Today's STAR was formed in 1980, and the "founding fathers" included Charles Spielberger, Henk Van der Ploeg, and Ralf Schwarzer. Originally the group was named the Society for Test Anxiety Research, but the name was changed to the Stress and Anxiety Research Society in 1991 at the Budapest conference, to better reflect the extended interests of the group (while still maintaining the acronym).
| 2004 | Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Joost Meijer & Ron Oostdam) |
| 2003 | Lisbon, Portugal (Americo Baptista) |
| 2002 | Melbourne, Australia (Kate Moore) |
| 2001 | Palma de Mallorca, Spain (Javier Perez Pareja) |
| 2000 | Bratislava, Slovakia (Ivan Sarmany-Schuller) |
| 1999 | Krakow, Poland (Wladyslaw Losiak and Tytus Sosnowski) |
| 1998 | Istanbul, Turkey (Emine Erktin ) |
| 1997 | Düsseldorf, Germany (Volker Hodapp and Christine Schwarzer) |
| 1996 | Graz, Austria (Norbert Tanzer and Catherine Sim) |
| 1995 | Praha, Czech Republic (Miluse Havlinova and Dagmar Schneiderova) |
| 1994 | Madrid, Spain (Juan Jose Miguel-Tobal) |
| 1993 | Cairo, Egypt (Nabil El-Zahar) |
| 1992 | Leuven, Belgium (Eric DePreeuw) |
| 1991 | Budapest, Hungary (Kornel Sipos) |
| 1990 | Berlin, Germany (Matthias Jerusalem & Ralf Schwarzer) |
| 1989 | Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Henk van der Ploeg) |
| 1988 | Padua, Italy (Anna-Laura Comunian) |
| 1987 | Bergen, Norway (Knut A. Hagtvet) |
| 1986 | Jerusalem, Israel (Moshe Zeidner) |
| 1985 | Düsseldorf, Germany (Christine Schwarzer) |
| 1984 | Leiden, The Netherlands (Henk van der Ploeg) |
| 1983 | Leuven, Belgium (Eric Depreeuw & Willi Lens) |
| 1982 | Aachen, Germany (Ralf Schwarzer) |
| 1981 | Leiden, The Netherlands (Henk van der Ploeg) |
| 1980 | Antwerp, Belgium |