A meta-analysis of test anxiety therapy outcome studies

Abstract

The present study reported results of a meta-analysis of 195 test anxiety therapy outcome studies. The purposes of the review were to examine (a) the extent to which anxiety and performance vary as a function of treatment (b) differential effects due to type of treatment, (c) the relation of methodological quality to treatment efficacy, and (d) the differences between published and unpublished studies with respect to quality and outcome. The 430 treated groups yielded 1,413 effect sizes with an overall mean value of .57. The respective effect sizes for self-report of anxiety and performance measures were .90 and .21. Anxiety is ameliorated by almost any treatment, whereas performance remains relatively impervious to treatment. There were no differential effects on performance as a function of class of treatment (i.e., behavior therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, psychotherapy/counseling, study skills counseling, placebo therapy). For self-report of anxiety, there was a significant difference, with behavioral and cognitive behavior therapies superior to placebo treatments and study skills counseling. Within the class of behavior therapy, the effectiveness of variants of systematic desensitization and relaxation therapy for either measures of anxiety or performance appeared relatively uniform. Reinforcement procedures were shown to be superior to other forms of behavior therapy with respect to anxiety measures but not performance. Consistent with other meta-analyses of psychotherapy outcome studies, the relation of methodological variables to outcomes for self-report of anxiety and for performance criteria was generally weak. Comparisons of published and unpublished studies indicated significantly larger effect sizes for self report of anxiety, but not performance, in published literature.