Exploring the Relationship between Perceived Adolescent Attachment and Test Anxiety: A Quantitative Study of 10th and 12th Grade Students

Abstract

Anxiety is one of the most common psychological disorders in school aged children and adolescents worldwide and has been associated with substantial negative effects on children’s social, emotional and academic success. Also, the nature of the parenting style a child is exposed to can influence the way he/she sees life and subsequently affects the anxiety levels. Therefore, this study was conducted to explore the relationship between adolescent’s perception of their parent–adolescent relationship and test anxiety on 10th and 12th grade students. To test this, two questionnaires, namely Adolescents Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ) by West, Rose, Spreng, Sheldon-Keller & Adam (1998) and Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) by Speilberger (1980) were used. Results showed that there was a significant relationship between test anxiety scores and anger distress domain of the AAQ. Also, there was no significant difference between AAQ and TAI scores of 10th and 12th grade students.