Gender, age, and the trajectories and trends of anxiety and anger

This chapter addresses two sets of questions about anxiety and anger in adulthood. The first is about trajectories and trends: Do the frequency of anxiety and anger decline within cohorts as they age? Are persons in newer cohorts more anxious and angry? Do the adulthood trajectories and trends differ for men and women? The second set is about gender differences in anger: Do women feel angry more frequently than men, or do they simply lose their tempers and yell more frequently? To what extent does the presence of children in the household account for gender differences in feeling or expressing anger? Overall, the results support the idea that anxiety and anger decrease within cohorts as they age. They do not support the idea that newer cohorts are going through adulthood with higher levels of anxiety and anger. Anxiety shows no trend for either sex. Women are more anxious than men in early adulthood, and the gap grows throughout adulthood. The only trend appears among women in early adulthood, who are less angry in newer cohorts. Women report higher levels of anger than men at all but the oldest and youngest ages, with the largest gap around age 40. Children in the household do not create the gender difference in feeling angry, but they do create the gender difference in yelling or losing one's temper when feeling angry. Children in the household activate the expression of anger for both sexes, but much more so for women.