Correlation between anger and anxiety among secondary school students

Anger is a disruptive emotion that manifests in an individual and aggravates symptoms of other psychiatric conditions. Previous studies have shown that anger deepens symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder, a condition that impacts negatively on millions of people in the world. These studies had pointed out that there seems to be a link between anger and anxiety. This study sought to investigate the correlation between anger and anxiety among students in public secondary schools in Nakuru sub County, Kenya. A group 100 students (50 boys and 50 girls) challenged with extreme anger were assigned either to an experimental group which received a Mindfulness Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (MBCBT) treatment or to a control group which continued with Therapy as Usual. Data was collected at three levels: pretest, posttest and follow-up. Findings of this study revealed that at pretest, participants in experimental group scored high in state anger (33.74 ±7.842SD), trait anger (24.90 ± 4.537SD), and anxiety (26.60 ± 7.100SD). A Spearman’s Rank Correlation run revealed a positive correlation, though low, between anxiety and state anger (r=0.116, p=0.423) and (r=0.137, p=0.343) for experimental and control groups respectively. Similarly, statistically significant correlation between trait anger and anxiety (r=0.337, p=0.017) and (r=0.254, p=0.035) for experimental and control group respectively were obtained.