The aims of this study were to examine age-differences regarding various worry components among younger and older adults and to characterize the relationships between worry domains and anxiety. A total of 311 younger adults (18 - 30 years) and 100 older adults (65+ years) completed seven worry and anxiety questionnaires, focusing on worry content, worry severity, and responses to worry. A series of 2 × 2 ANOVAs was computed to examine differences in worry and anxiety related to age and gender. Interaction effects indicated that gender differences among younger adults were significantly more pronounced than older adults with women reporting greater worry and anxiety than men. Main effects of age indicated that younger adults reported greater worry than older across all worry domains. Worry and anxiety measures were found to be highly correlated across all domains. Findings indicate that worry is fundamentally related to anxiety across age groups and that a variety of aspects of worry should be considered to understand the breadth of worry’s influence on anxiety. Additionally, age and gender have unique relationships with worry and anxiety and interact to complicate individuals’ symptom profiles. Thus, worry is a multifaceted construct that is crucial to understanding anxiety in general and warrants multifaceted assessment and intervention.
Basevitz, P. (2003). Worry in Late Adulthood: Developmental Perspectives on Content, Frequency, and Worry Proneness. Doctoral Dissertation, Montreal: Concordia University.
Borkovec, T. D. (1988). Comments on “Worry as a Phenomenon Relevant to the Elderly”. Behavior Therapy, 19, 381-383. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7894(88)80010-8
Borkovec, T. D., Alcaine, O., & Behar, E. S. (2004). Avoidance Theory of Worry and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. In R. Heimberg, D. Mennin, & C. Turk (Eds.), Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Advances in Research and Practice (pp. 77-108). New York: Guilford.
Borkovec, T. D., Robinson, E., Pruzinsky, T., & DePree, J. A. (1983). Preliminary Exploration of Worry: Some Characteristics and Processes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 21, 9-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(83)90121-3
Borkovec, T. D., Shadick, R. N., & Hopkins, M. (1991). The Nature of Normal and Pathological Worry. In R. M. Rapee, & D. H. Barlow (Eds.), Chronic Anxiety: Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Mixed Anxiety-Depression (pp. 29-51). New York: Guilford Press.
De Vito, A., Calamia, M., Greening, S., & Roye, S. (2017). The Association of Anxiety, Depression, and Worry Symptoms on Cognitive Performance in Older Adults. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 26, 161-173. https://doi.org/10.1080/13825585.2017.1416057
Diefenbach, G. J., McCarthy-Larzelere, M. E., Williamson, D. A., Mathews, A., Manguno-Mire, G. M., & Bentz, B. G. (2001). Anxiety, Depression, and the Content of Worries. Depression and Anxiety, 14, 247-250. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.1075
Dugas, M. J., Gagnon, F., Ladouceur, R., & Freeston, M. H. (1998). Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Preliminary Test of a Conceptual Model. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 215-226. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(97)00070-3
Fox, E., Dutton, K., Yates, A., Georgiou, G. A., & Mouchlianitis, E. (2015). Attentional Control and Suppressing Negative Thought Intrusions in Pathological Worry. Clinical Psychological Science, 3, 593-606. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702615575878
Gladstone, G. L., Parker, G. B., Mitchell, P. B., Malhi, G. S., Wilhelm, K. A., & Austin, M. P. (2005). A Brief Measure of Worry Severity (BMWS): Personality and Clinical Correlates of Severe Worriers. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 19, 877-892. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2004.11.003
Golden, J., Conroy, R. M., Bruce, I., Denihan, A., Greene, E., Kirby, M., & Lawlor, B. A. (2011). The Spectrum of Worry in the Community-Dwelling Elderly. Aging & Mental Health, 15, 985-994. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2011.583621
Goncalves, D. C., & Byrne, G. J. (2013). Who Worries Most? Worry Prevalence and Patterns across the Lifespan. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 28, 41-49. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.3788
Gould, C. E., Gerolimatos, L. A., Beaudreau, S. A., Mashal, N., & Edelstein, B. A. (2018). Older Adults Report More Sadness and Less Jealousy than Young Adults in Response to Worry Induction. Aging & Mental Health, 22, 512-518. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2016.1277975
Hunt, S. L., Wisocki, P. A., & Roger, P. R. (2009). “What, Me Worry?” An Examination of the Literature on Worry and the Older Adult. Behavior Therapist, 32, 9-16.
