Relationships of test anxiety with irrational beliefs and parental attitudes in 12th year high school students

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of irrational beliefs and parental attitudes in predicting test anxiety scores of 12th year high school students. The study sample consisted of 418 students, attending Anatolian high schools, Anatolian teacher high schools, science high schools and general high schools in Kilis in 2011-2012 academic year.Data collection instruments used in the study were Irrational Beliefs Scale ? Adolescent Form which was developed by Türküm, Balkaya and Karaca (2005), Test Anxiety Inventory which was originally developed by Spielberger and adapted by Öner (1990) and Parenting Styles Scale which was developed by Sümer and Güngör (1999).Results of hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the model of linear combinations of gender, irrational beliefs and parental attitudes significantly explained 19% of the total variance in text anxiety total scores, 17.2% of the total variance in worry subcale scores, and 17.6% of the total variance in emotionality subscale scores. Among all predictor variables, gender, irreational beliefs and perceived control/supervision attitude of mother were the significant predictors of text anxiety total, worry subscale and emotionality subscale scores. Female students had higher test anxiety scores compared to male students.