Relationship Between Exercise Behavior and Test Anxiety Level in College Students

Sidarth Nayak

10/15/15

https://sjsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cTqYoPXvjvwaBbn

Variable List (variable names and level of measurement):

Name Level of Measurement

Dependent Variable: Test anxiety score Ratio Independent Variable: Hours spent exercising (per week) Ratio

1st Additional Variable: Hours spent studying (per week) Ratio

2nd Additional Variable: Gender Categorical

3rd Additional Variable: Ethnicity Categorical Project Questions:

Main Question: Is there a relationship between hours spent exercising per week and test anxiety levels? Secondary Question #1: Is there a relationship between hours spent studying per week and test anxiety level? Secondary Question #2: Is there a difference in test anxiety level between genders? Secondary Question #3: Is there a difference in test anxiety level between ethnicities?

Survey Questions:

1. What is your gender? (alternate choice format) 2. What is your ethnicity? (multiple choice format) 3. How many hours per week do you spend studying outside of class? (sliding scale format

from 0 to 45) 4. How many hours per week do you spend exercising? (sliding scale format from 0 to 40) 5. How anxious do you feel before taking an exam for a core, upper division class in your

major? (sliding scale format from 0 to 20)

Project Description

This project was conducted in order to examine the several variables, which were: test anxiety, hours spent exercising per week, hours spent studying outside of class per week, gender, and ethnicity. Data was collected through an anonymous survey administered online and distributed through a class discussion forum. The survey consisted of five questions, each one related to one of the aforementioned variables. The survey was active until at least 25 responses were collected.

The main area of interest for this project was the relationship between exercise behavior (in this case amount of exercise per week) and test anxiety level (for an exam in an upper division class in the participant’s major). Particularly, data was analyzed in order to determine whether or not there is a direct or inverse relationship between these two variables. Much research has been done to determine the beneficial effects of regular exercise, especially in reducing general anxiety. The main goal of this project was to determine if those higher amounts of exercise per week was correlated with lower amounts of test anxiety.

There were three secondary areas of interest for this project. The first was the examination of the relationship between hours spent studying outside of class per week and test anxiety. An inverse relationship between these two variables was expected at the outset of this project, as an increase in studying would generally lead to more preparedness for an exam, and thus lower test anxiety. Another purpose of research was to determine any differences in test anxiety levels between gender (male and female). Additionally, analysis was done to determine any differences in test anxiety levels between ethnicity groups.

There are many factors that go into studying exercise behaviors. Research has shown a positive effect of regular exercise that extends into the cognitive, affective, and physical domains. The relationship between exercise and test anxiety was chosen because positive relationships between regular exercise and healthy behaviors can manifest itself in countless ways, and test anxiety is not a widely studied subject in relation to exercise. As health and fitness research begins to grow, it will have far-reaching implications for the future of our society. Thus, figuring out and strong correlative associations and working to take advantage of these associations may prove to be incredibly beneficial.

The following report is an in-depth statistical examination of the data collected by the survey. Analyses of both discrete and continuous data was conducted using SPSS. At the end, the four research questions were answered and the results made clear. Additionally, the data was broken down by other variables so that previously unthought of relationships and findings were displayed for future consideration.

Project Data Analysis

Error Check Section

Three errors were found in the data. One error was found in hours spent exercising per week. One data point was missing as one participant did not answer the item on the survey. Two errors were found in test anxiety scores. Two data points were missing as two participants did not answer the items on the survey.

Although no recode was done for any of the information, special considerations had to be made for ethnicity data. The ethnicity group were not a comparable size, particularly the Hispanic/Latino group, so this group was not used in data analysis in order to keep results of acceptable quality.

Descriptive Statistics Section

Descriptive Statistics for Each Discrete Variable

Gender

There were more female than male participants, and the group sizes were not comparable. But no recode could be feasibly done, so the data was kept unchanged.

