Abstract

Irrespective of the students’ preparedness, performance anxiety considerably affects their examination results. As part of its multicentric studies on youth behavior in India, the Association of Adolescent and Child Care in India (AACCI) studied test anxiety and its association with age (group I: 10-14 yrs., group II: 15-18 yrs.), gender, sibling status, and Asian cutoffs for BMI. Participants included 964 students (age range: 10-18 yrs.; grades V-XII) from three schools in North India. Test anxiety was measured using the Friedben Test Anxiety Scale (FTAS), which has three subscales - social derogation (SD), cognitive obstruction (CO), and Tenseness (T). AACCI also conducted customized intervention programs based on the following results. There were no gender-based differences in SD, T, and total FTAS scores (p>0.05); however, CO was higher among males (p=0.047). Group II had higher total FTAS scores (p=0.054); similarly, CO was higher in group II for Schools 1 (p=0.004) and 2 (p<0.001). BMI and sibling status had no statistically significant effects on sub- and total FTAS scores. The current findings indicated the role of age in the experience of test anxiety in this sample, highlighting the need for tailored interventions for older adolescents, who are at the cusp of making their career choices. It may be relevant to further explore specific cognitive and emotional subfactors that are experienced differently in males and females, along with the interplay of other socio-demographic factors, to implement more focused interventions.