This study is a careful examination of the relationships between different components of the alexithymia construct and state versus trait anxiety. In order to study the relations between anxiety and alexithymia in a subclinical population, we administered to 125 female college students a test battery including measures of alexithymia (TAS26), state and trait anxiety (STAI) and depression (QD2A). Results indicated positive correlations between depression, anxiety (state and trait) and alexithymia scores. Partial correlations revealed a tight link between trait anxiety and alexithymia. Furthermore, in agreement with the view that alexithymia is a multidimensional construct, the various alexithymia dimensions were found to be diversely correlated with anxiety. On the basis of partial correlation analyses, a descriptive model of the relationships between depression, state anxiety, trait anxiety and alexithymia was postulated. This model was confirmed by pathways analyses.

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of anxiety on attentional performance with neutral stimuli. It was set up as follows: a fourfold comparison was made of trait anxiety and state anxiety. Sixty-two undergraduate students were included in the study, and four groups of subjects were set up by a median split of the scores obtained on the Spielberger Trait and State Anxiety Inventory (STAI): high trait-high state (N = 18); high trait-low state (N = 11); low trait-low state (N = 23); low trait-high state (N = 10). A computerized battery of neuropsychological tests, the ACE battery, was administered to provide a multidimensional assessment of attention. The ACE battery comprises five tests which assess the following aspects of attention: ability to monitor a routine task; temporal preparation; visual detection; memory span; visual spatial attention and memory. High state anxious subjects displayed impairment in executive functions, manifested by a significantly higher level of motor preparation in a simple reaction time (RT) task and a speed accuracy trade-off in a divided attention task; high trait anxious subjects performed significantly better on the visual detection task. No trait × state interaction was found. It was concluded that high state anxiety is associated with psychomotor alertness and high trait anxiety with perceptual alertness. These two dimensions of psychometric anxiety seem to have effects on attention that are independent of one another and which should be analysed separately in the future.

One of the disorders that most affects school and social performance is attention deficit disorder associated with hyperactivity or impulsivity (ADHD). The criteria established by DSM-IV-TR edition distinguish three subtypes: inattentive, hyperactive-impulsive and combined. There are other factors that increase the severity of the disorder. These factors have to do with different associated psychopathologies such as learning difficulties, depression, oppositional defiant disorder, behavior disorder, anxiety disorders and mood disorders. Mean comorbidity of ADHD with anxiety disorders is estimated at 20–25%. The main goal of this investigation is to determine whether there are differential patterns of attention (selective and concentration using D-2 attention test) and anxiety (trait and state anxiety using State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children) for these three types of ADHD. The sample was made up of 220 children (6–12 years): 56 in the control group, 54 with predominantly attention deficit disorder, 53 with predominantly hyperactivity-impulsivity disorder and 57 with combined inattentive-hyperactive disorder. We used a design of four groups, three corresponding to the ADHD subtypes and a control group without ADHD. The results obtained show that the four groups of subjects were significantly different in the two attentional variables and in trait and state anxiety. The combined subtype presents higher trait anxiety, whereas the inattentive subtype shows higher levels of state anxiety. The results reveal a new path of great interest concerning objective and reliable diagnostic assessment, and pharmacological and behavioral intervention adapted to each specific situation.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterised by an intense fear of social situations in which the individual believes they may be negatively evaluated (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). A number of cognitive models (Clark & Wells, 1995; Hofmann, 2007; Rapee & Heimberg, 1997) have been proposed that provide frameworks for understanding the key cognitive processes involved in SAD. Negative rumination, which can be divided into pre- and post-event rumination, appears to be a key maintaining factor in the cycle of social anxiety. However, there are mixed findings regarding the cognitive predictors of post-event rumination and a lack of research regarding the consequences and predictors of pre-event rumination. Furthermore, there has been little empirical research investigating the effects of targeting negative rumination and state anxiety in social anxiety treatment. If the cognitive predictors of negative rumination can be determined then they can be targeted when designing interventions that aim to break the vicious cycle of social anxiety. The state of research investigating the cognitive determinants of state anxiety and negative rumination is reviewed and suggestions are made for continuing research.

We explored heritabilities of the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), and associations including genetic and environmental correlations between the phenotypes among Korean twins and their families. We analyzed the data of 1,748 participants (835 men, 913 women, 656 individuals of monozygotic twins, 173 individuals of same-sexed dizygotic twins, 919 non-twin family members, age 30–79 years) from the Healthy Twin study. Heritabilities and bivariate analyses were assessed using the SOLAR package software. In the methods of generalized estimation equations, women in the 4th quartile of state and trait scores were 17% and 15%, respectively more likely to be hazardous alcohol users compared to women in the lower three quartiles (P < .05). However, there were no significant associations between these phenotypes in men. After adjusting for age and squared age, the heritability estimates were 0.26 in men and 0.34 in women for the state score; for the trait score, 0.35 in men and 0.31 in women; for the AUDIT score, 0.32 in men and 0.37 in women (P < .001). After adjusting for age and squared age, there was a significant genetic correlation between the trait score and the AUDIT score, and a significant non-genetic correlation between the state score and the AUDIT score in women, while there were no significant genetic or non-genetic correlations between these phenotypes in men. The STAI and AUDIT scores are heritable in Koreans and the relationships between these phenotypes may be inconsistent by sex.

Background: The latest version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y) is commonly used in older adults, even though this anxiety scale was developed in and for young adults. Norms and associated factors of the STAI-Y are lacking for older adults in the general population. The objectives of the present study were to produce norms on the STAI-Y State scale for older adults using a large sample of older adults selected from a general population and to examine the sociodemographic and health-related factors associated with the STAI-Y State score.

Methods: 993 community-dwelling individuals aged 66 years and over from the PAQUID study were evaluated at home by a psychologist for the following variables: age, education, marital status, proximity of relatives, self-assessment of income sufficiency, occupation during active life, depressive symptomatology, objective and subjective health, objective and subjective cognitive functioning, adverse life events, activities of daily living, drug use, and cigarette consumption.

Results: Norms were stratified for age, sex, and education and were produced separately for older adults with and without depressive symptomatology. Multivariate analyses revealed that younger age (66–79 years), female sex, lower education, perception of income insufficiency, depressive symptomatology, poor subjective health, subjective cognitive complaints, psychotropic drugs use, and recent adverse life events were independently associated with higher STAI-Y State score.

Conclusions: This study provides norms for the STAI-Y State anxiety inventory in a general population of older adults and indicates the specific factors linked with state anxiety. Such factors should be taken into account by clinicians in order to better understand state anxiety in older adults.

To date, little research has endeavoured to discriminate between cognitive and somatic dimensions of trait anxiety and, consequently, it remains uncertain whether these anxiety dimensions can be reliably distinguished at the trait level. The four studies presented here support the validity of the distinction between cognitive and somatic anxiety at both state and trait levels. The research involved the development and validation of a self-report questionnaire, the State-Trait Inventory for cognitive and somatic anxiety (STICSA). The nature of the anxiety dimensions assessed by this new measure was then investigated. The results indicate that the state scales of this new measure assess the degree of cognitive and somatic anxiety experienced at a particular point in time. The trait scales of the STICSA predict the situations in which different individuals will display elevations in cognitive and somatic state anxiety. Trait cognitive and somatic anxiety are indeed distinct constructs that can be reliably and validly assessed. Theoretical and applied implications of this finding are discussed.