The study is one of the first to involve teenagers' use of hand-held computer diaries; after analysis of entries, researchers found that high rates of anxiety led to more frequent episodes of anger, sadness, and fatigue and altered behavior significantly. The current findings were obtained as part of a long-term study.

Dr. Carol Whalen and colleagues found that teens recorded being anxious in about 45 percent of their computerized diary entries, a much higher incidence than expected. This anxiety, which--also surprisingly--was equal in boys and girls, led to more prevalent feelings of unhappiness and low self-esteem. Their anxiety caused them to engage in fewer conversations and recreational activities and to eat and smoke more.

To conduct their research, Whalen and her team issued each of 150 high school students a hand-held computer that contained a software program in which the teens recorded their feelings and behaviors during the day.

"The teens' diaries showed us a much greater incidence of anxiety, but they also revealed behavior patterns that had never been observed before," Whalen said. "We were able to see when this anxiety was experienced, where and with whom. This study may help prevent adolescents from starting harmful behaviors like overeating and smoking and may help psychologists and other health care practitioners take better care of their adolescent patients."

Teenagers with the highest levels of anxiety tended to spend more time alone but were less anxious when they spent time with friends. High-anxiety teens were seven times more likely than low-anxiety teens to report feelings of anger and eleven times more likely to report sadness. Moderate- and high-anxiety teens were two-to-three times more likely to smoke, between 70 and 80 percent more likely to drink alcohol and more likely to experience urges to eat. The researchers also found that girls were equally as anxious as boys, a finding contrary to other studies on anxiety.

Although the more anxious teens were more likely to smoke, it was the less anxious teens who were most likely to experience anxiety while they were smoking.

"Low-anxiety teenagers may be less used to anxiety, so they may smoke to ease the discomfort of anxious feelings," Whalen suggested. "Or smoking may actually raise anxiety levels through some physiological mechanism."

Whalen and her colleagues continue to study the students' electronic diary entries. Since the study began in 1998, researchers are in a good position to determine mood changes in adolescents that may have occurred after the events of September 11th.

"This study was conducted in the context of a secure and optimistic society," Whalen said. "All of that has changed. We may be able to use this data as a 'baseline' with which we can compare moods and behaviors of adolescents in a peaceful society with moods and behaviors in a society under stress."