http://dx.doi.org/10.24016/2020.v6n2.107
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Self-esteem and state-trait
anxiety in Lima's university adults
Autoestima y ansiedad
estado-rasgo en adultos universitarios de Lima
Alejandra Rodrich Zegarra 1*
1
Universidad San
Ignacio de Loyola, Peru.
*
Correspondence: alejandra.rodrich.z@gmail.com
Received: April 26, 2020
| Revised: May 20, 2020 | Accepted: June 10, 2020 | Published
Online: June 13, 2020.
CITE
IT AS:
Rodrich Zegarra, A. (2020). Self-esteem and state-trait anxiety in university
adults from Lima. Interacciones, 6(2), e107. http://doi.org/10.24016/2020.v6n2.107
ABSTRACT
Background: This study sought to determine the
relationship between self-esteem and anxiety in emerging adults from private
universities in Lima. Method: Cross-sectional and correlational in design, it was aimed at determining
the degree or strength of association between self-esteem, state / trait
anxiety in emerging adulthood, for this purpose, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem
Inventory (Form C) and the Anxiety Questionnaire State-Trait (IDARE) were
applied to 221 university students of both sexes, aged between 18 to 25 years. Results: In the hypothesis test, a statistically significant negative correlation
coefficient was obtained between self-esteem and state / trait anxiety, being
the size of the median effect in both cases. Regarding comparisons in
self-esteem and anxiety trait / state according to sex and age, no differences
were found. Conclusion: From the analyzes, it is concluded that there
are an inverse and significant relationship between self-esteem and state /
trait anxiety in emerging adults from Lima.
Keywords: Self-Esteem; State Anxiety; Trait Anxiety.
RESUMEN
Introducción: Este estudio buscó determinar la relación entre la autoestima y la ansiedad
en adultos emergentes de universidades privadas de Lima. Método: De diseño transversal y correlacional, se orientó a determinar el grado o
fuerza de asociación entre la autoestima la ansiedad estado/rasgo en la adultez
emergente, para ello se aplicó el Inventario de Autoestima de Coopersmith
(Forma C) y el Cuestionario de Ansiedad Estado-Rasgo (IDARE) a 221
universitarios de ambos sexos, con edades comprendidas entre 18 a 25 años. Resultados: En el contraste de las hipótesis, se obtuvo un coeficiente de correlación
negativa moderada y estadísticamente significativa entre la autoestima y la
ansiedad estado/rasgo, siendo el tamaño del efecto mediano en ambos casos. Con
respecto a las comparaciones en autoestima, ansiedad rasgo y ansiedad estado
según sexo y edad, no se hallaron diferencias. Conclusión: A partir de los análisis se concluye que existe una relación inversa y
significativa entre la autoestima y la ansiedad estado/rasgo en adultos
emergentes de Lima.
Palabras clave: Autoestima; Ansiedad Estado; Ansiedad Rasgo.
Within the life cycle,
youth is considered one of the stages of human development in which more
changes are experienced, this period, also called emerging adulthood, takes
place between 18 and 25 years, and receives this name because individuals at
this stage they cannot be considered neither adults nor adolescents (Arnett,
2004; Kail and Cavanaugh, 2011). There are economic, academic, social,
intimacy, autonomy and significant decision-making pressures, which are
experienced as overwhelming and could generate anxiety (Riggs and Han, 2009;
Schulenberg, Bryant, and O'Malley).
The World Health
Organization (WHO, 2017) has estimated that more than 260 million people in the
world are affected by this disorder. A recent study reported that the
prevalence of anxiety disorders in adults worldwide ranged between 3.8% and
25%, with important differences depending on the geographical area (Brenes et al., 2005) since, for Anglo-Saxon cultures, the
Rates ranged from 3.8% to 10.4%, while for Hispanic / Latino culture, the
prevalence was 6.2% and 3.2% for Central and Eastern Europe.
In particular, in the
case of Lima, the latest prevalence reports that were made by the Honorio Delgado-Hideyo Noguchi
Mental Health Institute of the Ministry of Health indicated that 10.5% of
adults suffer from anxiety (Honorio Delgado-Hideyo Noguchi Mental Health Institute, 2012).
