Higher Levels Of Trait Anxiety Research Articles

State and Trait Anxiety in Adolescent Suicide Attempters

To examine the relationship between anxiety and suicidal behavior in adolescents. Forty-six adolescents who had been hospitalized in an inpatient psychiatric unit after a suicide attempt were compared on measures of anxiety and depression with 72 adolescent psychiatric inpatients who had no history of suicide attempts. The suicide attempters exhibited significantly higher levels of both state and trait anxiety. However, when controlling for depression, the attempters did not differ in their level of state anxiety from the nonattempters, but they still manifested significantly higher levels of trait anxiety than nonattempters. The results suggest that anxiety, both state and trait, is a risk factor for suicidal behavior in adolescents. Yet, only trait anxiety appears to be relatively independent of depression in its effect on suicidal behavior risk. These findings imply that clinicans should take into account anxiety, both state and trait, for assessment and treatment of adolescents at risk for suicidal behavior.

Smoking in vietnam combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder

The present study investigated smoking prevalence, smoking motives, demographic variables and psychological symptoms in 124 help-seeking, male Vietnam combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A high percentage of these veterans smoked (60%). Vietnam veterans with PTSD who smoked were more likely than those who did not smoke to report higher levels of PTSD symptoms, depression and trait anxiety. Increased depression was associated with increased automatic smoking. Smokers reported a high frequency of smoking in response to military memories. Implications for smoking interventions, cessation, and relapse prevention efforts are discussed.

The relationship of illness longevity and relapse with self-perception, cancer stressors, anxiety, and coping strategies in children with cancer.

A descriptive, correlational design was used to investigate the relationship of the longevity of the cancer experience and the presence of a relapse to the child's self-perception, cancer stressors, anxiety, and use of coping strategies. The 44 children included in this study were 6 1/2 to 13 1/2 years of age. Fifteen of the children had experienced a relapse of the disease either on or off therapy. The longevity of the cancer treatment and the presence of a relapse were negatively associated with the child's self-perception. Trait anxiety was positively associated with duration of the cancer experience and with the presence of a relapse. Longevity of the cancer experience and the presence of a relapse may be factors that signal the need for interventions designed to enhance the child's self-perception throughout treatment. Because children in this study who reported lower self-perception and higher trait anxiety levels also reported experiencing more cancer stressors, nursing efforts to develop innovative strategies designed to enhance patients' feelings of self-worth and decrease their anxiety may prove to be important contributions to the care of children receiving treatment for cancer.

The relationship of illness longevity and relapse with self-perception, cancer stressors, anxiety, and coping strategies in children with cancer

A descriptive, correlational design was used to investigate the relationship of the longevity of the cancer experience and the presence of a relapse to the child's self-perception, cancer stressors, anxiety, and use of coping strategies. The 44 children included in this study were 6 1 2 to 13 1 2 years of age. Fifteen of the children had experienced a relapse of the disease either on or off therapy. The longevity of the cancer treatment and the presence of a relapse were negatively associated with the child's self-perception. Trait anxiety was positively associated with duration of the cancer experience and with the presence of a relapse. Longevity of the cancer experience and the presence of a relapse may be factors that signal the need for interventions designed to enhance the child's self-perception throughout treatment. Because children in this study who reported lower self-perception and higher trait anxiety levels also reported experiencing more cancer stressors, nursing efforts to develop innovative strategies designed to enhance patients' feelings of self-worth and decrease their anxiety may prove to be important contributions to the care of children receiving treatment for cancer.

Acid Perception in Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease is Dependent on Psychosocial Factors

Our aim was to contrast the psychosocial profiles of patients with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease whose symptoms correlate well with acid reflux against those whose symptoms do not. One hundred and one patients presenting with heartburn for the first time underwent oesophageal pH monitoring, and 82 (81%) experienced symptoms during the recording. On the basis of how well their symptoms correlated with acid reflux, patients were divided into symptom-positive and symptom-negative groups. These two groups were then compared on the basis of four questionnaires looking at different psychosocial factors. Symptom-negative patients displayed significantly higher levels of trait anxiety (44.5 versus 38.7; p < 0.05) and hysteria (5.6 versus 4.1; p < 0.05). The adequacy of their social support structures was significantly lower (6.2 versus 7.3; p < 0.05). No difference in daily hassles or uplifts was found. Significant psychosocial differences are noted in patients with poor symptom-reflux correlation. These differences may help explain the aetiology of such patients' symptoms.

