Existential (annihilation) anxiety (EAA) and its significant role in PTSD, complex PTSD and mental and physical health, were a long ignored variable in the mainstream clinical science. Further collective EAA is one of the important dimensions missing in the theory and measurement of EAA. The study evaluated the psychometric properties of an existing measure of existential annihilation scale (EAA) (Kira et al., 2012b), that had previously developed based on an integrative framework of identity-based existential annihilation anxiety (EAA) that include most of the personal and collective dimensions of EAA. We reanalyzed the data in seven studies that utilized the measure, conducting exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis for the pooled data (N = 2436), as well as path analysis with EAA as a mediator of the effects of cumulative stress and trauma on PTSD. We conducted Multigroup invariance to test the invariance of the measurement model as well as the predictive structural model across groups. The short measure found to have good internal consistency and test-retest stability, as well as construct, convergent, divergent and predictive validity and is strongly invariant across the main groups. As hypothesized, by the integrated model of EAA, EAA fully mediated the effects of cumulative trauma on PTSD. The results confirm at least in part the validity and utility of the integrative conceptual framework. Further development of the measurement model in future studies was proposed to include fear of death that was not included in the evaluated measure and is one of the components of integrated framework of EAA. The importance of integrating EAA in the mainstream clinical science and intervention was discussed.
References
[1]
Al-Ibraheem, B., Kira, I., Aljakoub, J., & Al-Ibraheem, A. (2017). The Health Effect of the Syrian Conflict on IDPs and Refugees. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 23, 140-152. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000247
[2]
Allen, R., Hurvich, M., & Mcguire, H. (2017). Diagnostic Utility of the Hurvich Experience Inventory/50. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 34, 271-278. https://doi.org/10.1037/pap0000067
[3]
Berman, S. L., Weems, C. F., & Stickle, T. R. (2006). Existential Anxiety in Adolescents: Prevalence, Structure, Association with Psychological Symptoms and Identity Development. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35, 285-292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9032-y
[4]
Burke, B. L., Martens, A., & Faucher, E. H. (2010). Two Decades of Terror Management Theory: A Meta-Analysis of Mortality Salience Research. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14, 155-195. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309352321
[5]
Byrne, B. M. (2012). A Primer of LISREL: Basic Applications and Programming for Confirmatory Factor Analytic Models. New York: Springer Science & Business Media.
[6]
Chen, F. F. (2007). Sensitivity of Goodness of Fit Indexes to Lack of Measurement Invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14, 464-504. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510701301834
[7]
Christopher, J. C., & Hickinbottom, S. (2008). Positive Psychology, Ethnocentrism, and the Disguised Ideology of Individualism. Theory & Psychology, 18, 563-589. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354308093396
[8]
Cohen, J. (1992). A Power Primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 155-159. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155
[9]
Hirschberger, G., Ein-Dor, T., Leidner, B., & Saguy, T. (2016). How Is Existential Threat Related to Intergroup Conflict? Introducing the Multidimensional Existential Threat (MET) Model. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1877. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01877
[10]
Hurvich, M. (2004). Psychic Trauma and Fears of Annihilation. Living with Terror, Working with Trauma: A Clinician’s Handbook (pp. 51-66). Latham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
[11]
Hurvich, M., Benveniste, P., Howard, J., & Coonerty, S. (1993). Assessment of Annihilation Anxiety from Projective Tests. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 77, 387-401. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1993.77.2.387
[12]
Iverach, L., Menzies, R. G., & Menzies, R. E. (2014). Death Anxiety and Its Role in Psychopathology: Reviewing the Status of a Transdiagnostic Construct. Clinical Psychology Review, 34, 580-593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2014.09.002
[13]
Kira, I. (2001). Taxonomy of Trauma and Trauma Assessment. Traumatology, 7, 73-86. https://doi.org/10.1177/153476560100700202
[14]
Kira, I. (2002). Suicide Terror and Collective Trauma: A Collective Terror Management Paradigm. Paper presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Convention, Chicago, IL, August 2002. http://psycnet.apa.org/psycextra/316712004-001.pdf&uid=316712004-001&db=PE
[15]
Kira, I. (2006). Collective Identity Terror in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Potential Solutions. In J. Kuriansky (Ed.), Contemporary Psychology. Terror in the Holy Land: Inside the Anguish of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (pp. 125-130). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group.
