Effects of residential evaluation and rehabilitation placement on children's state-trait anxiety

The recently developed State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children was used to explore the stress experienced by youngsters who were placed from home into a state residential setting for diagnostic evaluation or involvement in a rehabilitation program. Twenty-four youngsters, who ranged from 12 to 16 years, responded to the measure on admission day and 21 to 25 days postarrival. The proposition that trait anxiety would remain relatively stable across time (t = .64, p greater than .50) and the prediction that geographic isolation and new social controls initially would be experienced as ego-threatening (t = 3.24, p less than .01) clearly were supported. The results are viewed as support for the predictive validity and normative stabilility of the children's state-trait anxiety measure.