Effects of worry postponement on daily worry: a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Worry is a prevalent phenomenon in today’s society. When prolonged it is a risk factor for psychological and somatic health problems. To reduce worry, worry postponement, also called stimulus control, is a promising intervention. However, research on the effects of worry postponement is limited and the current knowledge has not been summarised yet. METHODS: A meta-analysis was conducted to test if worry postponement reduces daily worry and whether this process is moderated by gender, age, trait worry or the duration of the intervention. In the meta-analysis, data from 8 samples were included providing a total of 999 participants, of which the majority was female. RESULTS: When comparing worry postponement to the mere registration of worries, medium effect sizes were observed for worry duration (d = 0.313) and small for worry frequency (d = 0.189). Furthermore, these effects were moderated by levels of trait worry but were inconsistent across age groups. CONCLUSIONS: Worry postponement was found to effectively reduce daily worry with specific benefits for low trait worriers. Yet, limitations apply as (a) small sample sizes might have underpowered the current meta-analysis, (b) generalizability is limited due to a non-clinical mostly female sample and (c) follow up studies have not been conducted.