Abstract
Many students underperform on exams due to experiencing high test anxiety. We report on a study comparing a novel intervention of seeking support from one's social network to the more common approaches of expressive writing and studying task-relevant materials for simulated open-ended test questions. We measured in-the-moment (state) anxiety before and after each intervention, and correctness of the solutions. We also surveyed students to learn about their perceptions of the interventions. Our results showed that social support decreased the anxiety of high test-anxious students by 21% with the reduction in anxiety correlating with the number of messages received. Social support also allowed high test-anxious students to score at the level of low test-anxious students. Expressive writing showed a similar effect, but increased the anxiety of low test-anxious students by 61%. Studying task materials had no effect on anxiety and high test-anxious students performed worse than low test-anxious students. Despite benefiting from social support, we found that students were uncomfortable soliciting support from their online social network. Realizing the benefits of this approach may therefore require different formulations of social support in practice.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | CHI 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |
| Subtitle of host publication | Explore, Innovate, Inspire |
| Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
| Pages | 736-747 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781450346559 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 2 2017 |
| Event | 2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2017 - Denver, United States Duration: May 6 2017 → May 11 2017 |
Publication series
| Name | Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings |
|---|---|
| Volume | 2017-May |
Other
| Other | 2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2017 |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| City | Denver |
| Period | 5/6/17 → 5/11/17 |
Fingerprint
Keywords
- Anxiety
- Expressive writing
- Programming
- Social support
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Software
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
Cite this
I need your encouragement! Requesting supportive comments on social media reduces test anxiety. / Deloatch, Robert; Bailey, Brian P; Kirlik, Alex; Zilles, Craig.
CHI 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Explore, Innovate, Inspire. Association for Computing Machinery, 2017. p. 736-747 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings; Vol. 2017-May).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution
}
TY - GEN
T1 - I need your encouragement! Requesting supportive comments on social media reduces test anxiety
AU - Deloatch, Robert
AU - Bailey, Brian P
AU - Kirlik, Alex
AU - Zilles, Craig
PY - 2017/5/2
Y1 - 2017/5/2
N2 - Many students underperform on exams due to experiencing high test anxiety. We report on a study comparing a novel intervention of seeking support from one's social network to the more common approaches of expressive writing and studying task-relevant materials for simulated open-ended test questions. We measured in-the-moment (state) anxiety before and after each intervention, and correctness of the solutions. We also surveyed students to learn about their perceptions of the interventions. Our results showed that social support decreased the anxiety of high test-anxious students by 21% with the reduction in anxiety correlating with the number of messages received. Social support also allowed high test-anxious students to score at the level of low test-anxious students. Expressive writing showed a similar effect, but increased the anxiety of low test-anxious students by 61%. Studying task materials had no effect on anxiety and high test-anxious students performed worse than low test-anxious students. Despite benefiting from social support, we found that students were uncomfortable soliciting support from their online social network. Realizing the benefits of this approach may therefore require different formulations of social support in practice.
AB - Many students underperform on exams due to experiencing high test anxiety. We report on a study comparing a novel intervention of seeking support from one's social network to the more common approaches of expressive writing and studying task-relevant materials for simulated open-ended test questions. We measured in-the-moment (state) anxiety before and after each intervention, and correctness of the solutions. We also surveyed students to learn about their perceptions of the interventions. Our results showed that social support decreased the anxiety of high test-anxious students by 21% with the reduction in anxiety correlating with the number of messages received. Social support also allowed high test-anxious students to score at the level of low test-anxious students. Expressive writing showed a similar effect, but increased the anxiety of low test-anxious students by 61%. Studying task materials had no effect on anxiety and high test-anxious students performed worse than low test-anxious students. Despite benefiting from social support, we found that students were uncomfortable soliciting support from their online social network. Realizing the benefits of this approach may therefore require different formulations of social support in practice.
KW - Anxiety
KW - Expressive writing
KW - Programming
KW - Social support
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044856659&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85044856659&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3025453.3025709
DO - 10.1145/3025453.3025709
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85044856659
T3 - Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
SP - 736
EP - 747
BT - CHI 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PB - Association for Computing Machinery
ER -