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Abstract
The contrast avoidance model (CAM) hypothesizes that individuals with chronic worry recruit worry to create and maintain a negative emotional state to avoid sudden increases in negative emotions. Preliminary evidence using the contrast avoidance questionnaires (CAQs) suggests that there might be a similar mechanism across mood and other anxiety disorders. To continue to assess the CAQs, they should be adapted for other languages and evaluated across multiple symptom domains. The present study aimed to develop the Persian versions of the CAQs and examine the transdiagnostic nature of CAM across two studies. A large Persian-speaking college student sample (Total n = 1438) was used to evaluate the factor structure of the CAQs (Study 1) and the psychometric properties of CAQs (Study 2). Results supported the two-factor structure of the CAQ-W (worry) and CAQ-GE (general emotion). Results showed that CAQ-W was a significant predictor of anxiety-related measures. However, CAQ-GE and IUS-12 significantly predicted depressive and other symptoms over the CAQ-W. Results demonstrated excellent psychometric properties. They indicate that contrast avoidance, measured via CAQ-GE, could be a transdiagnostic construct, and CAQ-W may be more sensitive to anxiety-specific contrast avoidance among Persian speaking and/or Iranian individuals.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the students who participated in this study.
Data availability statement
The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.
Disclosure statement
The authors have no conflict of interest with respect to this publication.