Unconditioned stimulus rehearsal and the retention and enhancement of differential "fear" conditioning: Effects of trait and state anxiety.

In 2 experiments, the effect of anxiety on the cued-unconditioned stimulus (UCS) rehearsal phenomenon was investigated (T. Jones & G. C. L. Davey, 1990). In Experiment 1, postconditioning rehearsal of the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) resulted in an increase in conditioned response (CR) strength during extinction, but only in subjects with high levels of trait anxiety. An induced mood procedure was used in Experiment 2, and a postrehearsal increase in CR strength was found in subjects who had undergone induced somatic anxiety but not in subjects who had undergone induced worrying or who underwent a neutral induction procedure. In both experiments, the increase in CR strength following UCS rehearsal was associated with inflated ratings of the aversiveness of rehearsing the UCS. These results are discussed in terms of the ways in which anxiety might influence UCS rehearsal and facilitate physiological CRs to the conditioned stimulus.

Stress appraisals of hospitalized school-age children.

This study investigated the influence of health status as acutely or chronically ill, gender, and trait anxiety on the stress of 82 hospitalized children ages 8 through 11. Two aspects of stress were examined: (a) the specific events appraised as stressful, and (b) the appraised stressfulness of the global event of hospitalization. Findings indicated that chronically ill children identified more intrusive events and acutely ill children identified more physical symptoms as stressful; children with high levels of trait anxiety were more likely to appraise hospitalization as stressful. Gender did not have a significant influence on stress.

Suppression of emotional stroop effects by fear-arousal

Abstract Previous studies have suggested that subjects are slower to colour-name emotional words, when the meaning of these words is related to a fear or current concern. We carried out three experiments on subjects having either high or low fear of snakes, with the aim of replicating this finding, and of testing the effects of arousing fear in subjects at the same time. Unexpectedly, we could only replicate the predicted interference effect in the absence of threat, whether due to a snake or to another threatening stimulus. We conclude that emotional interference effects do depend on high levels of fearfulness or trait anxiety, and on a match between the content of the subjects' concerns and the meaning of the interfering material. However, this interference may be paradoxically obscured by fear arousal, or the presence of a real danger that alters processing priorities in highly fearful subjects.

Psychological and personal predictors of leadership behavior in female soccer athletes

Abstract This study was conducted to identify the personal and psychological characteristics which are associated with emergent team leadership among female athletes. High school soccer players (N = 106) completed a series of inventories designed to assess their perceptions of competence, sex-role orientation, competitive trait anxiety, and global self-worth. Athletes' actual sport competence was measured through Coaches' ratings. Leadership behavior was assessed through the use of personal, peer, and coach ratings on the Sport Leadership Behavior Inventory (SLBI). Multivariate and univariate regression analyses revealed that athletes who were high in perceived soccer competence, femininity, and masculinity rated themselves higher in leadership ability than did athletes who scored low on these same psychological characteristics. Athletes who were rated high in leadership ability by their peers exhibited high levels of competitive trait anxiety, masculinity, skill, and penxived soccer competence. In contrast, Coaches' ratings of athletes' leadership tendencies were Bssociated primarily with the players' actual skill competence. Finally, additional analyses indicated that athletes who played in central field positions were more apt to be rated high in leadership ability by themselves and their coaches than were athletes from non-central field positions. These results supported the study hypothesis that certain psychological and personal characteristics can be used to identie peer group leaders in interscholastic soccer contexts.

Individual differences in the selective processing of threatening information, and emotional responses to a stressful life event

Previous research has established that high levels of trait anxiety commonly are associated with an automatic pattern of encoding selectivity, operating to favour the processing of emotionally threatening information. It has been suggested that this processing bias may play a functional role in mediating emotional vulnerability by moderating affective responses to stressful real life events. The current experiment employs a longitudinal design, capable of addressing the central predictions arising from this theoretical position. Thirty-one women awaiting colposcopy investigation were screened on both traditional questionnaire measures of emotional vulnerability, and on a modified emotional Stroop task that provided objective indices of their automatic and strategic patterns of processing selectivity. Subsequently, those 15 women who later received a diagnosis of cervical pathology reported the degree to which this diagnosis had impaired their level of emotional functioning. The results confirm that, at the initial test time, trait anxiety was indeed associated with an apparently automatic tendency to selectively process threat related distractor information. Furthermore, an index of this initial pattern of automatic processing selectivity was consistently the best predictor of the intensity of emotional distress elicited by the subsequent diagnosis of cervical pathology. None of our conventional questionnaire measures were capable of significantly predicting this later emotional response. We suggest that these findings offer empirical support for the hypotheses that patterns of automatic processing selectivity may moderate individuals' emotional responses to stressful life events.

