Test Anxiety and the Economic Recession

Abstract

The impact of the present economic recession on college students' attitudes toward school and the relationship of these reactions to test-anxiety scores was investigated for two samples of college students, 142 attending a public college and 144 a private college. As hypothesized, students who reported that economic crisis resulted in increased desire to do well in school had higher facilitating and lower debilitating test-anxiety scores than those students who stated that economic recession caused them to worry more about rising educational costs and future job opportunities. Differences between findings for the private and public college were discussed.