Desensitization of test anxious urban community‐college students and resulting changes in grade point average: A replication

Abstract

Ninety‐seven self‐referred students applied for enrollment in a behavior modification program to reduce test anxiety. Those whose free time coincided with the workshop times served as the experimental group (N = 42), while the remainder served as the control group (N = 55). At the end of the treatment semester, results indicated that students who participated in the program had improved their academic averages more than the control group, as measured by Mann‐Whitney U test. After the workshop series, the experimental group reported less debilitating anxiety than the control group, as measured by the Alpert‐Haber Test Anxiety Questionnaire. There was no comparable finding for facilitating anxiety. These results support those reported by Hudesman and Wiesner (1979) on a similar sample. Copyright © 1984 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company