Trait Anxiety in Female Heads of Household
Abstract
The purpose of this investigation was to determine if being the female head of a single-parent household was associated with increased trait anxiety. Ninety-four female nurses completed the Trait portion of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory developed by Spielberger, Gorsuch, and Lushene (1964) and a demographic inventory. The demographic inventory provided the information regarding marital status and presence or absence of children needed to delineate the sample into four groups: Group I (n=31) married females with dependent children in the home; Group II (n=10) married females with no dependent children in the home; Group III (n=26) single, separated or divorced females with dependent children in the home; Group IV (n=27) single, separated or divorced females with no dependent children in the home. A one-way analysis of variance indicated no significant differences in the groups as designated by marital status and presence or absence of children and trait anxiety.