Moderating role of experiential avoidance in the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and perceived stress

Perceived stress is a psychological state or process in which a person perceives their physical and psychological well being as threatening. The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating role of experiential avoidance in the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and perceived stress among students. For this purpose, 360 students of Islamic Azad University of Tabriz were selected through multistage cluster random sampling method and evaluated in terms of perceived stress, anxiety sensitivity, and acceptance and practice. Regression analysis revealed a positive correlation between perceived stress with anxiety sensitivity and experiential avoidance. Further, it was indicated that experiential avoidance has a significant positive correlation with anxiety sensitivity. Additionally, hierarchical regression analysis showed that anxiety sensitivity and experiential avoidance, alone and in interaction with each other, have the ability to predict the perceived stress. Furthermore, simple slope analysis presented that experiential avoidance has a moderating role in the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and perceived stress; it has an increasing effect so that in both high and low levels of experiential avoidance there is a significant relationship between perceived stress and anxiety sensitivity; however, when anxiety sensitivity and experiential avoidance are at a high level, the amount of perceived stress at the various levels of experiential avoidance (highest and low) is relatively closer. It seems that experiential avoidance has a moderating role in the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and perceived stress.