Abstract :
University education prepares students for employment in various sectors through a basic training. This time period spent in university is the most significant period in a young person s life in terms of deciding the path they will take in the future. Upon graduation, the decisions they will have to make about their future, choice of occupation, plans for the future role they will assume, friendships they formed, fear of unemployment and various responsibilities are among some of the factors that create anxiety in a student. Anxiety, defined as fear with uncertain origins, is a feeling that affects social relations, activities, education; in short the daily conduct of a person and that usually creates uneasiness. If low in level, this feeling protects the individual from various dangers; and if high, drives the person towards failure and causes a loss of self-confidence. Anxiety is the uneasiness and nervousness about future. Spielberger deals with anxiety from two perspectives as state anxiety and trait anxiety. Spielberger defines state anxiety as transient emotional reactions of an individual to different situations perceived as threatening, and is related to the permanence of its severity and duration, the amount of perceived threat and the interpretation of the dangerous situation by the individual. State anxiety is the subjective fear felt because of the stressful situation the individual is in. With the removal of situational factors causing it, the state anxiety would end. Trait anxiety on the other hand is the susceptibility of an individual to experience anxiety in the future. This type of anxiety exists independent of the situation and is a personality attribute more pronounced in some behavior and experience of the individual. This study aims to identify the level and the factors that influence anxiety of students graduated from Marmara University Technical Sciences Vocational School Machinery and Metal Technology Department. The universe of the study is composed of associate degree students graduated from Marmara University in and before 2012- 2013 term. The sampling frame of the study is composed of students graduated from Marmara University Technical Sciences Vocational School Machinery and Metal Technology department. Convenience sampling is used as the method of sampling. The survey form is applied through internet by voluntary participation during the spring term of 2012-2013 within the framework of students dissertation. With the evaluation of returned surveys, analyses are conducted on 118 surveys. The survey form used in the study is composed of two sections. In the first part of the survey form, students are asked questions about their personal attributes. In the second part, State and Trait Anxiety Scale is used. State Anxiety Scale requires describing how a person feels in a specific moment and specific conditions and giving responses by carefully considering the emotions one feels about the situation s/he is in; Trait Anxiety Scale on the other hand requires describing how one usually feels. Both scales are composed of twenty items. State and Trait Anxiety Scales are applied for 118 students in the universe. For the reliability analysis of the scale, Cronbach- Alpha coefficient is checked. Based on this, the Alpha coefficient of State Anxiety Scale is calculated as 0.72, and the Alpha coefficient of Trait Anxiety Scale as 0.67 while the Alpha reliability coefficient of the whole scale is calculated as 0.70. This figure indicates that the scale is reliable. Both scales are composed of twenty items. Responses given to the items vary from 1 to 4. The rating scale of State Anxiety Scale is 1 (Not at all), 2 (Somewhat), 3 (Moderately so), 4 (Very much so) and the rating scale of Trait Anxiety Scale is 1 (Almost Never), 2 (Sometimes), 3 (Often), 4 (Almost Always). While the direct statements in the scale reflect negative feelings, reversed statements express positive feelings. In the State Anxiety Scale, items no. 1, 2, 5, 8, 10, 11, 15, 16, 19 and 20 and in the Trait Anxiety Scale items no. 21, 26, 27, 30, 33, 36 and 39 are reversed statements. Total score obtained from both scales vary between 20 and 80. A higher score indicates a higher level of anxiety. In this study, the lowest state anxiety score is found to be 22, highest 80, Trait anxiety score as 31 and the highest state anxiety score as 80. The general average score of state anxiety of the surveyed students is determined to be 53.64 and the standard deviation as 13.17. Participants who received a score below 40.47, the lower limit of standard deviation for the average state anxiety score, are regarded as having low level of state anxiety; participants who received a score higher than 66.81, the upper limit of standard deviation for the average state anxiety score, are regarded as having high level of state anxiety, and a score between these lower and upper limits is regarded as medium level of state anxiety. The general average score of trait anxiety of the participants is determined to be 47.27 and the standard deviation as 7.9. Participants who received a score below 39.37, the lower limit of standard deviation for the average trait anxiety score, are regarded as having low level of trait anxiety; participants who received a score higher than 55.17, the upper limit of standard deviation for the average trait anxiety score, are regarded as having high level of trait anxiety, and a score between these lower and upper limits is regarded as medium level of trait anxiety. Research data is assessed with computer using SPSS 17.0 (The Statistical Program for Social Sciences). In assessment of data frequency distribution, Correlation analysis, t test and F test are used. While assessing the data, Kolmogorov Smirnov Test is used to check the goodness of fit, and the data obtained from state and trait anxiety scales are observed to fit the normal distribution (p 0.05). In relational analysis of State-Transient Anxiety variables, the severity and the direction of the relation, if any, is obtained with Pearson Correlation (Simple/ Biuariate Correlation: Pearson Correlation Coefficient). A t test (Independent Samples t Test) is utilized to examine the differences between the two groups. In the t test, Levene test is used to determine whether the variations are equal. To compare multiple groups, Variance Analysis (one-way Anova) is applied. Based on the results of correlation analysis conducted to identify the relationship between the state and trait anxiety, a positive meaningful relationship is found between the two variables. The relationship between state anxiety and trait anxiety is observed as r= 0.587, p 0.01. This result indicates that there is a meaningful and directly proportional relationship between state anxiety and trait anxiety. When the trait anxiety score increases so does the state anxiety score. Determination coefficient is calculated as (r2) 0.384. 38% of the increase in state anxiety scale can be explained by the trait anxiety scale. When we inspected whether the anxiety levels of the graduate participants vary with gender, the year of graduation, completing a bachelor s degree, length of finding a job, working on a field related to associate degree and satisfaction from current job, no statistically meaningful variation is found. In the variable related to the type of education in the graduated department, a statistically meaningful variation is observed. The anxiety scores of formal education students are found to be higher than those of evening education students. Even though there are studies on state-trait anxiety levels of students still receiving university education, there are no sufficient studies for graduate students. This is why this research is one of the first studies conducted for graduates of Vocational Schools. Since the level of anxiety of the graduate students is found to be medium to high severity as a result of the study, new policies and solutions should be implemented by considering these factors. One of the top economic and social problems of Turkey is the unemployment of educated youth. This problem as the most significant one awaiting our youngsters upon graduating from a vocational school causes the anxiety scores to rise. Therefore, for these educated young graduates forming the dynamic force behind social and economic development, comprehensive and sufficient measures should be taken for effective participation to the business life and creating employment opportunities.