Ethnicity

As mentioned before, group sizes for ethnicity were not comparable, but a recode could not be done to make group sizes more evenly comparable, so the Hispanic/Latino group was made missing. Thus, for data analyses involving ethnicity, only Asian and White populations were included as these two groups were comparable in size.

Descriptive Statistics for Each Continuous Variable

Test Anxiety Level

This histogram was obtained to check the shape of the distribution. The shape does not appear to be normal or skewed as it does not meet the requirements to be considered either one or the other.

This table was obtained to examine the distance between the mean and the median. The difference was less than .25(Sx), so the mean was used to describe test anxiety levels. The average score for test anxiety was 11.57, which was a moderate score (the scale could range from 0 to 20). The standard deviation was 4.888, which indicates a high level of variability of scores. Scores ranged from 2 to 20, which also indicates high variability as this was almost the lower and upper limit, represented by the scale on the survey.

Hours Spent Exercising per Week

This histogram was obtained in order to check the shape of the distribution of scores. The shape appears to be positively skewed as a majority of the distribution located to the left of the histogram, with the positive tail longer than the negative end.

This table was obtained in order to examine the difference between the mean and the median. The mean and the median are more than .25(Sx) apart, so the median was used to describe the average amount of hours spent exercising every week. On average, participants exercised an average of 7.5 hours per week. For this survey, this amount represents a low amount of exercise per week (the scores could have ranged from 0 to 40). The scores were highly variable, as represented by a standard deviation of 5.376, and the range between 1.5 and 22.

Hours Spent Studying per Week

This histogram was obtained to check the distribution of scores. The distribution is neither normal nor skewed as the shape does not appear to meet criteria for either designation.

This table was obtained to examine the distance between the mean and the median. Since the the difference between the two was more than .25(Sx), the median was used. On average, participants spent 8.35 hours studying outside of class per week. With a standard deviation of 6.162 and a range of scores between 2.10 and 24.80, there was a high amount of variability in these scores. The average was low for this particular survey, where the scores could have ranged from 0 to 45.

Descriptive Statistics by Subgroups Section

Analyses of Discrete Data Broken Down by Other Discrete Variables

Gender Cross-Tabulated by Ethnicity

A similar proportion of males and females from both ethnicity groups (Asian and White) were surveyed. Note, however, that the Hispanic group was not analyzed due to original ethnicity group sizes being incomparable. More females than males were surveyed overall.

Analysis of Continuous Data Broken Down by Discrete Variables

Hours Spent Studying per Week by Gender

These histograms were obtained to check the shape of the distributions for hours spent studying per week for males and females. The shape appears to be neither normal nor skewed for males and slightly positively skewed for females.

The table shows the measures of central tendency and variability for hours spent studying per week for both genders. The difference between the mean and the median for the male participants was more than .25(Sx), so the median was reported. The males studied an average of 7.05 hours per week. The difference between the mean and the median for female participants was more than .25(Sx), so the median was reported. The females studied an average of 9.35 hours per week.

Hours Spent Studying per Week by Ethnicity

These histograms were obtained in order to view the shape of the distributions for hours spent studying per week for the Asian and White ethnicity subgroups. The shape for the Asian subgroup appears slightly positively skewed, and the White subgroup appears neither normal nor skewed.

This table shows measures of central tendency and variability for hours spent studying per week for both ethnicity subgroups. The difference between mean and median scores for Asian participants was more than .25(Sx), so the median was used as the average score. Participants in the Asian subgroup studied an average of 8.0 hours per week. The difference between the mean and median for White participants was more than .25(Sx), so the median was used. Participants in the White subgroup studied an average of 8.35 hours per week.

Hours Spent Exercising per Week by Gender

These histograms were obtained to check the distributions for hours spent exercising per week for both gender subgroups. Both male and female distributions are positively skewed.

