A Study of effect of academic Anxiety and Achievement on Mental Health of Adolescents
 
Dr. Mohd. Muzahir Ali1*, Ms. Neetu2
1 Professor, Al-Falah School of Education & Training, Faridabad, Haryana.
E-mail Id: mohdmuzahirali@gmail.com
2 Research Scholar, Al – Falah School of Education & Training, Faridabad, Haryana.
E-mail Id: neetusharma.ivs1@gmail.com
Abstract - The period of life between childhood and adulthood known as adolescence, lasts from the ages of 10 to 19. It is the special time in human development and a crucial moment to establish the groundwork for long term health. Teenagers grow quickly in all areas-physical, cognitive and psychological. The five leading characteristics of adolescence are biological growth and development, an undefined status, increased decision-making, increased pressures, and the search for self. Mental health is the balanced development of an individual's personality and emotions, an attitude to live in harmony with those around you. when someone is in the condition of good mental health, they are able to acknowledge and embrace their own skills. In this positive sense, mental health is the foundation of personal well-being, and the effective functioning of the community; Interfaith oral care is needed to promote mental health. Academic achievement or achievement (academic) as a result of education – the extent to which a student, teacher, or organization has achieved its educational goals. Academic Success is often measured by ongoing exams or assessments, but there is no general agreement on the best way to test it or which aspect is most important - the process knowledge as skill or claimed knowledge as fact. Academic success can be defined as excellence in all subjects, both in the classroom and in extracurricular activities; including athletic excellence, manners, confidence, communication skills, punctuality, assertiveness, art, culture, etc. Academic success is one of the most comprehensive successes that study the social consequences of mental health problems. Anxiety is a state of unease and concern that is typically unfocused and generalised, representing an overreaction to a circumstance that is only perceived as frightening in the mind. It frequently comes with symptoms like tense muscles, agitation, exhaustion, difficulty breathing, stomach tightness, nausea and difficulty in focus. The objective of this paper is to find impact of anxiety and achievement on mental health of adolescents.
Keywords - academic achievement, anxiety, mental health, impact, adolescence etc.
INTRODUCTION
Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat whereas the latter is defined as the emotional response to a real threat. It is often accompanied by nervous behaviour such as pacing back and forth, somatic complaints, and rumination. Anxiety is closely related to fear, which is a response to a real or perceived immediate threat (fight or flight response); anxiety involves the expectation of future threat including dread. People facing anxiety may withdraw from situations which have provoked anxiety in the past.
The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, in The Concept of Anxiety (1844), described anxiety or dread associated with the "dizziness of freedom" and suggested the possibility for positive resolution of anxiety through the self-conscious exercise of responsibility and choosing. In Art and Artist (1932), the psychologist Otto Rank wrote that the psychological trauma of birth was the pre-eminent human symbol of existential anxiety and encompasses the creative person's simultaneous fear of – and desire for – separation, individuation, and differentiation.
Symptoms of Anxiety: Anxiety can induce several psychological pains (e.g. depression) or mental disorders, and may lead to self-harm or suicide (for which dedicated hotlines exist). Other effects may include changes in the sleeping patterns, changes in habits, increase or decrease in food intake, and increased motor tension (such as foot tapping). The emotional effects of anxiety may include,"feelings of apprehension or dread, trouble concentrating, feeling tense or jumpy, anticipating the worst, irritability, restlessness, watching (and waiting) for signs (and occurrences) of danger, and, feeling like your mind's gone blank" as well as "nightmares/bad dreams, obsessions about sensations, a trapped-in-your-mind feeling, and feeling like everything is scary." It may include a vague experience and feeling of helplessness. The cognitive effects of anxiety may include thoughts about suspected dangers, such as fear of dying: "You may ... fear that the chest pains are a deadly heart attack or that the shooting pains in your head are the result of a tumour or an aneurysm. You feel an intense fear when you think of dying, or you may think of it more often than normal, or can't get it out of your mind." The physiological symptoms pf anxiety may include:
  1. Neurological, as headache, paraesthesia, fasciculation, vertigo, or presyncope.
  2. Digestive, as abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhoea, indigestion, dry mouth, or bolus.
  3. Respiratory, as shortness of breath or sighing breathing.
  4. Cardiac, as palpitations, tachycardia, or chest pain.
  5. Muscular, as fatigue, tremors, or tetany.
  6. Cutaneous, as perspiration, or itchy skin.
  7. Uro-genital, as frequent urination, urinary urgency, dyspareunia, or impotence, chronic pelvic
Pain syndrome.
