Social problem solving and trait anxiety as predictors of worry in a college student population

This study examined the relations between trait anxiety, social problem-solving ability, and two different measures of worry in a sample of 353 college students. The worry measures were the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), which measures worry frequency, uncontrollability, and distress, and the Catastrophic Worry Questionnaire (CWQ), which assesses extreme negative outcome expectancies associated with worry. Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that social problem-solving ability accounted for a significant amount of variance in both worry measures even after trait anxiety was controlled. Three different dimensions of social problem-solving ability were found to be significantly assoclated with worry. Negative problem orientation was positively related to both worry measures after controlling for trait anxiety. In addition, rational problem solving and impulsivity/carelessness style were both positively related to the CWQ after controlling for trait anxiety and problem orientation, which suggests that catastrophic worry has both constructive and dysfunctional problem-solving aspects that cannot be accounted for by the person's problem orientation. The implications of these findings for theory, research, and practice were discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.