[16]
Kira, I. A., Lewandowski, L., Chiodo, L., & Ibrahim, A. (2014). Advances in Systemic Trauma Theory: Traumatogenic Dynamics and Consequences of Backlash as a Multi-Systemic Trauma on Iraqi Refugee Muslim Adolescents. Psychology, 5, 389-412. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2014.55050
[17]
Kira, I. A., Omidy, A. Z., & Ashby, J. S. (2014). Cumulative Trauma, Appraisal, and Coping in Palestinian and American Indian Adults: Two Cross-Cultural Studies. Traumatology: An International Journal, 20, 119-133. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0099397
[18]
Kira, I. A., Shuwiekh, H., Kucharska, J., Fawzi, M., Ashby, J. S., Omidy, A. Z., Abou-Mediene, S., & Lewandowski, L. (2018a). Trauma Proliferation and Stress Generation (TPSG) Dynamics and Their Implications for Clinical Science. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000304
[19]
Kira, I. A., Somers, C., Lewandowski, L., & Chiodo, L. (2012). Attachment Disruptions, IQ, and PTSD in African American Adolescents: A Traumatology Perspective. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 21, 665-690. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2012.698377
[20]
Kira, I., Abou-Median, S., Ashby, J., Lewandowski, L., Mohanesh, J., & Odenat, L. (2012a). Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory: Psychometric Properties of the Arabic Version in Palestinian Adults. The International Journal of Educational and Psychological Assessment, 11, 120-137.
[21]
Kira, I., Abou-Mediene, S., Ashby, J., Odenat, L., Mohanesh, J., & Alamia, H. (2013a). The Dynamics of Post-Traumatic Growth across Different Trauma Types in a Palestinian Sample. Journal of Loss and Trauma: International Perspectives on Stress & Coping, 18, 120-139. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2012.679129
[22]
Kira, I., Alawneh, A., Aboumediene, S., Lewandowski, L., & Laddis, A. (2014). Dynamics of Oppression and Coping from Traumatology Perspective: The Example of Palestinian Youth. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 20, 385-411. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000053
[23]
Kira, I., Alawneh, A., N., Aboumediane, S., Mohanesh, J., Ozkan, B., & Alamia, H. (2011). Identity Salience and Its Dynamics in Palestinians Adolescents. Psychology, 2, 781-791. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2011.28120
[24]
Kira, I., Ashby, J. S., Lewandowski, L., Alawneh, A. N., Mohanesh, J., & Odenat, L. (2013b). Advances in Continuous Traumatic Stress Theory: Traumatogenic Dynamics and Consequences of Intergroup Conflict: The Palestinian Adolescents Case. Psychology, 4, 396-409. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2013.44057
[25]
Kira, I., Fawzi, M., & Fawzi, M. (2013). The Dynamics of Cumulative Trauma and Trauma Types in Adults Patients with Psychiatric Disorders: Two Cross-Cultural Studies. Traumatology: An International Journal, 19, 179-195. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534765612459892
[26]
Kira, I., Lewandowski, L., Templin, T., Ramaswamy, V., Ozkan, B., & Mohanesh, J. (2010). The Effects of Perceived Discrimination and Backlash on Iraqi Refugees’ Physical and Mental Health. Journal of Muslim Mental Health, 5, 59-81. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564901003622110
[27]
Kira, I., Shuwiekh, H., & Bujold-Bugeaud, M. (2015). Gender Discrimination (GD): A Conceptual Trauma-Based Framework for GD and the Development of Gender Discrimination Inventory. Psychology, 6, 2041-2070. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2015.616201
[28]
Kira, I., Shuwiekh, H., & Bujold-Bugeaud, M. (2017). Toward Identifying the Etiologies of Gender Differences in Authoritarianism and Mental Health: An Egyptian Study. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 23, 183-188. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000206
[29]
Kira, I., Shuwiekh, H., Al Ibraheem, B., & Aljakoub, J. (2018b). Appraisals and Emotion Regulation Mediate the Effects of Identity Salience and Cumulative Stressors and Traumas, on PTG and Mental Health: The Case of Syrian’s IDPs and Refugees. Self and Identity.