Correlates of hypoglycemic fear in type I and type II diabetes mellitus.

We examined whether fear of hypoglycemia in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus was associated with (a) higher levels of trait anxiety and general fearfulness, (b) difficulty in differentiating symptoms of anxiety and hypoglycemia, and (c) past experience with hypoglycemia. Joslin Diabetes Center outpatients with Type I and Type II diabetes (N = 232), all requiring insulin, were surveyed. Type I patients experienced significantly more fear of hypoglycemia than Type II patients. For the Type I and Type II groups, higher scores on the Worry subscale of the Hypoglycemia Fear Survey (HFS-W) were associated with higher levels of trait anxiety and fear. Higher scores on the Behavior subscale (HFS-B) were associated with higher levels of fear. Among Type I subjects only, HFS-W scores were also positively associated with past hypoglycemic experience and with difficulty in differentiating anxiety and hypoglycemic symptoms. These latter relations remained significant even after the variance resulting from trait anxiety and fear was removed. Other significant associations with HFS-B scores were not observed.

Characteristics of individuals with fear of spiders

Abstract This paper reports the results of two studies which investigated some of the factors that differentiated individuals with fear of spiders from those without such fears. The main results suggested that (a) there was little evidence that fear of spiders in nonclinical subjects is normally acquired through direct conditioning experiences; (b) there was some evidence for a familial component to spider fears; (c) there was no support for the view that individuals reporting a fear of spiders were especially sensitized to the movement cues possessed by spiders; (d) fear of spiders was not associated either with higher levels of trait anxiety or with an increased predisposition to other fears in general; but (e) fear of spiders did appear to be associated with increased fear of other animals, but only animals that are normally considered fear-evoking or disgust-evoking. These results provide little support for a traditional conditioning view of spider fears, and they are not entirely consistent with some...

Anxiety sensitivity and nonclinical panic attacks

The present study examined anxiety sensitivity in relation to trait anxiety and the occurrence of nonclinical panic attacks in 265 subjects. Fifty percent of high anxiety sensitivity subjects reported panic attacks (both cued and spontaneous) in the past year. In addition, almost 42% of subjects with high anxiety sensitivity but no history of panic reported a high level of trait anxiety concerning physical danger. The results suggest that anxiety sensitivity is frequently not independent of other forms of anxiety.

Prediction of Migraine Using Psychophysiological and Personality Measures

The topics of interest in this study are whether migraine patients exhibit a stereotypic reaction to a stressful stimulus which is different from the reaction of nonheadache controls and whether it is possible to predict headache activity within the migraine population. Our study population comprised 37 female migraine patients and 34 matched controls. Heart rate, skin conductance, pulse amplitude of the temporal artery and an EMG of the temporal muscle were registered during a baseline situation and during a mental stressor. In addition, state anxiety, trait anxiety, facilitating anxiety and stress tolerance were assessed. Migraine patients reported higher levels of trait anxiety, greater fear of failure, lower stress tolerance and higher levels of state anxiety than nonheadache controls. Physiological baseline levels and stress reactions did not differ between migraine patients and controls. Linear combinations of psychological and psychophysiological data sets did not show an acceptable degree of accuracy in the classification of individual response profiles into groups. Within the migraine group, 54% of the average duration of migraine attacks and 33% of the variation in average maximum headache intensity could be explained by a combination of psychological, psychophysiological and socio-demographic variables. It is concluded that measures from both the psychological and the physiological domain should be included when studying the effects of stress in migraine.

Postpartum blues: Salivary cortisol and psychological factors

The relationships between several psychological variables and salivary cortisol levels were investigated in 70 young mothers throughout the first five days following the delivery of a healthy baby. We hypothesized that postpartum blues is associated with ineffective coping strategies, high anxiety levels, and elevated salivary cortisol concentrations. Data analysis revealed that symptoms of postpartum blues occured more frequently in women who reported high levels of trait-anxiety, passive coping strategies, marital dissatisfaction, or acceptance of their role as a mother. These women had elevated morning levels of cortisol on those days on which the symptoms appeared in contrast to those days without symptoms as well as in contrast to those women who did not experience postpartum blues.

