Study Anxiety Among School Adolescents

Academic achievements of school children are being affected by both emotional and cognitive factors. The present study was aimed at exploring the mediating factors of study anxiety among school children and its impact on their academic achievement. For this purpose the phenomenology of study anxiety was explored using semi structured interviews. The resultant scale of 28 items was then administered on the sample of 419 school children; 201 boys; and 218 girls from 6 Government Schools of Lahore. Factor analysis revealed 3 components of study anxiety i.e. fear of evaluation, behavioral manifestations and memory interference. The Cronbach Alpha was found to be .906, whereas the concurrent validity was found to be .68 and one week test-retest reliability was found to be .896. The factor structure of the scale is discussed in a cultural context proposing a model showing possible links between different ecological factors and study anxiety.