INTRODUCTION: Two different concepts are found in the study of anxiety: state anxiety, which is a transient state characterized by subjective feelings of tension that can vary in intensity with time; and trait anxiety, which is a relatively stable personality disposition to respond to a wider range of situations as dangerous or threatening. In the literature, it is possible to find various scales that aim at evaluating these two aspects of anxiety, although the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory by Spielberger et al. (1970) is the most widely used. The objectives of the present study were: 1) to describe the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory scores of a sample of university students from Aracaju, where modern life stressors are not as present as they are in the large Brazilian cities such as São Paulo, and 2) to compare the results obtained to those from a previous study performed in São Paulo. METHOD: Four hundred and ninety-eight university students (53.6% female) from Aracaju were evaluated: 87.6% were under 30 years of age, 89.6% were single and 24.7% had a job. RESULTS: The data obtained from this study showed that in Aracaju the highest levels of anxiety were among individuals who were either single, under 30 or female. The comparison between Aracaju and São Paulo found that the Aracajunian students had lower levels of anxiety, and this difference seemed to reside mainly in the group under 30 years of age. CONCLUSION: The results presented here suggest that trait anxiety in university students from Aracaju is lower than in university students from São Paulo, supporting the hypothesis that life in large cities can favor the development of anxiety.
Anxiety; personality; students; cities
