Anxiety from the perspective of modernity: An empirical study based on the Chinese General Social Survey of 2005–2013

Abstract

Based on the Chinese General Social Survey of 2005–2013, with a sample of 41,242 people, this study carried out a hierarchical age–period–cohort cross-classified random-effects model on anxiety scores. The results indicated a U-shaped relationship between age and anxiety with increased anxiety from young to the middle age and a decline in the old. Population disparities showed cumulative advantage/disadvantage and age-as-leveler effects in different groups. Anxiety declined in earlier cohorts but emerged as a rising trend in more recent cohorts born in peaceful social contexts. Anxiety resulting from modernity is distinct in different social and historical environments.