Relation between the individual fears of primary school students and their life quality, academic success and self-efficacy

Objective: This is a descriptive study performed in order to analyze the relations between individual fear and life quality, academic achievement and self-effectiveness/efficacy of primary school students living in Tavas district of Denizli province. Method: The students at 3rd and 4th grade of Mehmet Özen Primary School in Tavas district of Denizli province who accepted to participate to the study were included in the research (n=96). The findings were analyzed through frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, t test, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis test and expert review of students' fear survey (Lawshe technique and content validity index), and in order to determine the mean of individual fears of the students and self-effectiveness, mean of life quality and academic achievement status, Pearson correlation analysis of variance and SPSS software were used. Findings: Classroom is a factor affecting primary school students at the 3rd and 4th grades (p<0.05). Self-efficacy is inversely proportional to the classroom. Gender doesn't affect quality of life. The mean of the life quality of male students is higher than that of the female students (p<0.05). Success at school is another factor affecting the personal fears of the students towards the school (p<0.05). Academic success isn't a factor affecting sub-dimensions of Kid-KINDL (p>0.05). Family structure is a factor affecting personal fears (p<0.05). The fear of the children having an extended family is more than that of the children with an elementary family (p<0.05). While the fear survey has poor positive relations with emotional well-being sub-dimension (r= 0.21; p< 0.05), it has a negative relation with total self- effectiveness-efficacy scale (r= 0.20; p<0.05). Conclusion: It was found that students at Grade 4 have more personal fears than the students at Grade 3. Their success at school also affects their fears towards school. As success increased, fear of school decreased. The family structure also affects the fear. The results obtained should guide the school nurse in her attempt to understand the fear of the students and cooperate with the families. Key Words: School Nursing, Fear / Worrying, Self –efficacy, Quality of Life, Academic Achievement