Abstract
Zusammenfassung. Das Hauptziel der vorliegenden explorativen und deskriptiven Studie ist die Erfassung und Analyse der fachspezifischen Leistungsangst von Schülern und Schülerinnen im Sportunterricht sowie möglicher Strategien zu deren Reduktion. Zum Vergleich wurde die fachspezifische Leitungsangst im Fach Mathematik erhoben. Untersucht wurde eine Stichprobe von 63 Schülern und Schülerinnen der 6. und 8. Klasse eines Spezialgymnasiums. Zusätzlich zum Ausmaß der Angst wurde die Lehrer-Schüler-Übereinstimmung erfasst. Die Ergebnisse zeigen eine Besorgnis erregend hohe Anzahl von Kindern mit klinisch relevanten Leistungsängsten (PHOKI, 26 von 63 Befragten). Besonders eindrücklich sind die Befürchtungen der Kinder, bei Leistungskontrollen im Sportunterricht ausgelacht, abgewertet oder mit dem Handy aufgenommen zu werden. Bzgl. der Leistungsstärke zeigte sich eine hohe Übereinstimmung zwischen Selbst- und Fremdurteil (Mathematik: r: .52, Sport: r: .63), während die Übereinstimmung bei der Einschätzung der Aufgeregtheit zwischen Selbst- und Fremdurteil deutlich niedriger ausfiel (Mathematik: r: .26, Sport: r: .29). Es wurden positive Korrelationskoeffizienten zwischen der Variablen „Leistungsangst“ und verschiedenen Dimensionen der „Leistungsmotivation“ gefunden. Zur anwendungsbezogenen und schlussfolgernden Einordnung und Diskussion der Ergebnisse wird das Modell von Clark und Wells (2005) herangezogen und Implikationen für die Praxis aufgezeigt.
Abstract.Background: Individuals often feel anxious, especially prior to important tasks like speaking publicly or writing an exam. When people feel anxious immediately before or during a task, anxiety drains working memory capacity, decreases self-confidence, and harms performance (Eysenck, 1992). Many children report that when taking tests or having to speak in public, they become anxious and are not able to do well, although they think that they know the material and could master the exercise. When describing their anxiety, they say, “My mind goes blank,” “I get shaky,” and “I get sweaty and red.” Test anxiety can arise by self-experienced situations of fear and failure and cause mental blocs. Performance-related anxiety may affect classical subjects such as mathematic or may affect special subjects such as physical education. When test anxiety is severe, it can have significant negative effects on a child's ability to perform at an optimal level. Over time, test anxiety tends to generalize to many evaluative situations, contributing to more pervasive underachievement. Additional consequences of chronic test anxiety typically include lowered self-esteem, reduced effort, and loss of motivation for school tasks. Mental disorders can develop such as generalized anxiety, fears, phobias and social anxiety. Especially social anxiety and social phobia are frequent mental disorders, which often have an early onset between the ages of 11 and 12 years. Social anxiety during adolescence often interferes with the development of social skills and an adaptive social role in school and predicts further psychopathology (Kessler, 2003). Effective early prevention and treatment of test anxiety and related problems in school is therefore particularly important. Aims: The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of different kinds of test situations on the prevalence and intensity of children's hyperarousal and test anxiety. We sought to determine prevalence of test anxiety in sample of secondary school children (grades 6 and 8). We were particularly interested whether the teacher could identify these children as well as whether they identify high-achievers. Further, children's own suggestions to prevent and reduce test anxiety have been examined. Finally, the study postulates that different variables of achievement motives, test anxiety and hyperarousal influence each other in a positive and significant way. We aim to demonstrate in this paper that the Clark-Wells model of social phobia (Clark and Wells, 1995) can be applied to children's test anxiety and implicates various opportunities to reduce test anxiety. Our working hypotheses were as follows: First, we hypothesized that children reporting high grades of test anxiety would be identified as high anxious by their teachers. Second, we proposed that children with high fertilities and high performance (teachers report mathematic, physical education) evaluate themselves as efficient and powerful. Third, we assumed that children with high achievement motives should report higher arousal regarding test situations (intensity and prevalence). Fourth, we hypothesized that children with high test-anxiety (self-report) perceive higher arousal in test situations (intensity and prevalence). Finally, we assumed that intensity of test anxiety would differ according to different kinds of test situations in physical education. Methods: 63 children participated in the present study. We used two established tests (Phobiefragebogen für Kinder und Jugendliche: PHOKI, Döpfner et al. 2006; Fragebogen zur Leistungsmotivation für Schüler FLM 4–6; FLM 7–13; Petermann & Winkel, 2007) and two self-developed questionnaires (Schülerfragebogen zu angstbesetzten Leistungssituationen, Lehrerfragebogen zur Häufigkeit & Intensität von Aufregung bei Leistungssituationen) to find out how pupils of all ages differ in their achievement motives, test anxiety and various dimensions of hyperarousal. The Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (PHOKI) is a widely used self-report questionnaire that purports to measure the number of fears and the overall level of fearfulness in children. The FLM is an achievement motivation questionnaire for pupils attending the 4th to 6th grade or the 7th to 13th grade. Finally, it was examined whether the different variables of achievement motives, test anxiety and hyperarousal influence each other. Results: A serious amount, namely 26 of 63 children showed high levels of test anxiety. Cases of high test anxiety are more common in school settings than most school professionals realize. In our first working hypotheses, we proposed that teacher's ratings of children's test anxiety would be high correlated with test anxiety found in the FSSC. In most of the cases, test and performance anxiety is not easily recognized in schools. Specifically, only a low correlation between teacher report and self-judgement was found (r = .33). Probably because children are not wanting to risk teasing or public attention, so anxious pupils suffer in silence and underperform on school-related tasks. In particular children's apprehensions of being laughed, diminished or filmed by mobile phone were reported alarmingly prevalent. In support of our second hypothesis high correlations between teacher's judgement und pupils self-report with regards to performance and achievement were found (mathematic: r = .52, physical education: r = .63), but only low accordance with regard to hyperarousal in test situations (mathematic: r: .26, physical education: r = .29). Nearly for all parts of achievement motives significant positive correlations with test anxiety could be documented. Children's suggestions referring to prevent and reduce test anxiety offer manifold opportunities for implementation. Discussion: Test anxiety comprises psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions that occur in association with concerns about the negative outcomes resulting from failure or poor performance in evaluative situations (Zeidner, 1998). In school setting, anxiety is often experienced by children when being evaluated, such as when taking a test or giving a public performance. Most pupils cope well with these situations, but there is a subset of up to 30% of children who experience severe test anxiety. Teachers can help children with anxiety by first finding out the cause of the anxiety and then how to deal with that anxiety. Most of the children's suggestions could be implemented easily: testing in small groups, giving a chance to retrial, no films and photos of the performance. On the other hand, mental health specialists, such as school psychologists, social workers, counselors and therapists, can work collaboratively to implement interventions for children and to consult with teachers about how to identify and work with pupils in the classroom. Behavioral therapy programs are of special importance in the prevention and treatment of test anxiety/social phobia.
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