TEST ANXIETY, SOCIAL ANXIETY AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN NORTH-WEST ZONE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

This paper investigated the relationship among Test Anxiety, Social Anxiety and Academic Achievement of University Students in North-West Zone Nigeria. This research employed correlational design. The population of this study is made up of 11,225 300 level students. The sample of this study is 370 students from three selected universities. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the subjects of the study. Two instruments were used for data collection. The instruments are Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, and Social Anxiety Scale (SAS). Students’ CGPA was used as measure of academic achievement. Zung Self- Rating Anxiety Scale had an internal consistency of .804 while Social Anxiety Scale had an internal consistency of .768. The data collected were analyzed using inferential statistics. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) statistics was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance. The findings of the study revealed that a significant negative relationship exists between test anxiety and academic achievement (r = -0.575, p = 0.000). The result also revealed that significant negative relationship exist between social anxiety and academic achievement (r = -0.469, p = 0.002). It was recommended that: psychologists and counsellors should be encouraged to use various counselling techniques in managing students with test anxiety issues as it affects their academic achievement; and university management should provide a functional guidance and counselling center that will cater for students with test anxiety and social anxiety issues in order to improve their academic achievement.