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

Methods

Participants

A total of four-hundred and five participants took part in the current study, 94.1% (n=381) Caucasian, with the remaining 5.9% (n=24) consisting of black, Asian, native American, Latino, and other; 44.4% (n=180) male, mean age of 28.48 (SD=10.885, R=18-62). Of the 405 participants 50.4% (n=204) were considered “traditional students,” that being enrolled at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and between the ages of 18-20 (Mean age 18.74, SD=0.720). The other 49.6% (n=201) were considered “non-traditional students,” that being 30 years of age or older undergraduates enrolled at the University of Nebraska Lincoln (Mean age 38.36, SD=6.630, R=29-62. Single participants accounted for 59.8% (n=242) of the subjects; married 29.9% (n=121), divorced 9.1% (n=37), separated 0.5% (n=2), and widowed 0.7% (n=3).

Materials

Demographic Information Sheet Participants completed a questionnaire that asked about demographic information which included age, gender, marital status, and number of years they have spent separated from their family.

Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, Farley, 1988) was used to measure total social support. The different types of social support that combine to form the total social support score are family social support, friend social support, and significant other social support with 4 items pertaining to each of the three different kinds of social support for a total of 12 items. Participants respond to each item on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from “1-very strongly disagree” to “7-very strongly agree.” The scores from each of the subscales are then combined to calculate the total amount of perceived social support, higher score indicative of greater perceived social support.

Marlowe-Crowne Scale of Social Desirability (MCSD) The Marlowe-Crowne Scale of Social Desirability (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960) is designed to measure a person’s desire to give the impression they are socially acceptable. The MCSD consists of 33 items (18 in the true direction, 15 in the false direction) with a range of 0-33, and higher scores being indicative of a greater desire of acceptance.

Life Experiences Survey (LES) The Life Experiences Survey (Sarason, Johnson, & Siegel, 1978) is a survey designed to record common stressful events a participant may have encountered in the past year. The LES is comprised of two sections. The first section seeks to identify common life changes, for example “marriage,” “death of a family member” (i.e. grandfather, mother, brother, etc.), “Major change in type or amount of recreation.” The second section is designed for students and includes items such as “Beginning a new school experience at a higher academic level (college, graduate school, professional school, etc.),” “Academic probation,” “Failing a course.” Items are scored on a 7-point scale ranging from “-3 extremely negative” to “+3 extremely positive.” Scores can range from -180 to +180 with lower score being indicative of experiencing more stress from life events. To score the LES the items that were answered with a negative number are summed which produces the negative events score; the negative events score is considered one of the best representations of the amount of stress a participant is experiencing (Sarason et al., 1978).

Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (RULS) The Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, Peplau, & Cutrona, 1980) was used to measure loneliness, and was original developed for use by college students. Twenty statements related to one’s subjective thoughts and feelings of loneliness make up the RULS. Examples of the items included are “There is no one I can turn to,” and “I have no one to talk to.” Participants rate each of the 20 items on a 4 point scale “1-I Have never” to “4- I have felt this way often.” Higher score are indicative of greater loneliness.

Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) The Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961) was used to measure depression. The BDI consists of 21 items that are structured in such a way that participants must select one of four options that best describes them. For example “0-I do not feel like a failure, 1- I feel like I have failed more than the average person, 2- As I look back on my life, all I can see are a bunch of failures, 3- I am a complete failure as a person,” and “0- I don’t have any thoughts of killing myself, 1- I have thoughts of killing myself, but I would not carry them out, 2- I would like to kill myself, 3- I would kill myself if I had the chance.” To score the BDI the number associated with each answer selected is summed, higher scores are indicative of greater depression. Scores range from 0-63; different scores on the BDI are associated with different levels of depression, 1-10 (These ups and downs are considered normal), 11-16 (Mild mood disturbances), 17-20 (Border line clinical depression), 21-30 (moderate depression), 31-40 (severe depression), over 40 (Extreme depression).

State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983) was used to measure trait anxiety. The STAI consists of 40 total items, 20 of which are related to trait anxiety. Examples of items that target trait anxiety include, “I am a content; steady person,” and “I worry too much over something that really doesn’t matter.” Items are answered using a4-point scale “1-almost never,” to “almost always.” Trait anxiety scores range from 20-80, with higher scores being indicative of greater levels of trait anxiety.

Procedure

Participants were recruited based on their status as a “traditional student” (an undergraduate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, enrolled in introduction to psychology, and were 18-20 years of age) or “non-traditional student” (an undergraduate student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 30 years or older in age). Traditional students signed up for a meeting with a researcher to complete collection of questionnaires. Nontraditional students were mailed a letter stating that they had been selected for a study, and emphasized voluntary participation. A few days later the collection of questionnaires were mailed to the participant along with a prepaid envelope, by sending the completed packets back to the researchers the participant consented to voluntary participation in the study.

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