused on younger adults, neglecting the potential impact of developmental changes over the lifespan that could lead to differences in responses to intrusive thoughts (Calamari, Janeck, & Deer, 2002). Investigating age differences in responses to intrusive thoughts can lead to an enhanced understanding of both emotional processing in the context of healthy aging, as well as gerontological anxiety, a critical but understudied problem (e.g., Schaub & Linden, 2000; WolitzkyTaylor, Castriotta, Lenze, Stanley, & Craske, 2010). Cognitive models of intrusive thoughts in the context of OCD emphasize how interpretations of intrusive thoughts as personally significant lead to increases in negative affect and subsequent recurrence of the thought (Rachman, 1997, 1998); however, thought content can also play a significant role. Rowa and Purdon (2003) found that intrusive thoughts with content that contradicted a person’s values or self-concept were rated as more upsetting and were appraised as more negative than thoughts that were less contradictory to self-concept. Additionally, using a thought suppression paradigm similar to the one used in the current study, Corcoran and Woody (2009) asked religious and nonht content, and anxiety on suppression of intrusive thoughts. Journal religious participants to suppress (or they were explicitly asked not to suppress) a blasphemous thought. The researchers found that the religious participants experienced greater anxiety during the task and greater thought frequency upon directed thought suppression