Taking these data into
account, it can be seen that there is a significant prevalence of this
difficulty in adults in both countries around the world and in Lima, and it is
likely that in the case of emerging adults it will be triggered by all these
regulatory challenges demanded by society due to this, it will be essential to
have a good psychological adjustment, which is related to high self-esteem
(Cameron and Granger, 2018), since this is an important strength to face them.
It should be noted
that, in Peru, the population of people whose ages correspond to emerging
adulthood has increased considerably in recent years because, according to the
National Institute of Informatics and Statistics (INEI, 2016) as of June 30,
2017 it was registered the figure of 8 million 440 thousand 802 people between
15 to 29 years of age, which represents 27% of the total population; and it is
expected that by 2021, this population will amount to 8 million 512 thousand
764 people (INEI, 2017). Thus, the changes that occur in this period and the
increase in this population provide arguments, both at a psychological and
demographic level, for emerging adults to be an important sector of the
population that needs to be studied and cared for,
Self-esteem is defined
by Coopersmith (1981) as the assessment that the individual makes and maintains
with respect to himself, and reveals the extent to which he feels capable,
productive, important and worthy whose dimensions are: personal, social and
family; Research in emerging adult populations suggests that it has a positive
relationship with indicators of good psychological adjustment such as happiness
(Cheng and Furnham, 2004), positive affect (Orth et al., 2012), social skills
and acceptance (Cameron and Granger , 2018). Therefore, this construct has
positive consequences in the internal world (thoughts and perceptions) and
external of an individual (behavior) (Stinson, Logel,
Zanna, Holmes, Cameron, Wood and Spencer, 2008), that
is why, those who have high self-esteem, on average they are happier,
In contrast, low
self-esteem (Pu, Hou & Ma, 2015) is related to indicators of poor mental
health, such as alcohol consumption and depression (Diener et al., 2003).
Therefore, the scientific interest in addressing the development of self-esteem
and its predictive factors, in emerging adulthood, is due to its beneficial
value for psychological health in this period (Hutteman,
Nestler, Wagner, Egloff
& Back, 2015).
Regarding
the difference of
gender in self-esteem, the cross-cultural research of Bleidorn
et al., (2016) with participants from 48 countries, including Peru, found that
men reported higher self-esteem than women, in addition an increase in
self-esteem related to the age from late adolescence to middle adulthood.
Despite these broad cross-cultural similarities, cultures differed
significantly in the magnitude of the effects of gender and age on self-esteem;
These differences were due to variations in the socioeconomic, sociodemographic
and cultural value indicators of each country. Likewise, the meta-analysis by
Zuckerman, Li and Hall (2016) on gender differences in self-esteem (1,148
studies from 2009 to 2013, total N = 1,170,935) found a small effect, favoring
men; also,
While self-esteem is a
factor that contributes to mental health, anxiety is considered to be an
indicator of poor adjustment at this stage, since the authors agree that the
higher the anxiety (trait and state), the lower the ability. adjustment in the
functioning of an individual, (Durand and Cucho,
2015; Kuba, 2017; García, 2014; Medrano, 2017;
Gutiérrez, 2017 and Flores, 2017).
Spielberger and Lushene (1970) distinguish between state anxiety and trait
anxiety, the former being the way in which a person is at a given moment, is
modifiable over time, and is characterized by feelings of tension,
apprehension, uncomfortable thoughts and concerns, along with physiological
changes. Instead, trait anxiety is a stable and consistent predisposition of
behavior, that is, the individual tends to act in a similar way at different
times and in a variety of situations. Both concepts (trait and state) are
interdependent, since people with a high anxiety trait are more predisposed to
present high anxiety states when exposed to anxiogenic stimuli from the
environment. Therefore, physiological factors,
Studies carried out in
Peru in university students related anxiety with psychoeducational and
socio-emotional variables such as academic procrastination (Durand and Cucho, 2015), depression, irrational beliefs (Kuba, 2017 and García, 2014),
burnout (Medrano, 2017), academic performance ( Gutiérrez,
2017), finding that trait and state anxiety are located at moderate and high
levels. Based on the bibliographic review, it has been found that the factors
that could lead to high levels of anxiety in this population are: obtaining
good academic results, adapting to a new social life, establishing bases for
intimacy, living more autonomously and achieving economic independence, (Riggs
and Han, 2009 and Schulenberg, Bryant, and O'Malley, 2004), because according
to Papalia (2010) these development tasks are experienced as stressors for
emerging adults. The latter is one of the most relevant tasks at this stage, as
it provides a sense of satisfaction and value (Papalia, 2010), and to achieve
this it is necessary to be inserted in a labor system, this is evidenced in the
findings of Giannoni (2015 ) in Peru, who reported
that non-working university students had higher anxiety scores compared to
those who did work.
