Ana Carolina Monnerat Fioravanti's research while affiliated with Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro and other places

The State - Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) is composed of two scales which intend to measure state (STAI-S) or trait (STAI-T) anxiety components. Results employing factor analysis techniques indicate the presence of two factors in the latent structure of the STAI-T component. Although different interpretations have been proposed, the nature of these factors remains unclear. The present study further investigated the factor structure of the STAI-T in three different Brazilian samples: a) students from two different universities from Rio de Janeiro; b) high school students from Brasilia and c) marine subjects during a military draft. Results indicated that STAI-T factor structure depended on the sample investigated. University and high school students presented a factorial structure convergent with the anxiety and depression interpretation. On the other hand, the military sample presented a factorial structure based on the "anxiety present" "anxiety absence" interpretation. Theoretical aspects related to the ability of instruments to discriminate anxiety and depression are discussed.