School performance anxiety in adolescents

This study aimed to investigate anxiety in senior high school adolescents, and particularly the stress related to school performance and examination requirements in the current educational system. We hypothesized that examinations, and particularly the Greek school final examinations, cause intense stress to students, because they are directly related to school performance. Adolescents are expected to select an academic sector and a future profession, a remarkably stressful situation combined with adolescence itself. After defining the concepts of anxiety and school performance, we examined and analyzed the correlation with the attitudes of parents, educators and peers to reach to conclusions. The results of this study provide some evidence that our initial hypothesis was confirmed, although differences were recorded between students. The main factor of adolescent anxiety is the feeling of not possessing the adequate skills to fulfill the requirements of the examination. Their self-esteem was affected by their performance in the examinations and their success in examinations was extremely associated because they were affected by the criticism from their social environment and family.