Easing the Transition to College: Understanding the Mediating Factors of Trait Anxiety

Introduction

Adjusting to college can be a difficult time for students transitioning from a routine that is familiar to one that is hard to replicate outside of a university setting. For some it is the first time they are able to live on their own and be responsible for themselves while still involved in academics; for others who have already established themselves as independent from their family of origin and have decided to return to school, they may not struggle to establish their independence, but may struggle with the return to school after taking several years off. Those who actively manage emotions tend to adjust to college better than those who do not (Johnson, Gans, Kerr, & LaValle, 2010).

The purpose of this study is to examine the variables believed to be related to trait anxiety illustrated in a temporal sequence. State and trait anxiety are commonly measured together using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), however in this study we will only be examining trait anxiety because trait anxiety is a measure of personality and state anxiety measures anxiety in specific situations (Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg & Jacobs, 1983). Reducing trait anxiety would hopefully translate into a long term change in behavior. Trait anxiety is related to strategies and attitudes people have in general as opposed to state anxiety that occurs in response to events of a particular situation (Pacheco-Unguetti, Acosta, Callejas, & Lupianez, 2010). It is important to note that trait anxiety as measured by the STAI is focused on individual differences in anxiety, and thus a measure of personality: not a measure used to diagnose anxiety disorders (Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983). Anxiety was found to be significantly and negatively correlated to GPA and one of the major predictors of academic performance (Vitasari, Wahab, Othman, Herawan, & Sinnadurai, 2010). Ideally aiding the transition to college would reduce anxiety which in turn will increase academic performance and the student’s ability to stay in school.

It has been theorized that anxiety affects attention, such that the source of the anxiety will receive more attention than if it was not deemed a threat (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo 2007). Those with higher trait anxiety are more likely to view items or situations in their environment as threats: and in turn devote attention to them. With more attention to “threats” in the environment, less attention is being given to important topics to college and success in school such as, studying, paying attention in lecture, and organizing house hold chores.

In this study we examine how family separation, loneliness, depression, group (traditional and non-traditional students, marital status (grouped as single, widowed, divorced, separated, vs married), social desirability, stress, age, total social support, and gender directly and indirectly effect trait anxiety. Moving away from the family of origin can be a time full of anxiety. For traditional students the first time they move away from home is typically when they attend college (Patiniotis & Holdsworth, 2005), even though some decide to remain at home and attend college the choice may reflect different levels of college preparedness or financial situations (Turley, 2006). A study by Lee and Robbins (1998) found a negative relationship between social connectedness (which was used to measure loneliness) and trait anxiety. Depression and anxiety are commonly comorbid (Aina & Susman, 2006).

Age and time spent separated from family of origin would be expected to be positively related to each other, the longer someone has been alive, the greater likelihood that they will have spent a longer time away from their family of origin. In this study, by definition, age is related to group because traditional status and non-traditional status is defined by age; those who are of typical college student age (18-22) are considered traditional students and those who are older are considered non-traditional students. It is expected that age is related to marital status such that those who are older are more likely to be married than those that are younger (Lehrer, 2008).

It has been found that greater social support is related to less loneliness (Chalise, Saito, Takahashi, & Kai, 2007). Social support has also been found to relate to depression such that those with more social support are less likely to have depression (Stice, Ragan, & Randall, 2004). A study examining the relationship between social support and the experience of stress found that those with greater social support had greater life satisfaction which was defined as lower stress (Haslam, O’Brien, Jetten, Vormedal, & Penna 2005).

Gender differences have been found when examining social desirability response bias in ethics research such that, women appear to be more ethical based on self-report data, but after controlling for social desirability men and women are equivalently ethical (Dalton & Ortegren, 2011). Also, gender differences were found in tactics used to manage the impression one gives to others. Women tend to be more feminine in nature and submissive when managing their impression, while men on the other hand tend to behave in ways that are seen as independent and autonomous and masculine in nature (Guadagno & Cialdini, 2007). Gender differences were found when examining stress; women were more likely to report being more affected by life stressors than men (Matud, 2004). Men were also more likely to take an active approach in dealing with stress. Women, however, were more likely to take passive roles and not address the source of the stressor directly, and in turn end up being affected by the stressor more greatly.

Those that are non-traditional students are expected to have greater loneliness than traditional students. The main reasoning behind this prediction is that traditional and non-traditional students have been found to engage in university life differently (Gilardi & Gugliemetti, 2011). Traditional student tend to be present more on campus and invest more energy in forming relationships with other students and faculty, while non-traditional students tend to have less of a presence on campus (i.e. attending fewer lectures and on campus activities) and do not put forth as much effort in forming relationships with students and faculty. Being a nontraditional student commonly involves commitments that traditional students do not encounter, such as a full time job or a part time job that is related to their career and takes a significant amount of time and energy on the non-traditional students part (Wyatt, 2011).

A significant part of total social support is significant other social support (total social support is comprised of family, friend, and significant other social support) (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988). It makes sense that those that are married will tend to have greater significant other social support than those that are single/without a spouse, even if the spouse does not greatly contribute to significant other social support. As mentioned above total social support is related to loneliness such that those with greater social support have less loneliness; significant other being a subscale of total social support it is logical to conclude if marital status is significantly related to loneliness such that those who are married will be less lonely than those that are not married.

Those who have a greater desire to be socially acceptable are expected to be less lonely than those that that do not have a desire to be socially accepted. Those with a high desire of social acceptance are more likely to engage in activities that put them around people resulting in less loneliness, while those who have a low desire to be socially accepted do not feel the need to engage in activities that would introduce them to people. Stress and loneliness have been found to be positively and negatively correlated with one another, such that as stress increases so does loneliness (Yaacob, Juhari, Talib, & Uba, 2009). This is perhaps due to an increase in external locus of control and a decrease in internal locus of control resulting in one to feel as if they are in less control of their life so do not attempt to fix problems by implementing changes in their behavior or environment (Laursen & Hartl, 2013), including not believing they have the power to alleviate feelings of loneliness. The transition in to university life tends to increase stress for traditional and non-traditional students (Dyson & Renk, 2006). It has been found that stress is associated with depression in the undergraduate population (Sherina, Rampal, & Kaneson, 2004).

It is hypothesized that time spent separated from family, loneliness, and depression will have direct effects on trait anxiety while age will have an indirect effect on trait anxiety via family separation, group and loneliness, and marital status and loneliness; total social support will have an indirect effect on trait anxiety via stress and loneliness, stress and depression, loneliness, and depression; gender will have an indirect effect on trait anxiety via social desirability and loneliness, stress and loneliness, and stress and depression. We expect the hypothesized model to work as well as the full model.

Abstract Introduction Methods Results Discussion References Full Path Model Hypothesized Path Model Reduced Path Model Correlation Table