Relationship between anxiety and adaptation among school-going adolescents in Colombia

Adolescence is considered to be a time of transition and great transformation at a biological, cognitive, and social level, which makes adolescents prone to certain risks and dysfunctions. Close to 20% of adolescents around the world suffer from a mental disorder, with many of those being of an emotional and affective nature. At the same time, it is estimated that 20% of the population will suffer from an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. The problems that occur in different spheres, such as family, social, educational, political, economic, among others, may cause an imbalance regarding cognition and in the way that diverse situations are faced, which undoubtedly affect adaptation in different contexts. This is a cross-sectional correlational study, the objective of which was to determine the consistency existing between the dimensions of state-trait anxiety and the general state of adaptation in 98 adolescents, aged 12 to 15, from sixth to eleventh grade, using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) and the Bell's Adjustment Inventory (BAI). From an analysis of multiple correspondences and the R-Statistics package, the results indicate that with greater levels of anxiety, there are lower levels of adaptation. Lower levels of anxiety are presented, the higher levels of state anxiety (tranquillity) being more common at the beginning of adolescence (12-13 years old), and specifically in social adaptation. Additionally, the analysis derived from the levels of state and trait anxiety and their relationship with the different types of adaptation is discussed.