Regarding gender
differences, the literature has shown that women have higher levels of anxiety
than men, so in Peru Giannoni (2015) and Riveros et al. (2007) found that women obtained scores
higher in trait anxiety and college status. In the same way, in Brazil, Benevides and Rodrigues (2010), and in Spain Martínez-Otero (2014) and Balanza
et al., (2009) found significant differences in terms of sex, with higher
levels of anxiety in females with respect to the male in the same population.
In sum, the findings
highlight the importance of self-esteem and anxiety at this stage of
development, however, the nature of the relationship between these two
variables in this age group has not yet been ultimately established, as
demonstrated by the research carried out by Baumeister et al., (2003) in which
it is indicated that both descriptive and correlational studies have yielded
different results regarding the relationship between self-esteem and anxiety,
that is, the magnitudes of the correlations obtained differ between studies in
terms of the correlation coefficient obtained and the respective statistical
significance.
However, in Spain two
experimental studies have been identified, in which it was evidenced that
treatments to improve self-esteem with a cognitive-behavioral approach had the
effect of reducing anxiety in the participants (Narváez,
Rubiños, Cortés-Funes,
Gómez, Raquel and García, 2008 and Cardenal and Díaz Morales, 2000). It should
be noted that, considering other age groups, negative correlations have been
reported between self-esteem and anxiety in children in Peru (Peñaloza, 2015), in adolescents and adults in Spain (Núñez and Crisman, 2016; Núñez, Martín-Albo, Grijalvo and Navarro, 2006) and finally, in adults in
Anglo-Saxon countries (Lee and Hankin, 2009; Riketta, 2004; Watson, Suls and
Haig, 2002).
In conclusion, taking
into account that emerging adulthood is a stage of changes that could cause
anxiety (Papalia, 2010), self-esteem would be considered as a support factor to
face these changes since it is related to a good psychological adjustment.
Likewise, considering that international studies studied the relationship between
self-esteem and anxiety at this stage, they have yielded inconsistent results
(Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003),
and no antecedents have been identified that relate both constructs in emerging
university adults in Peru.
The main objective of
this research was to determine the relationship between self-esteem and trait
state anxiety with a sample of 221 students between 18 and 25 years old from
private universities in Lima.
METHOD
Design
The present
constitutes an empirical study with quantitative methodology, of the ex post
facto type, since it uses an associative strategy without manipulating
variables to verify the hypothesis raised (Montero & León, 2007).
Participants
The population
consisted of a sample of emerging adults who belong to private universities in
the city of Lima. The selection of the participants was non-probabilistic
(Hernández et al., 2014) and the sample size amounted to 221, a value
calculated through the G * Power 3.1 software (Faul, Erdfelder, Buchner & Lang, 2009), considering a minimal
correlation of .20 according to Cohen (1988), a probability of .05 and a power
of .85.
The sample was made up
of 221 students, however, three cases were excluded because they presented at
least one of the protocols applied incompletely, the analyzes were based on 218
participants among men (n = 90, 41.3.8%) and women. (n = 128, 58.7%) belonging
to three private universities in Lima (Peru). The ages ranged from 18 to 25
years, with the average age being 19 years and 7 months (SD = 1.99).
The inclusion criteria
were students from private universities in Lima between the ages of 18 and 25
who wish to participate in the research. The exclusion criteria were students
from private universities whose nationality is not Peruvian.
