To explore (a) culturally-related differences in anxiety between college students recruited from 18 Arab and four Western countries, and (b) sex-related differences in anxiety in each country.

A volunteer sample (N=10312) of male (n = 4975) and female (n = 5337) college students was recruited from 18 Arab and four Western countries. They responded to the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale (KUAS; Abdel-Khalek, 2000). Arabic, English, German and Spanish equivalent versions of the KUAS were used. The scale has good psychometric characteristics in these four forms.

The highest mean anxiety total scores were found in male Arab students from Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Egypt, and in females from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Palestine, respectively. The differences between the four Western countries in the mean scores were small. Women had significantly higher mean anxiety scores in 14 out of the 18 Arab countries, whereas only Spanish and USA women had significantly higher anxiety mean scores than men. By and large, Arab participants had higher anxiety mean scores than their Western counterparts (see the diagram).

In this study, Arab college students scored as more anxious than their Western peers. The Arab countries are in transition between collectivism and individualism.