[30]
Kira, I., Shuwiekh, H., Kucharska, J., Abu-Ras, W., & Bujold-Bugeaud, M. (2017). The Dynamics Underlying the Negative Mental Health Effects of Gender Discrimination in Two Samples: Poland and Egypt. Current Psychology, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9730-5
[31]
Kira, I., Shuwiekh, H., Rice, K., Al Ibraheem, B., & Aljakoub, J. (2017). A Threatened Identity: The Mental Health Status of Syrian Refugees in Egypt and Its Etiology. Identity, 17, 176-190. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2017.1340163
[32]
Kira, I., Templin, T., Lewandowski, L., Ramaswamy, V., Bulent, O., Mohanesh, J., & Abdulkhaleq, H. (2012b). Collective and Personal Annihilation Anxiety: Measuring Annihilation Anxiety AA. Psychology, 3, 90-99. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2012.31015
[33]
Krug, G., & Eberl, A. (2018). What Explains the Negative Effect of Unemployment on Health? An Analysis Accounting for Reverse Causality. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 55, 25-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2018.03.001
[34]
Meade, A. W., Johnson, E. C., & Braddy, P. W. (2008). Power and Sensitivity of Alternative Fit Indices in Tests of Measurement Invariance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 568-592. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.93.3.568
[35]
Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (1999). A Dual Process Model of Defense against Conscious and Unconscious Death-Related Thoughts: An Extension of Terror Management Theory. Psychological Review, 106, 835-845. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.106.4.835
[36]
Shaver, P. R., & Mikulincer, M. E. (2012). Meaning, Mortality, and Choice: The Social Psychology of Existential Concerns. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/13748-000
[37]
Shrira, A. (2015). Transmitting the Sum of All Fears: Iranian Nuclear Threat Salience among Offspring of Holocaust Survivors. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 7, 364-371. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000029
[38]
Shuwiekh, H., Kira, I. A., & Ashby, J. S. (2018). What Are the Personality and Trauma Dynamics That Contribute to Posttraumatic Growth? International Journal of Stress Management, 25, 181-194.
[39]
van Bruggen, V., Vos, J., Westerhof, G., Bohlmeijer, E., & Glas, G. (2015). Systematic Review of Existential Anxiety Instruments. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 55, 173-201. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167814542048
[40]
Weems, C. F., Costa, N. M., Dehon, C., & Berman, S. L. (2004). Paul Tillich’s Theory of Existential Anxiety: A Preliminary Conceptual and Empirical Examination. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 17, 383-399. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615800412331318616
[41]
Weston, R., & Gore, P. A. (2006). A Brief Guide to Structural Equation Modeling. The Counseling Psychologist, 34, 719-751. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000006286345
[42]
Wohl, M. J., Branscombe, N. R., & Reysen, S. (2010). Perceiving Your Group’s Future to Be in Jeopardy: Extinction Threat Induces Collective Angst and the Desire to Strengthen the Ingroup. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 898-910. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167210372505
[43]
Yair, G. (2014). Israeli Existential Anxiety: Cultural Trauma and the Constitution of National Character. Social Identities, 20, 346-362. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2014.1002390
