Parents' views on the role of artistic activities in reducing exam anxiety

It is inevitable that children who are only given exam-orientated education will face exam anxiety at a later age. In this study, the opinions of the parents about whether they give place to activities including artistic activities among other social activity areas that will eliminate the negativities faced by their children who are raised only exam-oriented and how art activities affect students were taken. In this direction, it was investigated whether the aforementioned art activities have a positive or negative effect on the student's exam anxiety, taking into account the opinions of the parents. It was investigated whether there is a significant relationship between artistic activities aimed at reducing the level of exam anxiety in students during the transition from primary school to high school and their academic achievement. In addition, it was examined whether there is a difference in exam anxiety levels depending on the variables. For this reason, qualitative research method was applied in the study. The research was carried out with phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research methods. The study group of the research consists of 28 parents of students who applied to the guidance unit with exam anxiety who were studying in National Education schools in Yenişehir District in the 2022-2023 Academic Year. Research data were obtained through a semi-structured interview form. Qualitative data were analysed by creating categories and subcategories according to the results obtained from the questions and answers sorted in a meaningful way according to the subject and evaluated together with the researcher and field experts. Some of the results obtained from the research findings indicate that artistic activities have a "positive" effect on students' test anxiety and that this has a healing effect on their negative psychology. In addition, when these parents were asked for their opinions and suggestions about their children's participation in artistic activities, all of them, except 1 person, expressed "positive" opinions and all of them (26 people), except 2 people, made "positive" suggestions. In the last part of the study, the results of the research were discussed within the framework of the literature and some suggestions were made.