In most modernized societies, college success is often a gateway to future well-being and prosperity. While attending college, there may sometimes be some complications that prevent students from succeeding to their desired levels. One of the most common complications that hold students back is having an anxiety disorder. Anxiety can take place in multiple forms, from social anxiety, test anxiety, and also health anxiety.
As a student’s college career continues on, anxiety may have a strong impact on academic achievement. Having an anxiety disorder can jeopardize a student’s ability to complete college and earn a college degree. So now the question is, just how does anxiety relate to a student’s academic performance? Currently, there is no single model that explains all of the factors that promote anxiety (Chapbell, et al. 2005). Social anxiety is often overlooked to the general population but serves as a huge holdback for many college students.
A study has stated that social anxiety can have a prevalence rate of 10 to 33% in college students, while only reaching 7 to 13% in the general population (Brooks and Willougby, 2015). Brooks and Willougby (2015) have found that students who suffer from social anxiety were associated with lower levels of engagement and integration, causing them to skip class and even drop out of college in fear of going out of their comfort zones.
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According to Nordstrom, Goguen, & Hiester (2014), social support can significantly predict college achievement, grade point average, social levels, and personal/emotional adjustment. College-aged students are usually in the prime time to develop social anxiety symptoms. Social anxiety can have a negative direct effect on academic achievement, as resulted by college students in a longitudinal study (Brook et. al 2014).
In this study, 23% of students reported having high social anxiety, while 45% of students reported having low social anxiety. These statistics resulted in students with high social anxiety having higher mental symptoms, and more problems in college adjustment, compared to the students with low social anxiety (Goguen et. al, 2014). The relation between social anxiety and the outcome variables of predicted academic performance plays an important role with interference for college students.
The results from this study found that perfectionism causes students to produce social anxiety, due to the fear of failure or doubting their abilities. There is a 43% of total variance in GPA, which predicted that higher levels of social anxiety would results in a lower GPA (Goguen et. al, 2014). According to the findings of Brook and Willoughby (2014), their results reported that higher levels of social anxiety were significantly and directly linked to lower levels of academic achievement.
Students who experience anxiety often experience it in several areas of their life. Not only do students experience test anxiety, but they also experience various dimensions of perfectionism, and also often strive for unhealthy goal orientations. Eum and Rice (2010) associated perfectionism with extremely high-performance standards, and high levels of self-blame when expectations are not met. Students with high test anxiety are more likely to develop troubles with memory and attention, causing them to have adverse effects on high cognitive test anxiety (Eum and Rice, 2010). However, surprisingly enough, self-oriented perfectionism and high-performance expectations do not appear to have a consistent association with test anxiety. Although having an anxiety disorder may lead to high-performance standards, it does not seem to have a drastic effect on test taking.
Test anxiety is often associated with reduced grade point average over time, and also lower academic performance. In a study done with both undergraduate and graduate students, the TAI (Test Anxiety Inventory) indicated that higher test anxiety was more likely to have a lower cumulative GPA; while students who do not suffer from test anxiety received better grades on their test, and also held higher cumulative grade point averages (Chapell, et al. 2005). The results showed that there was an association between lower test anxiety, in both undergraduate and graduate students, and higher-grade point averages.
One factor that may play into test anxiety is the amount of sleep received the night prior to an exam. In study done in 2013, there was also an association between the hours of sleep the student got the night before and test anxiety. In a study of 138 undergraduate students, each student was given multiple surveys that measured their anxiety levels, aggressiveness, and also hours of sleep from the night before (Fernandez-Castillo, 2013). Once the surveys were completed, results showed that students who received less than 6 hours of sleep the night before had more anxiety for the upcoming exam, but did not show any increased signs of aggression. An ANOVA revealed that there was a significant difference in test anxiety as a result of a lack of sleep (Fernandez-Castillo, 2013). It is important to note that several factors could cause anxiety in an individual, and lack of sleep is one variable that comes into play.
Students who experience test anxiety may be prone to cardiovascular activation in response to academic stress (Conley & Lehman, 2011). Studies like Conley and Lehman (2011) advocated participants ‘higher in test anxiety’ shown especially pronounced elevations in systolic blood pressure during times of critical academic stress. They recruited 99 undergraduate participants, 30% of which were men, with the mean age of 21 years old. Throughout the study, data was solicited from the participants into four ways: ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, reports at the time of each blood pressure reading was collected using personal digital assistants, end-of-the-day reports, and end-of-study assessments (Conley & Lehman, 2011).
The participants wore the ambulatory blood pressure monitor for approximately 3 hours. The monitor took a reading roughly once every hour during his/her time. At the end of each day, the participants removed the blood pressure cuff and completed an online end‐of‐day survey. According to the research of Conley and Lehman (2011) insinuates that everyday academic stressors are linked with temporary increases in blood pressure, and that test anxiety may add to these elevations. Test anxiety has indications for future academic and job success. Although everyday academic stressors may not show direct health effects, it is important to remember that over time, daily academic stressors may add to the development of long-term health problems (Mathews et al., 2003; Treiber et al., 2003).
Anxiety can have effects on multiple aspects of a person’s life; from social life, to test scores, and health concerns, anxiety is thought to have an impact on the way a person functions. In this study, our goal is to show that there is a negative relationship between anxiety and academic performance of college-level students. Previous studies have shown the impact of anxiety on several areas of student’s lives, but our main goal is to measure how test anxiety affects a student’s overall GPA. It is expected that there will be a negative relationship between high levels of test anxiety and GPA scores. By using a self-reported survey, and a test anxiety inventory (TAI), we will be able to see an association. Levels of test anxiety (low, moderate, and high) will be taken into consideration, and also cumulative GPA’s.
