Frequency and intensity of anxiety in university students

One thousand and ninety-seven university students (455 males; 642 females) named, "...three situations that make you anxious..." and rated the intensity of the anxiety in each situation. Correlations between frequency of occurrence and rated intensity for situations named more than once were negligible for both sexes. While the intensity rating of 62 situations occurring common between sexes was significantly greater for females, there was no difference in frequency of occurrence; however, both the correlations between male and female frequency and male and female intensity were positive and significant for the shared items, indicating that their experiences of these anxiety situations vary in similar ways. Analysis was also completed for three types of situations: interpersonal--ego threat, physical threat, and ambiguous.