Most students participating in this study did not report having family history of anxiety (32.6%). However, the students who reported family history of anxiety (12.9%) also reported that they are able to cope with academic anxiety.

Pepperdine University

Summary of results

Mirawdali, S., Morrissey, H., & Ball, P. (2018). Academic anxiety and its effects on academic performance.

Academic anxiety and its effects on academic performance

In regards to social sources, participants indicated that they lacked confidence and experienced an increased heart rate when delivering presentations, also specifying that they couldn’t manage their study material for an exam.  In regards to family sources, respondents showed poor academic performance due to the crowdedness of their home and family issues, which made them anxious.  In other words, this can be one of the most significant factors to negatively affect academic performance. Their family’s low socioeconomic status was the least influential factor on academic performance.

Test competence (i.e. academic performance) vs. social and family sources

The students in this study rated OSCEs (objective structured clinical examination) as the highest academic stressor (i.e. negatively impacts academic performance). Specifically, the students perceived oral exams as being more stressful than assignments and written exams. This was indicated by their increased heart rate when delivering presentations and becoming anxious at the thought of disappointing their parents with their academic performance (social anxiety as well). These findings were consistent with other previous studies, where social and parental expectations were the 3rd and 4th major sources of academic anxiety.

Stressors vs. family sources and social sources

About a quarter (23.5%) of the respondents who indicated that they couldn’t manage their study material for an exam were females  (potentially due to females statistically being more prone to anxiety) and 18.9% of the students who indicated that they could cope with this were males. Of the male percentage, 6.1% specified that they could
easily manage study material for an exam. Out of all
participants, 31.1% who were between 21 to 25 years indicated
poor academic performance, and participants 31 to 35 years old indicated poor academic performance due to the incapability of managing exam study material. Lastly, almost a quarter (22%) of the
participants were British Asians, and when comparing academic performance between other ethnic groups, they had the lowest academic performance. However, this result was insignificant when taking the overall study population into account.

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