- 14th May 2019
- 06:03 am
Anxiety which has been known to be a mental health condition characterized by feelings of worry strong enough to interfere with a person’s daily activities is the major field of research in our study. The study utilizes a sample size of 235 respondents, who are patients in an anxiety clinic. Poulton R (2002) et al assessed migraine and cognitive function where childhood history depicted to relate with performance IQ of the respondents in the study. The respondents who had a clear childhood history showed a high performance IQ. Sibnath D. et al (2010) in a study on anxiety among high school students concluded that anxiety was prevalent in boys than girls with a representation of 20.1% and 17.9% respectively.Crick. R and Lad W (1993) found out that children’s feelings and attributions varied as a function of peer status, gender and grade, their feelings were found to be significantly events.
It is from the background of this literature that the study allies to a set of three hypotheses;
H1: There is a relationship between childhood history and IQ score of a selected patient.
H2: Therapy type is associated with gender of a patient.
H3: Peer support scores, Avoidance scores and social problems existence are deterministic components of anxiety.
With combination of the results attained in running specific tests on each hypothesis, a conclusion is drawn over all.
Methods
The achievement of the outlined hypothesis test has been seconded by utilization of SPSS software. Descriptive tables and graphs used in describing the data set demographically. This mode of description clearly displays the distribution of the data set with differed point of contention on gender and place of referral being used in description. The statistics gives an authentic description of the data based on gender as well as on the origin of referral for the clinic visit. Correlation tables used in displaying the strength of relationships between selected variables; In this case the first hypothesis looking into relations of child history to IQ score of selected patients. The Pearson correlation coefficient displays the direction and the strength of relationship between the duo variables.
Chi-squared test conducted to displays strengths of association between variables, this will display the analysis results on the second hypothesis looking into association of gender of a patient with Therapy type taken by the selected respondent. The significance of the association is viewed in terms of the P value associated with chi-square coefficient.
A regression model is used to provide strengths of allied combined variables relating one dependent variable as per the last hypothesis. This will clearly output on hypothesis three, where the strength carried by peer support, avoidance and social problems as independent variables have on Anxiety as a dependent variable.The effects of each of the predictor variables on the dependent variable is measured based on the coefficient allied to the variable as well as the direction. The conclusion on the hypotheses of the study on anxiety has been drawn from the outcome of the analysis herein.
Results
Demographics
The respondents were distributed based on gender, such that 50.6% represented female gender, whereas 49.4% represented male, it is clear that majority of the patients involved in the study were Female.
The bar graph displays the distribution of the gender describing the demographic component of the sample utilized in the research, with a slight deviation in the counts, female gender majoring the graph.
Anxiety treatment has been based on three referrals, most of the patients have been referred for anxiety treatment by GP at a representation of 45.1%, followed closely by those referred by the school at 31.5% and lastly those that decided to join the cohort of treatment at a representation of 23.4%. this can further be display in a bar graph as;
The frequency of GP coded as 2 is seen to major in the bar graph 1 above at a frequency of 106, followed by the once from school at a frequency of 74 coded as 1 and lastly the cohort who took themselves alone at a frequency of 55.
Relationship of Child History on IQ
The relationship of child history and IQ is quantified with a negative correlation of 0.022, the value is statistically onsignificant, this means that the probability of obtaining this correlation coefficient is not by chance, entirely based on the p value of 0.737 which is greater than 0.005. the relationship however can be described to mean with a knowledge of a patient’s presence of child history there equates a reduced IQ by a factor 0.022, and the converse stands, that is with the absence of a patient’s child history equates to an increased IQ score.
Therapy type association with gender.
