ANXIETY AND ADJUSTMENT IN EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF GLOBAL STUDENT EXPERIENCES

Anxiety is a common mental issue among students affecting their academic, social, and emotional well beings. This systematic review integrates empirical findings on the correlation between anxiety and adjustment in student population, discussing the influence of anxiety on adjustment in educational, emotional and social aspects and their mediating factors. Following the PRISMA guidelines, the review examined 34 studies obtained from a range of academic databases, namely Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, PsycINFO, and JSTOR. Inclusion criteria focused on quantitative studies that assessed the effects of anxiety on adjustment in students at different educational levels. Findings consistently suggested a negative association between adjustment and anxiety, whereby higher anxiety is correlated with poor adjustment. Mediators such as self-esteem, cognitive emotion regulation, social support, and personality characteristics, describe the manner in which anxiety influences individuals' social and academic adaptation capability while moderators within the relationship between anxiety and adjustment such as gender, socioeconomic status, physical activity and culture influence the nature and extent of the association between anxiety and individuals' adjustment process. It is recommended that schools and institutions should implement focused interventions, such as cognitive behavioural strategies, emotional regulation training, and gender-sensitive support, in order to counteract the impact of anxiety on students' adjustment across academic, emotional and social domains. Future studies should emphasize long-term trends, cross-cultural and individual differences to further comprehend the interrelationship of anxiety and adjustment.