Anxiety levels of psychology and dentistry students

Anxiety, which is an inevitable part of the ongoing life of people, comes across in the daily life of the individual. In its current form, the concept of anxiety is seen as the emergence of mental problems or an important cause of mental problems. Anxiety manifests itself with behavioral, cognitive and physiological symptoms with the thought that a negative, bad event is approaching. The aim of this study is to reveal the anxiety levels of university students. For this purpose, the anxiety levels of the students studying in dentistry and psychology departments were compared. The universe of the study consists of the students of the dentistry and psychology departments of the state and foundation universities in Istanbul. In this context, a total of 600 students from different grade levels, 300 from the dentistry and 300 from the psychology departments, participated by using the random sampling method from the universe. State and trait anxiety scale consisting of 40 items was used as data collection tool in the study. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that occurred in 19, data were collected electronically. Due to the normal distribution of anxiety scale scores used in the study, parametric statistical methods were used in the analysis of the data. The data were analyzed with the SPSS24 data analysis program. As a result of the research, it was concluded that the state and trait anxiety states of women were higher than men. In addition, it was determined that the state and trait anxiety states of dentistry students were higher than the students of the psychology department. State anxiety scores did not differ in the variables of accommodation type and income level. It was concluded that students with higher family income levels also had higher trait anxiety levels. According to the variable of place of residence before university, it was observed that the state anxiety levels of the students living in the city center were higher than those living in the district center. It was found that there was a weak, positive and significant relationship between the scores of the state and trait anxiety dimensions, and the trait anxiety levels increased due to the increase in the state anxiety levels.