Comparing The Related Factors Of State Anxiety And Trait Anxiety And Physiology Indexes In College Students

Objective: Study 1. To investigate the state anxiety (SA) and trait anxiety (TA) in college students and research the factors that correlated with SA and TA of students. Study2: To discuss whether physiology indexes, skin-resistance (SR), salivary cortisol and SIgA are valuable for signing anxiety.Part I Related Factors of SA and TA in College Students Methods: 270 freshmen were tested by the psychological questionnaires and interviewed in groups, based on the outcome of the interview with 48 students in advance. The questionnaires included STAI-From Y, Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-R Short Scale (EPQ-RSC), Self-Esteem Scale (SES), Well-being Scale, Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ), Family Assessment Device (FAD) and Canty-Mitchell Social Support Rating Scale (MSSS). Bias of cognition was tested too. The interview mostly aimed at students' anxiety and the reasons. We finished the data analysis by the software SPSS11.0. Results:1. The results of STAI-From Y showed that SA in college students was lower than normal. The positive rate of SA (SA>50) was 11.0%; the positive rate of TA (TA>50) was 15. 2%. There were significant differences between the urban and rural in SA and TA. The SA and TA students felt less happythan others.2. The problems which affected emotions of students mostly were 'having no life-aim' and 'difference between ideal and real-life' . The intensity that these problems affected emotion was concerned with the scores of SA and TA. But the correlation degrees were different. The stresses of society and psychology were different between the urban and rural.3. SA and TA were related to family functions (Problem sloving, Communication, Roles, Affective responsiveness, Affective involvement, General functioning), individual status (parents' education level, domestic economy and singleton) and social supports (family, schoolmates and important one). With stepwise linear regression, SA was affected by support of schoolmate, domestic economy and whether or not being a student cadre. TA was affected by general family function, support of import one and mother' educational level. SA and TA were both related to self-esteem (SES), extraversion (E), neuroticism (N), coping and the numbers that students remembered negative emotional words (Nn). Besides, SA was related to the numbers that students remembered positive emotional words (Pn).4. There were some differences between SA students and the normal in whether or not being a student cadre, parents' education level, domestic economy and individual consumption, family function, social supports. SA students were different form the normal in self-esteem, E, N, P, coping and the numbers that students remembered emotional words. There were some differences between TA students and the normal in mother' s education level, family function (Communication, Roles, Affective responsiveness, Affective involvement, General functioning) and social supports. TA students were different form the normal inself-esteem, E, N, negative coping and Nn.5. Students from rural and urban were different in parents' educational level, domestic economy, individual consumption and whether or not being a student cadre and singleton. The rural students' family functions were worse than the urban. The rural students were different form the normal in SES, E and L.Part II SA, TA and skin resistance, salivary cortisol, SIgA Methods: Skin resistance (SR) was measured when students were in the experiment of distribution of attention. The test target were: 1. the baseline of SR (RO) and SR every minute during the experiment (R1-R8); 2.the change career of SR every minute (D1-D8); 3.the comeback rates of SR (rl-r4). Before the final their saliva was collected at the same time in the morning and the salivary cortisol and SIgA were determined by immuno-radiometry assay. Results:6. In the lab stress, there were significant differences between SA students and the normal in R2-R7. D2> D4, D8 and rl~r4 (P<0. 05). TA students differed from the others in R2~D6> D3> D5, D8.7.SA students' salivary cortisol was higher significantly than the others (P<0.05). TA students differed from the others, but it was not distinct (P>0. 05).8. There was litter difference between SA students and the others in SIgA (P>0. 05). TA students' SIgA was higher than the others (P<0. 05). Conclusions: The positive rate of SA was 11.0%; the positive rate of TA was 15.2% in college students. Anxiety was not evident. But the urban-rural difference is very notable. The students came from rural were more anxious than urban students. The stresses of society and psychology were different between the urban and rural.SA and TA were affected by family functions and society support, and related to some psychology medi-mechanism. These factors influencing SA and TA were not the same. For instance, SA was affected by support of schoolmate, domestic economy and whether or not being a student cadre; TA was affected by general family function, support of import one and mother' educational level. Positive coping was negative correlated to SA, but not to TA. In physiology index, the comeback rates of SR and salivary cortisol were valuable for signing SA. And the content of salivary SIgA might indicate the level of TA. They may possibly be useful objective criterions of anxiety.There were some differences between SA and TA. So we should pay attention to the different reasons of SA and TA in mental health education. And new psychological guideline should be established to raise students' mental diathesis which was more pertinent to SA and TA. And we should pay more attention to the rural students in the mental health education.