Considering the Pearson chi-square coefficient of 6.604 with a p value of 0.037, which is statistically significant, with a consideration of the standardized p values as being less than 0.05. This entirely means that there exist an association between therapy taken by a selected candidate with gender. This association can be displayed graphically as;
The graph displays the varied distribution of therapy types taken by patients categorized based on gender. The graph has been based on the software coding with 1 representing Behavioral, 2 representing medication and 3 representing a combination of both behavioral and medication. Medication has been displayed to be considered by majority of the respondents with 33.19% of female and 23.96% of male using this type of therapy, this is a representation of 59.15% of the total respondents. This type of therapy is followed closely by those respondents who utilize both therapies, Behavioral and medication, with a representation of 27.23% of the total respondents, majority of this cohort were male at 14.04%. Lastly the respondents who utilized Behaviour therapy were marginalized with a representation of 13.62% at 9.36% for male and 4.26% for female. From this distribution it is clearly seen that majority of the female gender considered using medication theraphy, whereas most of the male considered using Behavioral or Both theraphy types.
Peer support scores, Avoidance scores and social problems existence as deterministic components of Anxiety.
The model attained through the regression can be able to explain 77.0% of the variability within the data set. We can hereby take note that the model predicts the dependent variable significantly.
Table 6 displays the standardized coefficients allied with each of the predictor variables, the coefficients of the variables, ranging from the constant of 5.069, coefficient allied to avoidance at 0.137, peer support of -0.241 and social problem of 0.585. All the coefficients are statistically significant with p values being less than the standardized p value of 0.05. The model from the regression coefficients is therefore given as;
Anxiety=5.069+0.137*avoidance-0.241*peer support+0.585*social problem…………………………. (i)
The model (i) above display a regression of Anxiety based on the changes from of scores. The model depicts a positive relationship between avoidance scores and social problem, whereas there exists a negative relation between peer support and anxiety scores. The model can therefore be explained to mean for a unit change in Anxiety scores there equates an increase in avoidance scores by a factor 0.137, an increase in social problem by a factor 0.585 and a decrease in peer support by a factor 0.241.
Interpretation and conclusions
Based on the results attained, we can generate interpretation over the test undertaken fragmented on the study hypotheses.
There exists a relationship between a patient’s child history and IQ scores, with a knowledge of a patient’s child history there results in a decreased IQ score of the patient by a coefficient of 0.022, this means that an increase in IQ score by a unit is entirely based on a change on child history availability of a selected patient. We therefore accept the null hypothesis one.
Therapy type consider by a selected patient has been found to associate with gender, with majority of the respondents in the sample considering Medication therapy distributed such that 33.19% of female and 23.96% of male utilized the therapy. Both behavioral and medication therapies followed and lastly Behavioral therapy alone came last. The presence of this results can conclude that there indeed is an association between gender and a selected choice of therapy. The therapy chosen by patients has been distributed in terms of gender, the second null hypothesis is hereby accepted
Anxiety scores have been found to be determined by peer support scores, social problems and avoidance scores. It can be concluded that high anxiety scores are as a result of greater impairment in everyday activities (high avoidance scores), which have been found in the model to relate such that an increase in anxiety scores by one-unit result in an increase in avoidance score by 0.137. Anxiety score is founded to be related to peer support indirectly, with increased anxiety scores there result some decreased peer support. This entirely means that with the absence of social problems there results low anxiety scores. Lastly we can conclude that Anxiety scores are directly related to social problems. This conclusion places the last hypothesis at a state of further study recommendation. This is because the relationship of the predictor variable varies at a smaller gap. There is need therefore for a further study to look into the relationship within each individual set of variables.
References.
Poulton, R., Caspi, A., Milne, B. J., Thomson, W. M., Taylor, A., Sears, M. R., & Moffitt, T. E. (2002). Association between children's experience of socioeconomic disadvantage and adult health: a life-course study. The lancet, 360(9346), 1640-1645.
Deb, S., Chatterjee, P., & Walsh, K. M. (2010). Anxiety among high school students in India: comparisons across gender, school type, social strata, and perceptions of quality time with parents. Australian Journal of educational and developmental psychology, 10(1), 18-31.
Crick, N. R., & Ladd, G. W. (1993). Children's perceptions of their peer experiences: Attributions, loneliness, social anxiety, and social avoidance. Developmental Psychology, 29(2), 244.
