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Validation and Clinical Correlates of the Behavioral Indicator of Resiliency to Distress Task (BIRD) in a University- and Community-Based Sample of Youth with Emotional Disorders

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Abstract

Distress tolerance (DT) is a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology. The Behavioral Indicator of Resiliency to Distress (BIRD) task assesses DT by measuring task persistence in the face of distress. BIRD task performance has been associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms in nonclinical youth, but these relationships have not been explored in clinical youth. Validating this task in a clinical sample would clarify its utility as a more objective indicator of DT. We aimed to investigate the correlates and predictors of BIRD task performance in a clinical sample of 348 youth assessed at pretreatment in community mental health clinics (CMHC; n = 209; ages 12–18; 66.8% female) or at a university-based research clinic (RC; n = 139; ages 10–18; 49.6% female). We aimed to evaluate the concurrent validity of the BIRD task by examining the associations between quitting the task and pre-task subjective units of distress (SUDs) and youth- and parent-reported anxiety, depressive, and externalizing symptoms, as well as youth-reported DT. Youth who reported greater subjective units of distress (SUDS) prior to the task reported greater anxiety and depressive symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and poorer DT. Those who quit the task early reported greater parent-reported school and separation anxiety. Surprisingly, fewer participants quit the task in this study compared with previous studies. The current results provide evidence that the BIRD may not be measuring the same construct as self-reported DT. Whereas a self-report measure captures one’s perceived ability to handle negative emotions, the BIRD captures one’s actual ability to persist in the face of frustration. These results suggest that youth’s perception of their ability to handle negative emotions may be distinct from their actual persistence when faced with distress. Assessing both perceived and actual DT may have clinical utility for youth with internalizing symptoms.

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Notes

  1. Post-hoc analyses were conducted on the full sample excluding youth ages 10–12 to assess for any differences. Results using this sample were consistent, and therefore, the results using the larger sample, inclusive of the younger age groups, were presented throughout.

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Funding

This study was partially funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH; grant number R01MH106536).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Miami, 5665 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Flipse Building, Room 345, Coral Gables, FL, 33146, USA

    Niza A. Tonarely, Alexia Hirlemann, Amanda Jensen-Doss & Jill Ehrenreich-May

  2. Florida International University, Center for Children and Family, Miami, FL, USA

    Ashley M. Shaw

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut, Mansfield, CT, USA

    Jamie LoCurto, Heather Souer & Golda S. Ginsburg

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  1. Niza A. Tonarely
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  2. Alexia Hirlemann
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  3. Ashley M. Shaw
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  6. Golda S. Ginsburg
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  8. Jill Ehrenreich-May
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Correspondence to Niza A. Tonarely.

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Conflict of Interest

Niza Tonarely, Alexia Hirlemann, Jamie LoCurto, Heather Souer, Golda Ginsburg, and Amanda Jensen-Doss declare that they have no conflict of interest. Jill Ehrenreich May is the first author of the therapist guide and workbooks for Unified Protocols for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Children and Adolescents (UP-C and UP-A) and receives royalties from these publications. Dr. Ehrenreich-May also receives payments for UP-C and UP-A clinical trainings, consultation and/or implementation support services. Dr. Ashley Shaw has received consultation payments related to training clinicians on the UP-C and UP-A from Trillium Health Partners and related to training clinicians on the UP from Baylor College of Medicine. Funding for research on the UP-C and UP-A comes from the National Institutes of Health, Queensland Children’s Hospital Foundation, American Red Cross, and other agencies.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent and assent were obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Tonarely, N.A., Hirlemann, A., Shaw, A.M. et al. Validation and Clinical Correlates of the Behavioral Indicator of Resiliency to Distress Task (BIRD) in a University- and Community-Based Sample of Youth with Emotional Disorders. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 42, 787–798 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-020-09830-7

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