Anxiety in contemporary Turkish society is a multidimensional phenomenon shaped by psychological vulnerability, social change, cultural meaning, and structural uncertainty. This paper argues that anxiety should be understood not only as an individual psychopathological condition but also as a culturally mediated response to economic precarity, political instability, rapid urbanization, internal migration, changing family relations, and unequal access to social resources. Collective crises, including the 1999 Marmara earthquake, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, intensified psychological distress while exposing existing social inequalities. The paper combines psychological theories of anxiety with sociological, anthropological, and public-health perspectives. It reviews evidence concerning university and graduate students, older adults, and children, showing that anxiety is unevenly distributed across social groups and is influenced by age, educational and employment status, family circumstances, parental health, gender, and region. Cultural interpretations and coping practices, including family, religious, communal, and traditional healing resources, shape how distress is understood and managed. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs provides an additional framework for linking anxiety to threatened physiological security, safety, belonging, esteem, and opportunities for self-actualization. The analysis concludes that effective responses must combine accessible and culturally informed mental-health care with policies that strengthen economic security, educational and employment opportunities, social support, and disaster preparedness. Anxiety in Turkey is therefore both a public-health concern and an indicator of broader tensions produced by social transformation and persistent uncertainty.
Keywords: Anxiety, Turkish Society, Mental Health, Structural Vulnerability, Cultural Anthropology, Public Health
Citation: Abu-Rabia, A., Karaarslan, Z. O. (2026). Anxiety in Turkish Society. J Psychol Neurosci; 8(5):1-6.