Prüfungsangst, Schulleistung und Lebensqualität bei Schülern
Abstract
Das Hauptziel der vorliegenden Studie ist die systematische Untersuchung des Zusammenhangs zwischen schulbezogenen Ängsten (Prüfungsangst, manifeste Angst, Schulunlust) und Schulleistung (Lesen, Rechtschreiben, Rechnen) in einer großen Stichprobe von Schülern der dritten und sechsten Schulstufe (n = 345 und n = 378, respektive). Weitere Ziele der Studie sind die Erhebung der Vorkommenshäufigkeit von schulbezogenen Ängsten und die Beantwortung der Frage, ob das Ausmaß der subjektiv erlebten Prüfungsangst die subjektive Lebensqualität (bezogen auf Familie, Selbstwert, Freunde, psychisches und körperliches Wohlbefinden) prädizieren kann. Die Ergebnisse zeigen über beide Klassenstufen einen signifikanten Zusammenhang zwischen der Prüfungsangst und den rechnerischen Fertigkeiten, während die Lese- und Rechtschreibkompetenzen nur in der Grundstufe signifikant mit der Prüfungsangst korrelierten. Bemerkenswert ist die relativ hohe Vorkommenshäufigkeit von schulbezogenen Ängsten in unserer Stichprobe. So sind 8 bis 16 % der Schüler von einer ausgeprägten Prüfungsangst betroffen, wobei doppelt so viele Schüler der sechsten Schulstufe als jene der dritten Schulstufe subjektive Prüfungsängste berichten. Demgegenüber sind die manifeste Angst und die Schulunlust über die Klassenstufen hinweg vergleichbar (manifeste Angst liegt zwischen 18 – 20 % und Schulunlust zwischen 20 – 25 %). In unserer Stichprobe der Sechstklässler konnte die Prüfungsangst – neben anderen Faktoren – auch als wichtiger Prädiktor für die subjektive Lebensqualität der Schüler identifiziert werden. Die Implikationen dieser Ergebnisse für die schulische und klinische Praxis werden im Diskussionsteil erörtert.
Background: Learning disabilities are frequently associated with school-related anxiety in both children (Meyer, 2000) and adults (Ashcraft & Kirk, 2001; Eysenck et al., 2007; Musch & Bröder, 1999). Performance-related anxiety (and related feelings such as negative attitudes towards a specific school subject or school in general) may emerge even in school children without diagnosed learning disabilities (Krinzinger et al., 2009). Importantly, while strong feelings of anxiety generally tend to have negative effects on individuals' thoughts and activities alike and thus, may provoke performance deteriorations, less pronounced feelings of anxiety may yield performance increases (Bierman, Comijs, Jonker & Beekman, 2005; Jacobs, 1981). Performance-related anxiety either may affect all school subjects uniformly or may affect one school subject solely (which generally will be the one that causes the most severe learning difficulties). Upon considering that learning disabilities affect about 5 % of elementary school children (Gross-Tsur, Manor & Shalev, 1996; Fischbach et al., 2013) the importance of systematic investigations of related psycho-emotional disturbances becomes readily apparent. Furthermore, beyond causing (and possibly maintaining) school-related anxiety, persistent poor school performance is likely to exert negative effects on students' (school-related) quality of life. To the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of systematic investigations targeted at elucidating potential associations between students' performance, anxiety and quality of life. The present study aimed to fill this gap by examining the aforementioned link in a large sample of elementary and secondary school children.
Aims: The main aims of the present study were threefold. First, we sought to determine prevalence rates of school-related anxiety in a large unselected sample of elementary and secondary school children (i. e., grades 3 and 6, respectively). We were particularly interested whether subjective feelings of school-related anxiety (i. e., exam anxiety) are modulated by years of schooling (we hypothesized that compared with third graders sixth graders will report stronger feelings of school-related anxiety). Second, we proposed that school performance will be negatively associated with school-related anxiety (i. e., exam anxiety). The latter relationship should be found regarding reading, writing and arithmetic alike. Third, we sought to identify potential predictor variables of students' school-related quality of life (as indexed by self- and parent reports) in our sample of sixth graders. Beyond exam anxiety and performance on reading, writing and mathematics also the remaining quality of life dimensions (as assessed by the KINDL-R questionnaire) were entered as potential predictor variables into the regression analysis.
Methods: Overall, 723 children participated in the present study (thereof 345 third and 378 sixth graders). Participants were recruited in Tyrol, Austria and the sample ought to be representative with respect to school type, region (urban versus rural) and socio-demographic factors. The study was cross-sectional and tests were administered during regular school hours. Thus, only tests that could be administered groupwise were eligible for our study. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants and their parents or caretakers. The study was approved by the local ethical committee.
School-related anxiety was measured by the standardized questionnaire AFS (Angstfragebogen für Schüler, Wieczerkowski et al., 1998) requiring children to rate anxiety-related feelings on four different dimensions (i. e., exam anxiety, manifest anxiety, school reluctance and social desirability).
