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Reported Nightmares and Trait Anxiety Among Arab Children, Adolescents and Adults

Ahmed M Abdel-Khalek

Background: Research on the association between nightmares and anxiety has reached conflicting results. Further, the Arabic studies in this domain are scarce.

Objective: This study sought to investigate the relation between reported nightmares and trait anxiety among a large sample of Arab students.

Methods: A convenience sample of non-clinical 8,218 school and university Arab students took part in this study. They were classified into 13 age groups (from 12 to 24). A self-rating scale was used to assess nightmares based on the participant's perceived frequency during the last month. A 5-point Likert type scale was used as follows: 0: No; 1: A little; 2: Moderate; 3: Much and 4: Very much. The Kuwait University Anxiety Scale was also used.

Results: All the Pearson correlation coefficients between reported nightmares and trait anxiety were statistically significant and positive in all of the 13 age groups, and ranged between 0.38 and 0.53, with a median of 0.44.

Conclusion: On the basis of a large sample of Arab students, and two scales with good psychometric properties, we can suggest that anxiety level should be considered in participants who experiencing nightmares.