The circular effects between adolescent anxiety and benign/malicious envy: evidence from a longitudinal study and experience-sampling method

Background: Prior research has shown a strong association between anxiety and envy (i.e. benign/malicious envy). However, empirical evidence is lacking regarding their predictive connection.

Aims: To examine how benign/malicious envy impacts anxiety and how anxiety affects both types of envy respectively from a developmental viewpoint.

Methods: In Study 1, a three-wave longitudinal survey of 998 teenagers was conducted to examine the link between trait anxiety and trait benign/malicious envy. Cross-lagged panel analyses were used. In Study 2, 117 adolescents engaged in an experience-sampling method study to track their state anxiety and state benign/malicious envy. Hierarchical linear models were used.

Results: Study 1 showed a positive bidirectional relationship between trait malicious envy and trait anxiety, a negative reciprocity between trait benign envy and trait anxiety, constituting a circular effect across time respectively. Study 2 supported the results of Study 1. The relationship between variables at the state level was consistent with that at the trait level.

Conclusion: Benign envy may help alleviate anxiety, while malicious envy has the opposite effect. These findings offer a reliable framework for comprehending the connection between envy and anxiety, which extends current knowledge about the development of such relations across adolescent.