Academic Anxiety
The term academic anxiety “describes the uneasiness, tenseness or dread connected to academic environments or assignments. Exams, assignments, courses (maths, science etc.), peer and parental pressure to perform well academically, or just a general uneasiness about studying or working in groups in the class could all be contributing factors.
Academic Achievement
Academic results that show how well a student has met their learning objectives are referred to as academic achievement.
Mental Health
The all-important term mental health refers to a person’s cognitive, behavioural, and emotional well-being. It affects how people react to stressors, engage with others, and make choices. According to the WHO, peak mental health is more than just the absence of mental health problems. It is the ability to manage existing conditions and stressors while maintaining ongoing wellness and happiness. Factors such as stress, depression, and anxiety can all negatively affect mental health and disrupt a person’s routine.
NEED FOR THE STUDY
Mental health is the balanced development of the individual ‘s personality and emotional attitudes which enable him to live harmoniously with his/her fellow men/women. In this positive sense, mental health is the foundation for individual well-being and the effective functioning of a community. The expectations of parents, teachers and peers from the adolescents raises their level of anxiety as a result of which they are engaged in all sort of difficult behaviour. Having a mental health problem, especially depression, is strongly associated with severe chronic health conditions such as diabetes, stroke, hypertension, cancer, and heart disease. This study will attempt to solve this all-important adage and try to establish the relationship between all important variables of academic anxiety, academic achievement and its effect on the mental health of adolescents.
TITLE OF THE STUDY
The present study has been titled as, “A Study of Effect of Academic Anxiety and Achievement on Mental Health of Adolescents”
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The present study is an attempt to answer the following questions:
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The present study has been conducted in order to fulfil the following objectives:
HYPOTHESES FORMULATED FOR THE STUDY
The following hypotheses have been formulated and tested keeping in mind the objectives of the study:
Ho1: There would be no significant relationship between academic anxiety and academic achievement of adolescent students.
Ho2: There would be no significant relationship between academic anxiety and mental health of adolescent students.
Ho3: There would be no significant relationship between academic achievement and mental health of adolescent students.
Ho4: There would be no significant combined impact of academic anxiety and academic achievement of adolescent students on their mental health.
DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The study has been confined to the Govt. and Govt.-aided schools affiliated to the Directorate of Education, Delhi only.
METHODOLOGY ADOPTED
The study was conducted through descriptive survey method of research.
POPULATION AND SAMPLE
For the present study population means all the secondary level students, studying in the government and government aided schools of Directorate of Education, Delhi.
For the present study multistage random sampling techniques has been used by the researcher by following the following steps. Random Selection of One Educational District from 13 Districts of Directorate of Education, Delhi. Random Selection of Two Educational Zones from One selected District of Directorate of Education, Delhi. Random Selection of Five Schools from Each Educational Zones selected District of Directorate of Education, Delhi. (In total ten schools). Random Selection of 40 Class IX and 40 Class X students from each selected school. Total Sample: One Educational District*Two Educational Zones*Five Schools*80 Students i.e. 1*2*5*80= 800 Students.
Table 1: Final Description of Sample Selected for Data Collection
TOOLS USED
The following tools were selected and used by the investigator in the study:
Mental health battery by Arun Kumar Singh & Alpana Sen Gupta (1983).
Academic Anxiety Scale for children by A.K. Singh and A. Sengupta
Academic Achievement Scores obtained by the individual students in their final examinations of Class IX and X has been used as the indicators of their Academic Achievement.
Statistical Techniques Used:
The techniques like Coefficient of Correlation, Contingency and Multiple Correlation techniques have been used for the analysis of data.
ANALYSIS OF THE DATA & INTERPRETATION OF RESULT
Ho1: There would be no significant relationship between academic anxiety and academic achievement of adolescent students.
Table 2: Description of relationship between academic anxiety and academic achievement of adolescent students.
*Significant at 0.05 level; **Significant at 0.01 Level; NS: Not Significant
The above table 2 briefly describes the relationship between academic anxiety and academic achievement of adolescent students. As is evident from the above table it is clearly visible that the value of Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation between academic anxiety and academic achievement is -0.48. Which is highly significant at 0.01 level. This leads to the rejection of our Null Hypothesis; Ho1: There would be no significant relationship between academic anxiety and academic achievement of adolescent students. So, it can be concluded that academic anxiety and academic achievement of adolescent students are moderately correlated in negative manner.
Ho2: There would be no significant relationship between academic anxiety and mental health of adolescent students.
Table 3: Description of relationship between academic anxiety and mental health of adolescent students.
