(PS8-8) Adverse Experiences and Trauma in Youth

Abstract Text: College students face stressors in their daily lives that can negatively affect their academic performance and contribute to heightened psychological distress, such as feelings of anxiety and depression (Belay et al., 2021; Sharp & Theiler, 2018). To relieve their distress, students may engage in avoidant coping strategies, which, in turn, can exacerbate their distress (Lass & Winer, 2020). Although prior research shows that avoidance correlates with feelings of distress, many studies fail to examine the unique effects of avoidant coping, as both a cognitive and behavioral process, on distress (Akbari et al., 2022; Chai & Low, 2015). Additionally, the role of distress tolerance (DT) as a potential moderator in this relationship has not been investigated. While past studies have primarily focused on cross-sectional relations between avoidant coping and distress (Akbari et al., 2022), the current study employed intensive longitudinal methods to examine the effects of avoidance on distress with DT moderating that relationship. Examining this model using intensive longitudinal data could offer valuable insights into the cyclical pattern of avoidance and distress, and identify avoidance as a point of intervention to reduce distress in college students.
Undergraduate students were recruited to participate in a daily diary survey study at the beginning of the spring 2024 semester. Participants (N = 248; 52.3 % White, 79.1% cisgender women) were included if they completed at least two daily surveys in order to examine effects across days (M = 4 surveys completed). Survey recruitment aimed to increase representation of minoritized students, with 39.52% identifying as a gender or sexually minoritized student and 38.71% identifying as a racially or ethnically minoritized student. Each day, participants were asked to respond to 6 items from the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (Kessler et al., 2002) and two items measuring behavioral avoidant coping and psychological avoidant coping. Measures were scored by taking a mean of each set of items to measure daily levels of distress and avoidant coping, and overall DT. The cross-lag panel model revealed reciprocal relationships, such that daily avoidant coping predicted next-day distress and daily distress predicted next day avoidant coping (see figure). Participants who generally reported better DT during the initial survey reported weaker relationships between distress and avoidant coping. This research could further our understanding of how decreasing avoidance and improving DT could lower distress in college students.