Coping mechanisms in infertile women with luteal phase insufficiency

We investigated the possible role of stress-related factors in infertile women with luteal phase insufficiency (LPI). One hundred and nine women were recruited for the study and asked to fill out a questionnaire. It could be shown that infertile women, in general, differed from potentially fertile ones in their ability to cope with stress and anxiety. Moreover, infertile women with LPI were found to be unique in that they exhibited a significantly higher level of trait anxiety than both other fertile and infertile women.We conclude that a high level of trait anxiety seems to be a common denominator in women with LPI.

Predictors of classroom stress and burnout experienced by gifted and talented students

Classroom stress and burnout experienced by 121 gifted and talented students were assessed in combination with seven background variables (i.e., sex, age, IQ, etc.), five personal variables (i.e., creative personality typology, locus of control, family environment, other-rated behavioral, academic self-esteem, and self-rated self-esteem), three general anxiety and stress variables (i.e., state/trait anxiety, life change events), and two organizational variables (i.e., classroom tedium and quality of school life). The student's age, sex, birth order, IQ, and achievement level bore little relationship to either stress or burnout. Poor self-esteem, an externalized locus of control, high levels of state and trait anxiety, poor school life quality, and tedium proved to be significant predictors of classroom stress. These, plus problems in the family environment and high classroom stress levels, predicted significant levels of classroom burnout. Males reported a greater number and different types of stress and burnout sources than did females, indicating differentiated sex-related problems with stress and burnout.

Psychosocial Causes of Duodenal Ulcer

The evidence that duodenal ulcer is a psychosomatic disorder is reviewed. A variety of both experimental stressors and differing states of emotional arousal (anxiety and anger in particular) are associated with increased acid and pepsin secretion. Furthermore, chronic life stressors predispose to duodenal ulcer, presumably by way of symptomatic anxiety or depression, while poor social support may comprise another risk factor. Subjects with high levels of trait anxiety or neuroticism are more prone to stress-induced anxiety and its physiological consequences. There is minimal acceptable evidence to support more specific personality-related theories, including Type A behaviour, alexithymia or the earlier psycho-analytic theories of Alexander. Nonetheless, it is concluded that Alexander's inclusion of duodenal ulcer as one of a handful of classic psychosomatic disorders has been confirmed. Since some 40% of duodenal ulcer patients relapse in the first year after medical treatment, there may be some role for psychological treatments (especially in the domain of stress/anxiety management) for those patients who relapse and have co-existing high state or trait anxiety or exposure to chronic stressors.

Role of anxiety and anger in acne patients: A relationship with the severity of the disorder

Studies investigating the possible role of personality and emotional factors in acne patients have yielded inconsistent and sometimes contradictory results. In the present study acne patients self-rated the severity of their conditions as mild, moderate, or severe and were compared to a control group on several personality variables. These self-ratings were compared to the objective ratings made by their dermatologists. Acne patients who self-rated their conditions as severe were found to experience significantly higher levels of trait anxiety than patients with mild and moderate conditions and control subjects; patients with severe and moderate conditions showed a higher state of anxiety than control subjects. Acne patients rated as severe by their dermatologists showed higher states of anxiety, “anger-in,” and “anger-out” than the others. No other significant differences in terms of severity emerged, supporting the view that acne patients are not markedly neurotic. The results suggest that anxiety and anger are significant factors for severe acne patients and that future research should include severity ratings from both patients and physicians in the research design.

Extroversion, anxiety and the perceived effects of alcohol.

To test the hypothesis that personality characteristics are related to alcohol-effect expectancies, 256 (115 men) college students were divided into groups on the basis of self-reported alcohol consumption and anxiety and introversion scores on the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire. Three-way multivariate analyses of variance were conducted to determine expectancy differences by drinking behavior, personality characteristics and sex. Alcohol expectancy scores were found to vary with drinking behavior and personality measures. Elevated expectancy scores were associated with higher quantity-frequency measures of drinking; however, no significant sex differences were obtained. Extroverted students expected more social and physical pleasure, more relaxation and less arousal with drinking. Students with higher levels of trait anxiety expected more global positive changes, sexual enhancement, social assertion and arousal. The association of drinking behavior and personality with expectancies appears to be independent and additive.