*Significant at 0.05 level; **Significant at 0.01 Level; NS: Not Significant
The above table 3 briefly describes the relationship between academic anxiety and mental health of adolescent students. As is evident from the above table it is clearly visible that the value of Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation between academic anxiety and mental health is -0.29. Which is highly significant at 0.01 level. This leads to rejection of our Null Hypothesis; Ho2: There would be no significant relationship between academic anxiety and mental health of adolescent students. So, it can be concluded that academic anxiety and mental health of adolescent students are moderately correlated in negative manner. Or we can say that there is a significant negative relationship between academic anxiety and mental health of adolescent students.
Ho3: There would be no significant relationship between academic achievement and mental health of adolescent students.
Table 4: Description of relationship between academic achievement and mental health of adolescent students.
*Significant at 0.05 level; **Significant at 0.01 Level; NS: Not Significant
The above table 4 briefly describes the relationship between mental health and academic achievement of adolescent students. As is evident from the above table it is clearly visible that the value of Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation between mental health and academic achievement is 0.63. Which is highly significant at 0.01 level. This leads to rejection of our Null Hypothesis; Ho3: There would be no significant relationship between academic achievement and mental health of adolescent students. So, it can be concluded that mental health and academic achievement of adolescent students are moderately correlated in positive manner. Or we can say that there is a significant positive relationship between academic achievement and mental health of adolescent students.
Ho4: There would be no significant combined impact of academic anxiety and academic achievement of adolescent students on their mental health.
Table 5: Description of combined impact of academic anxiety and academic achievement of adolescent students on their mental health.
*Significant at 0.05 level; **Significant at 0.01 Level; NS: Not Significant
In order to see the combined impact of academic achievement and academic anxiety on mental health of adolescent students Multiple Correlation Technique has been used. The above table 5 describes multiple correlational analysis; as is evident from the above table the value of Multiple Correlation Coefficient ‘R’ is 0.73 which is significant even at 0.01 level of significance. This leads to rejection of our Null Hypothesis; Ho4: There would be no significant combined impact of academic anxiety and academic achievement of adolescent students on their mental health. So, it can be safely concluded that academic achievement and academic anxiety significantly affects the mental health of adolescent students.
FINDINGS FROM THE STUDY
In order to see the combined effect of Academic Anxiety and Academic Achievement on Mental Health of Adolescents Multiple Correlation Technique has been used. In this regard, following hypotheses were formulated and tested using Multiple Correlation Technique and the results so obtained are being presented as under:
DISCUSSIONS OF RESULTS
I. Improving the Mental Health: The present study revealed that the mental health of most of the secondary level students is moderate to very high. However, there are significant number of students who have been found to have very low level of mental health. The study further revealed that there is a positive relationship between academic achievement and mental health of secondary level students . The low achievers have been found to have low level of mental health and high level of academic anxiety. The above results were also supported by Cacola (2016) who also found a positive relationship between academic achievement and mental health of students. So, it becomes necessary for the students that they should have sound mental health. Sound mental health can be attained through yoga and mindful meditation courses to relax their anxious mind. The schools can also organize personality development and such courses to give more practical exposure to the low achievers. A few measures to motivate the low achievers by improving their mental health are given below:
II. Status of Academic Achievement and Its’ Enhancement: The present study found that most of the students are moderate and high achievers, indicating that majority of the students are moderate achievers which implies the graveness of the situation. But there are remarkable number of under achievers also which may be the result of high academic anxiety and low mental health, which is evident from the present study. Thus, this finding has implications for teachers, parents, school administrators and other stakeholders in the field of education to take note of the low level of academic achievement of the secondary school students and also take measures to reduce the factors affecting their Academic Achievement. A few measures are being suggested below for enhancing the academic achievement of the students.

CONCLUSION

The study indicates that academic anxiety and academic achievement are negatively identified. The correlation is veritably moderate which indicates that the negative correlation is statistically significant. So, it can be added that academic anxiety always poorly impacts on scholars' academic achievement. The study also revealed that mental health is positively related to academic achievement and negatively related to academic anxiety. So, for academic success, it is necessary to provide the students with a positive environment and good mental health but Academic Anxiety opposes this situation.
The study reveals that due to academic anxiety, students’ results are poor at the end of the session. Which may cause stress throughout their academic life. When academic anxiety in students is high, it may negatively affect the concentration and memory of the individual which is crucial for academic success. So, in order to improve the academic achievement of the students at secondary level our emphasis should be on the improvement of mental health of our students which in turn would decrease their academic anxiety leading overall improvement of the students at secondary level.
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