The analysis of exam anxiety and despair in relation with social support perception levels in the secondary school students

The purpose of this research was to study the relation between the social support perceptions of secondary school students and the level of exam anxiety and despair. In this research, the relation between social support perceived by secondary school students (social support perceived from the family, social support perceived from the teacher, social support perceived from a friend) and despair (emotion related to the future, loss of motivation, expectation of the future) was examined. The sample of the study consisted of 250 secondary school students chosen by convinience sawpling method (141 boys and 109 girls) attending to Özel Bahçeşehir Sancaktepe Ortaokulu in İstanbul. "Personal Information Form" developed by the researcher was used to reach the sociodemographic information of the secondary school students. The level of social support perceived by secondary school students was measured by the Perceived Social Support Scale (R) developed by Yıldırım (1997) and revised by Yıldırım (2004). The exam anxiety of the students was measured by the Test Anxiety Inventory, whose Turkish version was standarazied by Albayrak-Kaymak- Öner (1985.1990) providing reliability and validity. The level of despair of secondary school students was assessed by the Beck Hopelessness Scale, which was adapted by Seber (1991) to Turkish. In the research, it was determined that there is a negative and weak relationship between exam anxiety and social support perceived by secondary school students. As the level of social support perceived by students increased, the examination anxiety decreased. The examination anxiety decreased as the social support they perceived from the family and the social support they perceived from the teachers increased. Furthermore, the levels of the students' worry and emotionality were influenced by the social support perceived from the family. It has been determined that the increase of social support perceived from the family was related with a decrease in the emotionality and anxiety scores of the students. In other words, perceived social support from the family reduced the level of emotionality and worry. There was a significant relationship between the perceived social support and the total class level scores of the students participating in the study. Social support perceptions of 8th grade students, were found to be lower than those of 5th, 6th and 7th grade students. The perceived family support scores in which the mothers and the fathers were together were found to be higher than the perceived family support scores of divorced or separated parents. Perceived social support total scores in a family with a supportive family members were found to be higher than perceived social support total scores of a family without a supportive member. Girls' social support scores that perceived from teachers were found to be higher than boys' social support scores perceived from teachers. In the research, it was found that there was a weak and negative relationship between despair and perceived social support of secondary school students. As the levels of social support perceived by students increased, the feelings of despair decreased It was seen that there was a significant difference between the average scores of hopelessnes and the grade variables of the students who participated in the research. The hopelessness scores of the 8th grade students were found to be higher than the 5th, 6th and 7th grades. Total hopelessnes scores of those who did not have family elders were found to be higher than the total scores of hopelessnes scores for those who had family elders. As a result, the perception of social support of secondary school students, the perceived social support from the family and the high social support perceived by the teachers were found to be factors reducing the students' examination related anxieties. The high social support perceptions of secondary school students were identified as a factor reducing the hopelessness levels of students.