Emotional Profiles of Anxiety, Depression, and Stress: Differences in School Anxiety

Abstract

Introduction This study aims to confirm the existence of profiles according to the combinations of anxiety, depression, and stress, and looks to examine the differences between profiles according to the mean scores obtained in school anxiety. Methods A total of 1,234 Spanish students at the secondary education level with an age range of 13–16 years old ( M = 14.52; SD = 1.24) participated in the study by completing the abbreviated version of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and the School Anxiety Inventory. Results The results showed positive, statistically significant, and moderate-sized correlations between all the variables analyzed. The Latent Profile Analysis identified four distinct profiles of depression, anxiety, and stress: Low DAS, Moderate DAS, High DAS, and Very High DAS. The results of the MANOVA showed statistically significant differences between these profiles regarding the school anxiety dimensions, with the profiles Very High DAS and Low DAS being the ones that reported, respectively, the highest and lowest levels in all the school anxiety components. Post hoc analyses revealed significant differences for the large part of profile comparisons, with there being large and moderate differences observed in the majority of cases ( d = .30 and 1.66). Conclusions The results show the importance of considering social anxiety as a construct that is strongly associated with emotional problems such as depression, anxiety, and stress when developing effective actions to detect them and intervene with adolescents.