Effect of gender, school performance and school type on test anxiety among Iranian adolescents

Background: The level of anxiety might affect information processing in various ways, and reduce people's performance particularly the adolescents. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between levels of test anxiety and school performance of a group of adolescents. 536 second grade high school students served as the subjects of this study. Methods: Two questionnaires were used to collect the data including the student status, relevant information about the family and school performance. The Spielberger's Test Anxiety Inventory was also utilized to measure the level of test anxiety. Results: The results revealed a significant and negative correlation between test anxiety scores and Grade Point Average (GPA) of the students. Female students showed a higher level of anxiety in contrast to male students and school type (private, public and school for gifted students) affected the level of test anxiety. Conclusion: We showed the importance of school type on the level of test anxiety. The lowest level of anxiety was seen among gifted children who generally better adjusted themselves than their peers of average or below average intelligence.