Instruments
Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory
Instrument created by
Coopersmith (1959) for the quantitative evaluation of self-esteem, being the C
format for adults (16 years and older) the one used in the present
investigation in the version validated by Lachira
(2013). This consists of 25 items to which the subject must respond according
to the identification they have or not with the statement in terms of true
(Like me) or false (Not like me), so each answer is worth one point, and the
total self-esteem score results from the sum of the total of the partial scores
by area.
The reliability of the
original instrument, was found by the test-retest and two halves, ranged
between .78 and .92, being satisfactory (Coopersmith, 1959). In Peru, this
inventory has been used by various authors, thus Tarazona
(2013) reported a Kuder-Richarson 20 coefficient of
.61 and a general Cronbach's Alpha of .79; and Yparraguirre
(2013) obtained a reliability of .605 according to Kuder-Richarson.
Regarding the evidence
of validity of the instrument, Panizo (1985) reported
a correlation of .80 between the original and form C, and a correlation
coefficient between .42 and .66 with self-concept and other self-esteem scales.
Tarazona (2013), evidenced the content validity
relying on the judgment of experts where the concordance index was higher than
.80. Yparraguirre (2013) also submitted the
instrument to the judgment of experts, where the qualifications granted by the
experts were subjected to the binomial test, obtaining a score of .012, therefore,
p <.05 it is established that the agreement between judges is statistically
significant.
State-Trait Anxiety Questionnaire (IDARE)
This questionnaire was
created and validated in Palo Alto, United States, by Spielberger,
Gorsuch and Lushene in 1970,
in order to measure, in a relatively brief and reliable way, anxiety traits and
states. The Spanish version of this inventory was published in 1975 by Spielberger, Martínez, González, Natalicio and Díaz (Spielberger, and Díaz-Guerrero,
1975). For this research, the version validated in the Peruvian context by
Domínguez et al., (2012) will be used.
The IDARE is made up
of 40 items separated into two self-assessment scales to measure state anxiety
and trait anxiety. Each scale has 20 items with a Likert-type response. The
Anxiety-Trait (A / R) scale is scored from 1 to 4 where 1 is not at all and 4
is a lot, while the Anxiety-State scale (A / E) is scored from 1 to 4 where 1
is almost never and 4 is almost always, both scales have inverse items.
In the original
studies, evidence of convergent validity was provided relating the IDARE with
the IPAT Anxiety Scale of Cattell and Scheier (r = .75), and with the Manifest Anxiety Scale-TMAS
of Taylor (r = .80).
Domínguez, Villegas,
Sotelo and Sotelo (2012) conducted a psychometric review of the State-Trait
Anxiety Inventory (IDARE) in a sample of university students from Lima (N =
133), obtaining evidence of validity by internal structure through exploratory
factor analysis ( AFE), reporting a factorial structure that explained 48.61%
and 42.11% of the variance for the Trait Anxiety (RA) and State Anxiety (AE)
scale respectively, with the factor loadings of the items in both cases greater
than. 40. It should be noted that the principal components method, Horn's parallel
analysis and an oblique rotation (Promax) were used for both analyzes. The
instrument presented a structure that reflects the construct to be evaluated
and that is correlated with the literature.
As evidence of
validity in relation to other variables, of the convergent type, Pearson's
correlation coefficients were obtained between the scores of the trait / state
anxiety scales and the state / trait depression inventory, which turned out to
be statistically significant (p <.01), direct and moderate (AE-Euthymia
state r = .698, AE, Euthymia trait r = .383, AE-Euthymia trait r = .618, AE,
Euthymia trait r = .422).
