Exam Anxiety in Students: Efficacy of Coping Strategies

Abstract

The present study was conducted to examine the efficacy of coping strategies on exam anxiety in students and determine the gender differences in the study variables. The cross-sectional study was conducted in District Haripur from March to July 2021. Data was collected through a questionnaire, and the instruments used were The Brief Cope Scale and the Exam anxiety Scale. The sample consists of 150 university students. Psychometric properties, Pearson correlation, multiple regression analysis, and t-test were applied for data analysis. The results exposed that active avoidance coping and religious/denial coping will positively predict the exam anxiety, problem-focused coping and positive coping will negatively predict exam anxiety, and female students slightly exhibited higher mean scores on active avoidance coping, religious/denial coping, and exam anxiety as compared to male students, male students, slightly exhibited higher mean score on problem-focused coping and positive coping as compared to female students. However, the mean differences are significant and thus approvable. The findings have theoretical and applied significance in terms of the role of coping strategies on exam anxiety among University students.