Parents Level of Education on a Test Anxiety

Abstract

Test anxiety is a barrier to academic success since it is associated with dread and concentration issues. Previous research shows that individuals that score high on test anxiety also have lower performance on exams and academic achievement than those who score low on test anxiety. However, how parents may contribute to an individual’s test anxiety is unclear. Parents likely have a significant influence on individuals’ test anxiety, potentially because of their involvement in academic work in K-12. Limited previous research has demonstrated that parents who reported high scores of math anxiety had children who reported having high math anxiety by the end of the school year. The objective of this study is to study the relationship between the parental level of education and college students’ test anxiety. 122 participants enrolled in gateway STEM courses completed a questionnaire including the Test Anxiety Inventory and reported the parental highest level of education for both their mother and father. Preliminary analyses show a marginal main effect of mothers’ education level (F(3,94) = 2.64, p = 0.05). Simple results showed that student test anxiety was significantly different between mothers who had completed a bachelor’s degree or higher(M = 12.84, SE = 0.86) and mothers with unknown education(M = 18.03, SE = 1.85) and those who only completed some college (M = 16.35, SE = 0.73). These findings suggest that a mother’s level of education is associated with their child’s test anxiety, such that mothers with higher education had children that were less test anxious in college.

Details

Session 1

9:30am – 11:00am

Grand Salon