Investigation on Relationship between Test Anxiety and Academic Performance of Nursing and Midwifery Students in Tabriz and Maragheh—Iran

Abstract

Background and Aim: Given the dramatic decline in the ability of test due to test anxiety, the goal of this study was to evaluate the relationship between test anxiety and academic performances in students. Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was performed on 216 Iranian nursing and midwifery students in 2011-2012, utilizing Sarason Anxiety Inventory, demographic checklist and the average mark of students in the period of midterm and final exam. Multinomial logistic regression analyses by reporting odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals were performed by SPSS17 software to assess the relationship between test anxiety and academic performances. Results: Mild, moderate and sever test anxiety was observed in 30.6, 43.1 and 26.4 percent of students respectively. Test anxiety was significantly related to academic performance (average), major and city. Also, there was 52.9% decrease for odds of having sever anxiety (compared to mild anxiety) with 1 point increase in average (OR = 0.471, 95% CI = (0.298 - 0.745) and p = 0.001). Conclusions: Due to inverse relationship between test anxiety and academic performance, performing preventive programs such as in time treatment of anxiety, empowering the students to deal with anxiety and conducting consulting services for how to studying are very important. Consequently it would be a big step in decreasing the test anxiety and therefore in improving the academic performance.