Reading skills were examined by using the SLS (Salzburger Lese-Screening) which assesses reading fluency and comprehension at the sentence level. The SLS is a speed test and provides norms for elementary school children (SLS 1 – 4: Mayringer & Wimmer, 2003) and secondary school children alike (SLS 5 – 8: Auer et al., 2005).
Orthography skills were tested by asking participants to complete sentences by filling in the missing words into incomplete sentences (third grade: SLRT-II, Moll & Landerl, 2010; sixth grade: Grund, 2002 – 2006). There are no time constraints upon solving the task.
Arithmetical skills were assessed by utilizing the HRT (Heidelberger Rechentest, Haffner et al., 2005). The latter test encompasses subscales tapping addition, subtraction, multiplication and division skills as well as larger-smaller-comparison and numerical completion tasks. Alike the SLS the HRT is a speed test which means that participants have to solve as many calculations as possible within a certain time limit.
Finally, quality of life was assessed upon employing the KINDL-R (Fragebogen zur Erfassung gesundheitsbezogener Lebensqualität bei Kindern und Jugendlichen: Ravens-Sieberer & Bullinger, 2000). The KINDL-R is a questionnaire that can be either administered to the affected children/adolescents themselves (self-report) or to their parents or caretakers (parent-report). The KINDL-R differentiates six dimensions of quality of life, namely physical and emotional well-being, self-esteem, family, friends, school.
Results: Our findings corroborate our first working hypothesis proposing that prevalence rates of school-related anxiety should be higher in sixth compared with third grade students. In particular, 7.8 % of third grade children and double as much children (i. e., 15.8 %) attending sixth grade reported high exam anxiety. Prevalence rates are considerably higher with respect to manifest anxiety (third grade: 20.3 % versus sixth grade: 18.0 %) and school reluctance (third grade: 20.5 % versus sixth grade: 25.4 %). Upon having a closer look at these prevalence rates, our findings disclosed both main effects of group and scale as well as a significant interaction effect (the latter being explained by the fact that significant group differences emerged regarding the AFS-scale exam anxiety, while group differences were far less pronounced regarding the AFS-scales manifest anxiety and school reluctance).
According to our second working hypothesis the link between performance and anxiety should be observed with respect to all performance dimensions tested in the present study (i. e., reading, orthography, arithmetic). Interestingly, our results were somewhat different for third and sixth graders. While in third grade, correlations between exam anxiety and school performance became significant regarding all examined skills, only the association between exam anxiety and arithmetic was found to be significant in sixth grade students.
With respect to the third working hypothesis (postulating modulating effects of school-related anxiety and/or math performance on student's quality of life), our findings were rather similar – but not identical – for the self- and parent-reports of quality of life. Upon calculating a regression analysis we found that in our study group of sixth graders 34.7 % of the variance pertaining to school-related quality of life (as indexed by self-report) may be explained by the variables exam anxiety, arithmetic performance and three other quality of life dimensions (i. e., family, emotional well-being and self-esteem). Interestingly, upon subjecting quality of life scores obtained from parent-reports into the regression analysis, exam anxiety, family-related quality of life, self-esteem and orthography skills contributed with 28.4 % to the explained variance.
Discussion: The present findings are among the first to show that school-related anxiety and poor school performance may significantly contribute to students' quality of life. Furthermore, our findings emphasize the need to differentiate between (a) different aspects of school-related anxiety; (b) different performance areas (as poor arithmetic and orthography/reading skills may exert differential impacts upon school-related anxiety and/or quality of life); and (c) self- and parent-reports upon aiming at further elaborating the link between school performance and students' quality of life. Finally, our results are relevant for practitioners because beyond disclosing rather high prevalence rates of school-related anxiety in a large population of elementary and secondary school children, our findings nicely show that school-related feelings of anxiety are associated to poor school performance in both elementary and secondary school. Our findings suggest that student's (school-related) quality of life is modulated by a combination of variables among which school-related anxiety and poor school performance are the strongest predictors. Hence, compared with average achieving student low achievers seem to be more likely to develop school-related anxiety and possibly, are more prone to experience poor quality of life. Nonetheless, we would like to stress that in the present study self-rating questionnaires were used to assess school-related anxiety that do not necessarily imply the presence a clinical diagnosis of anxiety disorder.
The implications of our findings are straightforward: First, the identification and remediation of school-related anxiety should become a focus of school practitioners. The latter notion is based on (a) the alarmingly high prevalence rates of school-related anxiety observed in our study group (ranging between 7.8 % and 25.4 %); and (b) previous findings showing that the successful remediation of (math) anxiety may have positive effects on math performance (Hembree, 1990). Second, in order to prevent and reduce school-related anxiety (thus enhancing student's school-related quality of life) even more emphasis should be placed on the prevention, early identification and successful remediation of severe and persistent learning disabilities. Importantly, the latter plea is not restricted to elementary school children, but is valid also for secondary school students.
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