Regarding reliability,
in the original studies in university and pre-university students from the
United States (n = 484) they found an internal consistency by Cronbach's alpha
of .86 for IDARE-R. The test-retest reliability after 104 days was .77. In the
Peruvian context the IDARE has been used by several authors, among them, Arias
(1990) found that the analysis of reliability by the Cronbach coefficient was
.87 for the Anxiety-State scale and .84 for Anxiety- Feature. Likewise, Pardo
(2010) reported a reliability index of alpha coefficients of .806 and .857 with
respect to the Anxiety-Trait scale and State Anxiety, respectively, and the
item-test correlation of all items was adequate. Torrejón
(2011) obtained a Cronbach's alpha reliability of .881 y. 890 for the A-Trait
and A-State scales. In Oliden's research (2013), the
IDARE reached an internal consistency of Cronbach's alpha of .85 for the Anxiety-R
scale, reaching similar values to the previously mentioned study. Domínguez,
et al., (2012) found acceptable reliability indicators through the internal
consistency method, for Anxiety-State a total alpha of .908 was obtained and
for Anxiety-Trait the total alpha was lower, of .874.
Process
The instruments were
applied to university students from Lima belonging to 4 private universities,
for which the researcher presented, through interviews, the project to the
academic authorities of each university. Once the approvals were obtained, it
was coordinated with the administrative staff to carry out the applications
according to the schedule, in the classrooms and at the indicated times.
The instruments were
applied in groups before or after class hours, with the following protocol
being: presentation and information about the objective of the research,
requesting their participation through the signing of the informed consent,
then they proceeded to distribute the sociodemographic record, the Coopersmith
Self-esteem inventory and the State-Trait anxiety questionnaire for each
student.
Data analysis
Once the information
was collected, it was entered into the SPSS-22 Statistical Program (Stadistical Package for Social Sciences), where data
analyzes (descriptive and inferential) were subsequently carried out to reach
conclusions. The normality of the data was determined using the Shapiro-Wilks
(W) statistic, showing that both variables had distributions that did not
approach normality (p> .05), which is why, for the inferential analyzes for
the contrast of the hypotheses were used non-parametric statistics. The
association between the variables was estimated using Spearman's non-parametric
statistic (rs), while the differences of the
variables according to sex were estimated using the Mann Whitney U statistic
(U) and the Kruskal-Wallis was used for the comparison according to age. Once
the aforementioned statistics were obtained, the magnitude of the correlations
was interpreted, the empirical criteria (Hemphill, 2003) derived from a review
of 380 meta-analytical studies were applied instead of the conventional ones by
Cohen (1988). These values include the low level (rs
<.20), moderate (rs <.30) and high (rs> .30). To consider the difference between groups as
significant, the magnitude of rb was taken into
account: <.10 as insignificant; between .10 and .30, low, between .30 and
.50, moderate; and greater than .50, high. The empirical criteria (Hemphill,
2003) derived from a review of 380 meta-analytic studies were applied instead
of the conventional ones of Cohen (1988). These values include the low level
(rs <.20), moderate (rs
<.30) and high (rs> .30). To consider the
difference between groups as significant, the magnitude of rb
was taken into account: <.10 as insignificant; between .10 and .30, low,
between .30 and .50, moderate; and greater than .50, high. The empirical
criteria (Hemphill, 2003) derived from a review of 380 meta-analytic studies
were applied instead of the conventional ones of Cohen (1988). These values
include the low level (rs <.20), moderate (rs <.30) and high (rs>
.30). To consider the difference between groups as significant, the magnitude
of rb was taken into account: <.10 as
insignificant; between .10 and .30, low, between .30 and .50, moderate; and
greater than .50, high. between .30 and .50, moderate; and greater than .50,
high. between .30 and .50, moderate; and greater than .50, high.
Ethical aspects
The researcher
presented, through interviews, the project to the academic authorities of each
university, after obtaining the approvals, the application of the same was
coordinated with the administrative staff and the participation of each student
had the prior consent of each participant through consent. reported for participants
considering the American Psychological Association (APA) standards.
The instruments were
applied in groups before or after class hours, requesting their participation
by signing the informed consent, where the tests are anonymous.
The limitation of this
study is that the results cannot be generalized, since the sample with which we
will work will be a non-probabilistic sample. In addition, the relationship
that will be established between the two constructs will be a correlational
type, but not a causal relationship.
RESULTS
The results of the
analysis of the goodness of fit to the normal curve - carried out using the
Shapiro-Wilk (W) test - indicate that the scores on the self-esteem inventory,
and on the state and trait anxiety questionnaires obtained statistics with
significant values In other words, these variables present a form of
distribution that is not close to normal at the population level (Table 1). It
is due to these results that the inferential analyzes were performed using
non-parametric statistics.
