| Spielberger's distinction between trait anxiety and state anxiety makes anxiety an operational concept of empirical research, ending the history of philosophical reasoning and qualitative research of anxiety, and bringing about a new stage of empirical research of it. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory developed by Spielberger still serves as the classical instrument of anxiety study. Since the 1980s, Endler(Endler, 1983; Endler, 1989; Endler & Parker, 1992), from the perspective of cross-situational relativity of trait anxiety, had a breakthrough of the solely dimensional view of it, and proposed the multi-dimensional model, paving the way for the study of the relation between trait anxiety and environmental factors. In recent years, researchers home and abroad have conducted empirical research on the factors influencing trait anxiety and yielded significant fruits. However, their research is still confined within one single relevant factor, and very little comprehensive study has a negative influence on an overall understanding of the factors influencing trait anxiety. Furthermore, the statistic methods used by them are backward, and they are confined to relevance analysis, difference test and regression analysis. Consequently, their research fail in demonstrating the concrete mechanism of the factors influencing trait anxiety, and in defining the relative importance of the relevant factors during the process of the form of trait anxiety.The present paper, employing such advanced statistic techniques as exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling, conducts two pieces of empirical study, with a view to: (1) Exploring the structural characteristics of the factors influencing trait anxiety of college students, constructing a model of them and accordingly developing A questionnaire about the factors influencing trait anxiety of college students. (2) Studying the relation between the factors influencing trait anxiety of college students and their trait anxiety, as well as the mechanism of the influence, and constructing the structural model of the relation. It concludes as follows:1. The structure of the factors influencing the trait anxiety of college students consists of uncertainties of future, unfairness, introversion, pressure of studies, financial trouble, inadequate adaptation to the college, interpersonal trouble, and trouble in courtship, of which uncertainties of future are the primary one.2. The questionnaire consisting of the 8 sub-scales and 71 items is of great homogeneity reliability, item discrimination, construct validity, and empirical validity. It can serve as the quantitative assessment of the factors influencing the trait anxiety of college students, and a starting point of relevant research.3. The trait anxiety of female college students is more subject to uncertainties of future, unfairness, pressure of studies, and interpersonal trouble, while the one of male college students more to financial trouble and trouble of courtship.4. The trait anxiety of the college students of science is more subject to unfairness, introversion, pressure of studies, financial trouble, interpersonal trouble, and trouble in courtship than those of liberal arts, engineering and forestry.5. The freshmen suffer more from the pressure of studies, while the sophomore and the senior students more from the pressure of unfairness.6. The eight factors influencing the trait anxiety of the college students can be generalized into three groups, namely, environmental factors, interpersonal factors, and the pressure from the college, of which the first influences the latter two, which influence the trait anxiety. The environmental factors have an indirect influence on the trait anxiety. And it has approximate influence on both interpersonal factors and the pressure from the college, and the pressure from the college has much greater influence on the trait anxiety than the interpersonal factors do. |
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