Jeon, H. S., Dunkle, R., & Roberts, B. L. (2006). Worries of the Oldest-Old. Health & Social Work, 31, 256-265. https://doi.org/10.1093/hsw/31.4.256
Legerstee, J. S., Garnefski, N., Verhulst, F. C., & Utens, E. M. W. J. (2011). Cognitive Coping in Anxiety-Disordered Adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 34, 319-326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2010.04.008
Lindesay, J., Baillon, S., Brugha, T., Dennis, M., Stewart, R., Araya, R., & Meltzer, H. (2006). Worry Content across the Lifespan: An Analysis of 16-to 74-Year-Old Participants in the British National Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity 2000. Psychological Medicine, 36, 1625-1633. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291706008439
Mahoney, A. E., Hobbs, M. J., Newby, J. M., Williams, A. D., & Andrews, G. (2018). Psychometric Properties of the Worry Behaviors Inventory: Replication and Extension in a Large Clinical and Community Sample. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 46, 84-100. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1352465817000455
Mahoney, A. E., Hobbs, M. J., Newby, J. M., Williams, A. D., Sunderland, M., & Andrews, G. (2016). The Worry Behaviors Inventory: Assessing the Behavioral Avoidance Associated with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, 203, 256-264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.06.020
McNeill, I. M., & Dunlop, P. D. (2016). Development and Preliminary Validation of the Constructive and Unconstructive Worry Questionnaire: A Measure of Individual Differences in Constructive versus Unconstructive Worry. Psychological Assessment, 28, 1368-1378. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000266
Mennin, D. S., Heimberg, R. G., Turk, C. L., & Fresco, D. M. (2005). Preliminary Evidence for an Emotion Dysregulation Model of Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 1281-1310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2004.08.008
Meyer, T. J., Miller, M. L., Metzger, R. L., & Borkovec, T. D. (1990). Development and Validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28, 487-495. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(90)90135-6
Miloyan, B., & Pachana, N. A. (2016). Clinical Significance of Individual GAD Symptoms in Later Life. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 29, 92-98. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891988715606231
Newman, M. G., & Llera, S. J. (2011). A Novel Theory of Experiential Avoidance in Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Review and Synthesis of Research Supporting a Contrast Avoidance Model of Worry. Clinical Psychology Review, 31, 371-382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2011.01.008
Nilsson, J., Sigström, R., Östling, S., Waern, M., & Skoog, I. (2019). Changes in the Expression of Worries, Anxiety, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder with Increasing Age: A Population Study of 70 to 85-Year-Olds. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 34, 249-257. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5012
Ottaviani, C., Borlimi, R., Brighetti, G., Caselli, G., Favaretto, E., Giardini, I., Marzocchi, C., Nucifora, V., Rebecchi, D., Ruggiero, G. M., & Sassaroli, S. (2014). Worry as an Adaptive Avoidance Strategy in Healthy Controls but Not in Pathological Worriers. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 93, 349-355. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2014.05.010
Pietrzak, R. H., Maruff, P., Woodward, M., Fredrickson, J., Fredrickson, A., Krystal, J. H., Southwick, S. M., & Darby, D. (2012). Mild Worry Symptoms Predict Decline in Learning and Memory in Healthy Older Adults: A 2-Year Prospective Cohort Study. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 20, 266-275. https://doi.org/10.1097/JGP.0b013e3182107e24
Ruscio, A. M. (2002). Delimiting the Boundaries of Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Differentiating High Worriers with and without GAD. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 16, 377-400. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0887-6185(02)00130-5
Segal, D. L., Granier, K. L., Stone, L. E., & Pifer, M. (2019). Geriatric Anxiety Scale. In D. Gu, & M. Dupree (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Basingstoke: Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_1103-1
Segal, D. L., Hook, J. N., & Coolidge, F. L. (2001). Personality Dysfunction, Coping Styles, and Clinical Symptoms in Younger and Older Adults. Journal of Clinical Geropsychology, 7, 201-212. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011391128354
Segal, D. L., June, A., Payne, M., Coolidge, F. L., & Yochim, B. (2010). Development and Initial Validation of a Self-Report Assessment Tool for Anxiety among Older Adults: The Geriatric Anxiety Scale. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 24, 709-714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2010.05.002
Spinhoven, P., van der Veen, D. C., Voshaar, R. O., & Comijs, H. C. (2017). Worry and Cognitive Control Predict Course Trajectories of Anxiety in Older Adults with Late-Life Depression. European Psychiatry, 44, 134-140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2017.05.002
Stöber, J., & Joormann, J. (2001). A Short Form of the Worry Domains Questionnaire: Construction and Factorial Validation. Personality and Individual Differences, 31, 591-598. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00163-X
Tallis, F., Eysenck, M., & Mathews, A. (1992). A Questionnaire for the Measurement of Nonpathological Worry. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 161-168. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(92)90038-Q
Tully, P. J., Cosh, S. M., & Baune, B. T. (2013). A Review of the Effects of Worry and Generalized Anxiety Disorder upon Cardiovascular Health and Coronary Heart Disease. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 18, 627-644. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2012.749355
Wisocki, P. A. (1994). The Experience of Worry among the Elderly. In G. C. L. Davey, & F. Tallis (Eds.), Wiley Series in Clinical Psychology. Worrying: Perspectives on Theory, Assessment and Treatment (pp. 247-261). Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.
Wisocki, P. A., Handen, B., & Morse, C. K. (1986). The Worry Scale as a Measure of Anxiety among Homebound and Community Active Elderly. The Behavior Therapist, 9, 91-95.
Wu, M., Mennin, D. S., Ly, M., Karim, H. T., Banihashemi, L., Tudorascu, D. L., Aizenstein, H. J., & Andreescu, C. (2019). When Worry May Be Good for You: Worry Severity and Limbic-Prefrontal Functional Connectivity in Late-Life Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, 257, 650-657. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.07.022