A study to assess the effectiveness of tensing toe relaxation technique in reducing test anxiety among adolescent in a selected school at Kulasekharam, Kanyakumari

INTRODUCTION: Adolescent anxiety and depressive disorders should be thought of any time an adolescent’s social, academic or behavioural functioning starts to deteriorate without an obvious explanation. In teenage years depression and anxiety increases. Adolescent anxiety can cause both an emotional and physical reaction. Unexplained or unreasonable feelings of fear and obsessive or negative thoughts are psychological symptoms of an anxiety disorder. Increased heart rate, rapid breathing or difficulty catching one’s breath and excessive sweating in non-threatening situations are common physical symptoms of anxiety disorders. They may happen in a normal situation when a teenager is faced with a difficult situation like speaking in front of the class but when they appear suddenly for no reason, an anxiety disorder might be the cause. Teenagers with an anxiety disorder are placed at an increased risk for abusing alcohol and drugs and this can result in co-occuring disorder. OBJECTIVE: The overall objective of the study to assess the effectiveness of tensing toe relaxation technique in reducing test anxiety among adolescent. METHODOLOGY: This study based on pre experimental one group pretest posttest design. Pilot study was conducted on 6 samples. After conducting the pilot study, a total of 60 samples were selected for the main study by purposive sampling technique. The investigator conducted a main study in a sample of 60 adolescents with test anxiety. Verbal consent was obtained from the sample and confidentiality was maintained. Modified test anxiety questionnaire was used to assess the test anxiety among adolescents. It has 10 items related to test anxiety. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY: The findings of the study revealed that the pretest mean score as 30.83. A comparison was done between the pre and post test level of test anxiety by paired ‘t’ test. The t test was 14.33 at p < 0.05, that was statistically highly significant. The association of level of test anxiety with their demographic variables such as age, sex, birth order, education and occupation status of parents, family income, type of family, type of school and child accompanying was tested by chi square test and found to be insignificant with level of test anxiety. CONCLUSION: The study has concluded that the adolescents who had undergone tensing toe relaxation technique showed significant decrease in the level of their test anxiety. This shows the children need practice of tensing toe relaxation technique during each stage of their development to reduce their test anxiety, which may internally enhance their academic performance