Oral but not written test anxiety is related to social anxiety.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the associations of test anxiety (TA) in written vs oral exam situations with social anxiety (SA).


METHODS
A convenience sample of 204 students was recruited at the Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden, Germany) and contacted via e-mail asking to complete a cross-sectional online survey based on established questionnaires. The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of the TU Dresden. Full data of n = 96 students were available for dependent t-tests and correlation analyses on the associations of SA and TA respectively with trigger events, cognitions, safety behaviors, physical symptoms and depersonalization. Analyses were run using SPSS.


RESULTS
Levels of TA were higher for fear in oral exams than for fear in written exams (M = 48.1, SD = 11.5 vs M = 43.7, SD = 10.1 P < 0.001). Oral TA and SA were positively correlated (Spearman's r = 0.343, P < 0.001; Pearson's r = 0.38, P < 0.001) contrasting written TA and SA (Spearman's r = 0.17, P > 0.05; Pearson's r = 0.223, P > 0.05). Compared to written TA, trigger events were more often reported for oral TA (18.2% vs 30.3%, P = 0.007); which was also accompanied more often by test-anxious cognitions (7.9% vs 8.5%, P = 0.001), safety behavior (8.9% vs 10.3%, P < 0.001) and physical symptoms (for all, P < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Written, but not oral TA emerged being unrelated to SA and may rather not be considered as a typical facet of SA disorder.
Lisa Laurin-Barantke, Jürgen Hoyer, Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden, 01187 Dresden, Germany.
Lisa
L
Laurin-Barantke
Lisa Laurin-Barantke, Jürgen Hoyer, Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden, 01187 Dresden, Germany.
Jürgen
J
Hoyer
Lisa Laurin-Barantke, Jürgen Hoyer, Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden, 01187 Dresden, Germany.
Lydia
L
Fehm
Lisa Laurin-Barantke, Jürgen Hoyer, Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden, 01187 Dresden, Germany.
Susanne
S
Knappe
Depersonalization; Derealization; Safety behavior; Social anxiety; Test anxiety
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