From the analysis, a
moderately negative and statistically significant relationship between
self-esteem and state anxiety was obtained, the effect size being high. It can
also be observed that there is a moderate negative and significant relationship
between self-esteem and trait anxiety (Table 2), with a high effect size.
Table 3 shows the
comparisons in the study variables according to sex, finding that there are no
statistically significant differences in self-esteem (areas and global) or in anxiety
(state and trait), obtaining insignificant effect sizes in all contrasts (rb <.10).
In the analysis
according to the age of the participants, it can be observed in Table 4 that
there are no statistically significant differences in self-esteem, state
anxiety and trait anxiety, with the associated effect sizes being insignificant
(ε² <.10).
DISCUSSION
The main objective of
this research was to determine if there is a relationship between self-esteem,
state anxiety and trait anxiety in emerging adult students from private
universities in Lima, this stage was considered since, according to Arnett
(2004), during it the professional exploration, search for personal identity
and autonomy, aspects that could affect levels of anxiety and self-esteem. From
the main objective, the following objectives were derived: to compare
self-esteem according to sex and age, to compare trait anxiety according to sex
and age, and to compare state anxiety according to sex and age.
When analyzing the
results, it is confirmed that there is a significant negative relationship
between self-esteem and anxiety (state and trait). Regarding this finding,
three explanations are proposed. In the first place, the most categorical
explanation for this relationship is due to the fact that both self-esteem and
anxiety depend on cognitive processes, which is why according to Polaino-Lorente (2010), the first is built with the
representations and cognitions that each person possesses of herself, and these
will interfere with how much or how little she esteems herself. In the same way
it occurs in anxiety, according to Clark and Beck (2012), cognitions or beliefs
exercise an intermediary function between the situation and the emotion, that
is, our way of thinking plays an important influence on how we feel in a
situation, if anxious or serene.
Therefore, our beliefs
and thoughts will have the consequence that self-esteem and anxiety are
affected, due to this McKay (1991) indicates that there are cognitive
distortions that cause the person to selectively base themselves on certain
negative facts of reality, ignoring the rest and causing self-esteem to be
affected, which agrees with Polaino –Lorente (2012), who mentions that a well-founded
self-esteem must be supported by reality. Likewise, it happens with anxiety
since one of the basic principles of cognitive theory is that dysfunctional
beliefs about the threat and errors in cognitive processing produce an
excessive reaction that is incongruous with the reality of the situation,
causing fear excessive (Clark & Beck, 2012).
Second, another
interpretation of the negative relationship between anxiety and self-esteem
found, is suggested by Moreno (2009), he mentions that good self-esteem
develops coping ability, therefore, the higher the self-esteem, the more likely
that the individual perform better coping to adapt to different circumstances,
and present less anxiety, as indicated by Kosic
(2006).
Third, inversely
Moreno (2009) also proposes that people who feel a certain type of anxiety in
certain circumstances perceive themselves as limited in this situation and
could develop low self-esteem, that is, the way a person faces a scenario where
experiencing anxiety will influence your self-esteem.
Due to these three
reasons Oblitas (2004) mentions that there are
interventions with a cognitive approach that address self-esteem, where the
therapist works with the patient's negative thoughts and with the cognitive
distortions that deteriorate self-esteem in order to reduce anxiety, this
remains evidenced in two Spanish experimental studies, in which it was shown
that treatments to improve self-esteem with a cognitive-behavioral approach had
the effect of reducing anxiety in the participants (Narváez,
Rubiños, Cortés-Funes,
Gómez, Raquel and García, 2008 and Cardenal and Díaz Morales, 2000).
In short, it is
highlighted that for emerging adults it will be relevant to have good
self-esteem, since this will be an important basis to face changes generating
less anxiety, since the pressures that are experienced in this stage make it
one of the most critical With respect to the other stages of development, due
to the fact that young people are subjected to vocational and academic
stressors (Fernández, 2009), likewise, social expectations regarding their
economic, labor, family and social responsibility, make up potential stressors
(Darling, McWey, Howard & Olmstead, 2007).
