Study of Anxiety among Adolescents: Across Age, Sex and Social Support Perspective

Abstract

Since Freud's conceptualization of anxiety neurosis in 1894 as a discrete clinical syndrome, anxiety has been measured within the context of psychological theory. Anxiety is viewed as an unpleasant emotional state which is characterized by subjective feelings of tension, apprehension and worry and by activation or arousal of the autonomic nervous system. In the context of the importance of anxiety in the modern era, the present study was designed to examine anxiety among adolescents in across age, gender and social support perspective. 100 males and 100 females belonging to early adolescence and mid-adolescence were administered IPAT Anxiety Scale Questionnaire and Sarason's Social Support Questionnaire. The study revealed: Male adolescents were higher on anxiety than female adolescents during the stage of early adolescence, 2. Early adolescents were higher on anxiety than mid-adolescents, 3. Adolescents receiving higher social support were less anxious than adolescents receiving low social support. The implications of these findings were discussed.