58 Examining the Link Between Self-Reported Anxiety and Aggressive Behaviors

Abstract

Objective:

It is well known that there are differences between men and women in anxiety and aggression. Moreover, prior research has shown an association between anxiety and aggression but the strength of these associations in males and females has not been well characterized, and it remains unclear whether such associations are driven by comorbid disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or substance abuse. Therefore, we examined these associations in a large sample of males and females, and statistically controlled for the aforementioned potential confounding variables.

Participants and Methods:

A total of 13,313 adults completed the survey on Amazon Mechanical Turk between April 2020 and April 2021, including 5,598 females (Mage=36.4, SD=11.9) and 7,654 males (Mage=37.81, SD=12.7). Aggression was measured using the Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ), while the Generalized Anxiety Disorders (GAD-7) scale was used to gauge anxiety levels. PTSD was assessed with the PC-PTSD scale, and alcohol misuse was assessed with the Alcohol Use Disorders Inventory (AUDIT). Data were analyzed with zero-order correlations and linear regression to control for the effects of PTSD and alcohol misuse. Lastly, we used a Fisher r-to-z transformation to compare the correlations between males and females for both physical and verbal aggression with anxiety.

Results:

Higher aggression (i.e., BPAQ) was correlated with greater anxiety (i.e., GAD; r(13213)=0.482, p<0.0001)). This association between anxiety and aggression held even when other potential confounders were controlled, such as PTSD (p<0.0001), and alcohol misuse, p<0.0001. Additionally, the correlation between anxiety and physical aggression was significantly stronger in males than females (z=5.02, p<0.0001), a pattern that was also true for the association between anxiety and verbal aggression (z=4.13, p<0.0001).

Conclusions:

Our findings suggest that there is a linear relationship between the severity of anxiety and the severity of both verbal and physical aggression, that these associations tend to be stronger among males, and are not accounted for by associated conditions such as PTSD or alcohol misuse. This data augments existing research on the factors that contribute to aggression and further suggest that anxious feelings are more directly associated with aggression in males. These findings raise the possibility that interventions that target anxiety may prove helpful in reducing aggressive behavior among males. It may be fruitful for future work to identify neural systems that are associated with both anxiety and aggression and which are also modulated by sex. While measures of neurochemistry were not collected here, prior research has suggested that there are sex differences in brain systems that rely on serotonergic neurotransmission and arginine vasopressin, which could provide a target for future work.