This table shows the mean, median, and standard deviation for hours spent exercising per week for both male and female participants. The difference between the mean and the median for males was less than .25(Sx), so the mean was used for the average. On average, males exercised for 8.17 hours per week. The difference between the mean and the median for females was greater than .25(Sx), so the median was used for the average. On average, females exercised for 7.1 hours per week.

Hours Spent Exercising per Week by Ethnicity

These histograms were obtained to examine the distributions for hours spent exercising per week for both ethnicity subgroups. The participants in the Asian subgroup had a positively skewed distribution, and the participants in the White subgroup did not have a normal or skewed distribution.

This table shows measures of central tendency and variability for hours spent exercising per week for both ethnicity subgroups. The difference between the mean and the median for the Asian subgroup was greater than .25(Sx), so the median was used for the average. On average, the Asian participants exercised for 7.5 hours per week. The difference between the mean and the median for the White subgroup was less than .25(Sx), so the mean was used for the average. On average, the White participants exercised for 10.03 hours per week.

Main Question: Is there a relationship between exercise behavior and test anxiety?

Answer: There is an extremely weak relationship between exercise behavior and test anxiety.

A scatterplot was created to examine the relationship between the two variables. As shown below, there was no discernible relationship that could be seen from the scatterplot, indicating a very weak correlation and an extremely weak relationship.

Kendall’s Tau was used to obtain a correlation coefficient because it does not require a linearity assumption to be met and the two variables in question are at least ordinal-scaled. The coefficient obtained was .063, which supported the information given by the scatterplot and indicated that there was an extremely weak relationship between exercise behavior and test anxiety.

Secondary Question #1: Is there a relationship between hours spent studying and test anxiety?

Answer: There is a weak relationship between hours spent studying and test anxiety.

A scatterplot was created to examine the relationship between these two variables. As shown below, there was no visual relationship to be determined by the scatterplot.

Kendall’s Tau was used to obtain a correlation coefficient because it does not require a linearity assumption to be met and both of the variables to be analyzed are at least ordinal scaled. The coefficient obtained was .182, which indicated that there was a weak relationship between hours spent studying per week and test anxiety levels.

Secondary Question #2: Is there a difference in test anxiety between genders?

Answer: There is a slight difference in test anxiety between genders; females had slightly higher average test anxiety levels than males.

These histograms were obtained in order to examine the distributions for test anxiety levels in both genders. Both groups’ look close to normally distributed; based on appearance, the male group scores were slightly more negatively skewed than the female group scores, which were slightly more positively skewed.

Both groups were compared using measures of central tendency and variability, which are shown in the table below. In both groups, the difference between the mean and the median were less than .25(Sx), so the mean was used as the reporting average. Based on the mean test anxiety level, the females surveyed had a slightly higher average test anxiety level of 11.64, compared to the males at 11.47. However, the female subgroup had higher variability with a standard deviation of 5.031. Also note that if median was reported as the average measure then males would have had slightly higher test anxiety scores, which was perhaps the reason it appeared that way from the histograms. Thus, the difference in average test anxiety levels between genders was probably not significant.

Secondary Question #3: Is there a difference in test anxiety between ethnicities?

Answer: There is a difference in test anxiety between ethnicities; Asian participants had considerably higher average test anxiety levels than White participants.

These histograms were obtained in order to analyze the distribution of scores in test anxiety between the Asian and White ethnicity subgroups. The scores in the Asian subgroup appeared negatively skewed, and the scores in the White subgroup appeared positively skewed.

Both groups were compared using the mean, median, and standard deviation for each subgroup, shown in the table below. Since the difference between the mean and the median in the White ethnic subgroup was more than .25(Sx), the median was reported as the average test anxiety score for both ethnic subgroups. Participants identifying as Asian had an average test anxiety level of 12.1, which was considerably higher than the average test anxiety level of 9.1 for participants identifying as White. The Asian subgroup had more variability, with a standard deviation of 5.203. Note that the Hispanic/Latino ethnic subgroup was not included in analysis due to the significantly smaller sample size collected during surveys.