Top

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology

Published in:

01-02-2016 | Original Paper

The age of anxiety? It depends where you look: changes in STAI trait anxiety, 1970–2010

Authors: R. W. Booth, D. Sharma, T. I. Leader

Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | Issue 2/2016

Abstract

Purpose

Population-level surveys suggest that anxiety has been increasing in several nations, including the USA and UK. We sought to verify the apparent anxiety increases by looking for systematic changes in mean anxiety questionnaire scores from research publications.

Methods

We analyzed all available mean State–Trait Anxiety Inventory scores published between 1970 and 2010. We collected 1703 samples, representing more than 205,000 participants from 57 nations.

Results

Results showed a significant anxiety increase worldwide, but the pattern was less clear in many individual nations. Our analyses suggest that any increase in anxiety in the USA and Canada may be limited to students, anxiety has decreased in the UK, and has remained stable in Australia.

Conclusions

Although anxiety may have increased worldwide, it might not be increasing as dramatically as previously thought, except in specific populations, such as North American students. Our results seem to contradict survey results from the USA and UK in particular. We do not claim that our results are more reliable than those of large population surveys. However, we do suggest that mental health surveys and other governmental sources of disorder prevalence data may be partially biased by changing attitudes toward mental health: if respondents are more aware and less ashamed of their anxiety, they are more likely to report it to survey takers. Analyses such as ours provide a useful means of double-checking apparent trends in large population surveys.

Available only for authorised users

This and some other samples in subsequent analyses are excluded because of their size; here, N = 11,336. Although a larger sample may provide a more accurate estimate of the population mean, its large weight in the models can distort the time’s effects. Including this case does not change the results.

Spielberger CD, Gorsuch R, Lushene R, Vagg PR, Jacobs GA (1983) Manual for the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory. Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto

Donnelly L (15 April 2012) Anxiety: A very modern malaise. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/wellbeing/9204746/Anxiety-a-very-modern-malaise.html. Accessed 15 April 2012

Bonds Shapiro A (3 November, 2011) Anxiety: A modern plague. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/healing-possibility/201111/anxiety-modern-plague. Accessed 3 November, 2011

Telling A (23 October 2012) Achievement anxiety - a by-product of modern mankind. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/andrew-telling/achievement-anxiety-a-byp_b_2004621.html. Accessed 23 October 2012

Menzies H (2005) No time: Stress and the crisis of modern life. Greystone, Canada

Wainright D, Calnan M (2002) Work stress: The making of a modern epidemic. Open University Press, Buckingham

Twenge JM (2000) The age of anxiety? Birth cohort change in anxiety and neuroticism, 1952-1993. J Pers Soc Psychol 79(6):1007–1021CrossRefPubMed

Twenge JM, Gentile B, DeWall CN, Ma D, Lacefield K, Schurtz DR (2010) Birth cohort increases in psychopathology among young Americans, 1938-2007: a cross-temporal meta-analysis of the MMPI. Clin Psychol Rev 30:145–154. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2009.10.005 CrossRefPubMed

World Bank (2014) World Databank. databank.worldbank.org. Accessed 28th May 2014

10.

Kessler RC (1994) The national comorbidity survey of the United States. Int Rev Psychiat 6(4):365–376CrossRef

11.

Kessler RC, Chiu WT, Demler O, Merikangas KR, Walters EE (2005) Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry 62:617–627PubMedCentralCrossRefPubMed

12.

Halliwell E (2009) In the face of fear: How fear and anxiety affect our health and society, and what we can do about it. The Mental Health Foundation, London

13.

McManus S, Meltzer H, Brugha T, Bebbington P, Jenkins R (eds) (2009) Adult psychiatric morbidity in England, 2007: Results of a household survey. The NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care, UK

14.

Moser K, Majeed A (1999) Prevalence of treated chronic diseases in general practice in England and Wales - trends ever time and variations by the ONS area classification. Health Statistics Quarterly 02:25–32

15.

WHO World Mental Health Survey Consortium (2004) Prevalence, severity, and unmet need for treatment of mental disorders in the World Health Organization Work Mental Health Surveys. JAMA 291(21):2581–2590CrossRef

16.

Kawakami N, Shimizu H, Haratani T, Iwata N, Kitamura T (2004) Lifetime and 6-month prevalence of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders in an urban community in Japan. Psychiatry Res 121:293–301. doi:10.1016/S0165-1781(03)00239-7 CrossRefPubMed

17.

Ministry of Health (2012) The health of New Zealand adults 20122/12: key findings of the New Zealand health survey. Ministry of Health, Wellington

18.

Tanios CY, Abou-Saleh MT, Karam AN, Salamoun MM, Mneimneh ZN, Karam EG (2009) The epidemiology of anxiety disorders in the Arab world: a review. J Anxiety Disord 23:409–419. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2008.10.009 CrossRefPubMed

19.

Sartorius N, Üstün TB, Lecrubier Y, Wittchen H-U (1996) Depression comorbid with anxiety: results from the WHO study on “Psychological disorders in primary health care”. Br J Psychiatry 168(Supp 30):38–43

20.

Hoffman DL, Dukes EM, Wittchen H-U (2008) Human and economic burden of generalized anxiety disorder. Depress Anxiety 25:72–90. doi:10.1002/da.20257 CrossRefPubMed

21.

Kessler RC, Frank RG (1997) The impact of psychiatric disorders on work loss days. Psychol Med 27:861–873CrossRefPubMed

22.

Jenkins R (1998) On The State of the Public Health: the annual report of the Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health for England, 1995: an example of increased visibility of mental health at a national level. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 33:579–580CrossRefPubMed

23.