When analyzing the
descriptive results, it was found that there are no significant differences
when comparing the self-esteem scores between women and men, which differs from
what was found by Castañeda (2013), and Milicic and Gorostegui (2011) who
found that women have higher anxiety than males in samples of adolescents and
children respectively, however, it is important to mention that these
populations differ from the present study in the age of the sample. In the same
way, the cross-cultural research of Bleidorn et al.,
(2016) with participants from 48 countries, including Peru, also found that men
reported higher self-esteem than women, however, such a discrepancy may be due
to the fact that in the research of Bleidorn et al.,
(2016) it is also mentioned that countries differed significantly in the
magnitude of gender effects on self-esteem; due to socioeconomic,
sociodemographic and cultural value indicators, in addition, self-esteem was
only measured with a single item.
With regard to
anxiety, the present study also found that there are no significant differences
when comparing the trait anxiety and state anxiety scores between men and
women, this disagrees with what was reported in the background research, since,
in Peru, the studies by Cornejo (2012) and Olivo (2012) concluded that women
present greater anxiety than men between the ages of 18 to 30 and 16 to 18
years respectively, according to each study. Likewise, in the investigations of
Martínez-Otero (2014), in Spain, and Benevides and
Rodrigues (2010), in Brazil, higher anxiety scores were obtained in women than
in men, in a population of adolescents in both studies.
The discrepancies of
the results of this research with the findings of previous studies, in relation
to the fact that there are no significant differences in self-esteem, state
anxiety and trait anxiety between women and men, are due to the fact that the
aforementioned investigations (Martínez- Otero, 2014;
Bleidorn et al., 2016; Cornejo, 2012; Olivo, 2012; and Benevides and
Rodrigues, 2010) were carried out 4 years ago, where women probably still did
not play the roles of today, since according to the INEI (September 2017) to
the year 2016 indicates that the Gender Inequality Index is located at a value
of .391 which reflects that Peru is in a course of decreasing gender
inequality, ranking above 9 Latin American countries such as Colombia and
Brazil.
Therefore, development
tasks such as professional exploration, economic independence and the search
for personal identity (Arnett, 2004), which are some of the goals that could
cause anxiety (Papalia, 2010), and whose fulfillment would lead to a sense of
satisfaction and value (Rice, 1997), are objectives that both men and women
will want to achieve equally at this stage, which is why there are no
differences in the levels of self-esteem and anxiety. On the other hand, one of
the indicators of Gender Equality in Peru is the empowerment of women (INEI,
2017), which favors their self-esteem and, therefore, compared to previous
years, women have more tools to face the adverse situations that arise and
consequently your anxiety levels will be lower.
Finally, it was found
that there are no significant differences in terms of self-esteem, state
anxiety and trait anxiety scores between ages (18-25 years), results similar to
those of Zuckerman et al., (2016) who found that the difference of gender in
terms of self-esteem decreased throughout early and middle adulthood. These results
are based on the fact that, the so-called developmental tasks, which are
changes at both a professional and personal level, that generate a sense of
responsibility that can be overwhelming causing anxiety (Papalia, 2010) and at
the same time, meeting these challenges successfully leads to happiness and
good self-esteem (Rice, 1977) occur within this age range (18-25 years), this
would suggest that, for example, comparing the self-esteem or anxiety between a
young man of 20 with another of 22, there would be no differences since both
are struggling to achieve these tasks imposed by society, which will affect
their self-esteem and anxiety.
On the other hand, it
can be observed that the sample is made up mostly of young people aged 18
(34.7%), 19 (20.3%) and 20 (17.4%) years, therefore there would not be such an
equitable percentage by age for an important comparison. It should be noted
that the research focused on young people between 18 and 25 years of age, which
represents a limitation, since the results could only be generalized for this
age range and only in private universities.
ORCID
Alejandra Rodrich Zegarra https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4497-4697
FINANCING
The present study has
been self-financed by the author.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
This study does not present a conflict of
interest.
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