PO-0938 The Effect Of Visual Day-dreaming And Music Therapy On Reducing The Test Anxiety Of The University Students

Abstract

Introduction Test anxiety is a different form of situational anxiety. Although it is favourable as long as it motivates the students to learn, extreme levels of it can cause academic failure and psychological problems on the part of the individual. Method This is a randomised controlled experimental study which aims at investigating the effect of visual day-dreaming and music therapy on reducing the test anxiety of the university students. The sample of the study consisted of 84 voluntary students, all of whom were included in the study. The students were selected on the basis of simple random sampling to form three different working groups: visual day-dreaming group, music therapy group and the control group. The data were collected by means of an information form about the participant’s socio-demographic characteristics, their day-dreaming and musical preferences, and a scale for situational and persistent anxiety. Results The students in the three groups were found to be homogenous in terms of age, gender, marital status, income, and the place of longest stay. The mean scores of persistent anxiety for the students in visual day-dreaming group, music therapy group, and the control group were all found to be high. Statistically significant differences were observed between the three groups in terms of their mean scores of situational anxiety. Conclusion In this study, it was determined that visual day-dreaming was found to reduce university students’ test anxiety, with significantly lower anxiety scores gauged from the day-dreaming group than the control group.