Bowling A (1990) The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among people aged over 85 and living at home. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 25:132–140CrossRefPubMed

24.

Copeland JRM (1987) Prevalence of depressive illness in the elderly community. J Royal Coll Gen Pract Occasional Papers 36:5–8

25.

Piotrowski C (1999) The status of the Beck Anxiety Inventory in contemporary research. Psychol Rep 85(1):261–262. doi:10.2466/PR0.85.5.261-262 CrossRefPubMed

26.

Sylvers P, Lilienfeld SO, LaPrairie JL (2011) Differences between trait fear and trait anxiety: implications for psychopathology. Clin Psychol Rev 31:122–137. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2010.08.004 CrossRefPubMed

27.

Spielberger CD, Gorsuch RL, Lushene RE (1970) Manual for the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory. Consulting Psychologist Press, Palo Alto

28.

Spielberger CD, Reheiser EC (2009) Assessment of emotions: anxiety, anger, depression, and curiosity. Appl Psychol Health Well Being 1(3):271–302. doi:10.1111/j.1758-0854.2009.01017.x CrossRef

29.

Barnes LLB, Harp D, Jung WS (2002) Reliability generalization of scores on the Spielberger State–Trait Anxiety Inventory. Educ Psychol Measur 62(4):603–618. doi:10.1177/0013164402062004005 CrossRef

30.

Twenge JM (2009) Generational changes and their impact in the classroom: teaching Generation Me. Med Educ 43:398–405. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03310.x CrossRefPubMed

31.

Khramov V, Lee JR (2012) The Economic Performance Index: An intuitive indicator for assessing a country’s economic performance dynamics in an historical perspective. Working Paper WP/13/214, International Monetary Fund

32.

OECD (2011) Education at a glance, 2011: Highlights. OECD Publishing, Paris

33.

Johnson A, Van Ostern T, White A (2012) The student debt crisis. Center for American Progress, Washington, DC

34.

Beck AT, Ward CH, Mendelson M, Mock J, Erbaugh J (1961) An inventory for measuring depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry 4(6):561–571. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1961.01710120031004 CrossRefPubMed

35.

Beck AT, Rush AJ, Shaw BF, Emery G (1979) Cognitive therapy of depression. Guilford Press, New York

36.

Beck AT, Steer RA, Brown GK (1996) Manual for the Beck depression inventory-II. Psychological Corporation, San Antonio

37.

Twenge JM, Nolen-Hoeksema S (2002) Age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, and birth cohort differences on the Children’s Depression Inventory: a meta-analysis. J Abnorm Psychol 111(4):578–588. doi:10.1037//0021-843X.111.4.578 CrossRefPubMed

38.

Bieling PJ, Antony MM, Swinson RP (1998) The state–trait anxiety inventory, trait version: structure and content re-examined. Behav Res Ther 36:777–788. doi:10.1016/S0005-7967(98)00023-0 CrossRefPubMed

39.

Twenge JM, Im C (2007) Changes in the need for social approval, 1958-2001. J Res Pers 41:171–189. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2006.03.006 CrossRef

40.

Mackenzie CS, Reickson J, Deane FP, Wright M (2014) Changes in attitudes toward seeking mental health services: a 40-year cross-temporal meta-analysis. Clin Psychol Rev 34:99–106. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2013.12.001 CrossRefPubMed

41.

Mojtabai R (2009) Americans’ attitudes toward psychiatric medications: 1998-2006. Psychiatric Services 60:1015–1023CrossRefPubMed

42.

Bathje GJ, Pryor JB (2011) The relationships of public and self-stigma to seeking mental health services. J Mental Health Counsel 33(2):161–176CrossRef

43.

Caci H, Baylé FJ, Dossios C, Robert P, Boyer P (2003) The Spielberger trait anxiety inventory measures more than anxiety. European Psychiatry 18:394–400. doi:10.1016/j.eurpsy.2003.05.003 CrossRefPubMed

44.

Bados A, Gómez-Benito J, Balaguer G (2010) The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Trait version: does it really measure anxiety? J Pers Assess 92(6):560–567. doi:10.1080/00223891.2010.513295 CrossRefPubMed

45.

Grös DF, Antony MM, Simms LJ, McCabe RE (2007) Psychometric properties of the State-Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety (STICSA): comparison to the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Psychol Assess 19(4):369–381. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.19.4.369 CrossRefPubMed

46.

Watson D, Clark LA (1984) Negative affectivity: the disposition to experience aversive emotional states. Psychol Bull 96(3):465–490. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.96.3.465 CrossRefPubMed

Title: The age of anxiety? It depends where you look: changes in STAI trait anxiety, 1970–2010
Authors: R. W. Booth
D. Sharma
T. I. Leader
Publication date: 01-02-2016
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology / Issue 2/2016
Print ISSN: 0933-7954
Electronic ISSN: 1433-9285
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-015-1096-0

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on sleep in brain health

Springer Medicine

The age of anxiety? It depends where you look: changes in STAI trait anxiety, 1970–2010

Abstract

Purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on sleep in brain health

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 2/2016

Clustering of adversity in young adults on disability pension due to mental disorders: a latent class analysis

The impact of domestic violence and depressive symptoms on preterm birth in South India

Predicting psychiatric inpatient costs

Biological and psychosocial risk factors for psychotic major depression

The ROOTS study: a 10-year review of findings on adolescent depression, and recommendations for future longitudinal research

Adiposity and psychosocial outcomes at ages 30 and 35