AN ANALYSIS OF THE MENTAL HEALTH AND EXAMINATION

ANXIETY OF BOARDERS AND DAY SCHOLARS STUDENTS

OF PUBLIC SCHOOL

Dr. M.I. Quraishi* & Awadhesh Kr. Shirotriya**

* Director of Physical Education & Sports, DAVV, Indore (M.P.)

** Lecturer of Physical Education, Anand College of Education, Unit of Sharda Group of Institutions, Agra.

A Paper Presented at the ICSSR Sponsored National Seminar on Mental Health and Current
Scenario, Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar (U.K.), March 3rd, 2009.And this paper published
in Research Journal of Social and Life Sciences, Vol. 07, Year 04, pp. 106-110.

ABSTRACT
The concept of mental health and anxiety is as old as human being. In recent years clinical
psychologist as well as educationist has started giving proper attention to the study of mental health
and various forms of anxiety. All of us have experienced some form anxiety in our lives. Anxiety
disorders are the most common of all mental health problems. Exam anxiety is a common
phenomenon negatively affecting the academic, emotional, personal and social lives of almost 20%
students across nationalities including India. Now a day’s parents find more difficulty to send
children to a boarding school due to these problems. The survey was offered to 90 males & females
boarders and day scholars students of Delhi, Meerut and Ghaziabad. Subjects completed
Questionnaires with 130 items on Mental Health Battery (MHB) by Dr.A.K.Singh and Dr.A.Sen
Gupta and with 38 items on Student Examination Anxiety Test (SEAT) by Dr.Madhu Agarwal and
Miss. Varsha Kaushal. Data from acceptable returned questionnaires were entered into an SPSS data
base 15 version. The data was analyzed using an independent ‘t’test to compare examination anxiety
and mental health of boarders and day scholars students of public school, level of significance was set
at 0.05. The result of the study indicated that, there were no significant differences in Mental Health
whereas significant differences found in Examination Anxiety between boarders and day scholars
students of public school. The difference in examination anxiety is may be due to the home sickness,
loneliness and intrinsic motivation for the boarders students. The findings of this study provides a
direction as requirement of such study’s in larger scale to generalized more authentic findings in
terms of academic anxiety and mental health.

Address for correspondence: A.K.Shirotriya, ‘Shrotriya Kunj’ 144, Civil Lines Opposite Commissioner
Residence Meerut (UP) 250001.Phone:0121-2670029, +919897289144, +919027036144, +917503324144
Email:aks144@gmail.com:Webpage:www.freewebs.com/akshirotriya
INTRODUCTION

The concept of mental health and anxiety is as old as human being. In recent years clinical
psychologist as well as educationist has started giving proper attention to the study of mental health
and various forms of anxiety. Today man is subjected to large number of stress and anxiety situations
in modern fast way of life and his balance is frequently disturbed and now school going students are
not escaping from these problems, which are disturbing their physical and mental health. Currently, it
is the one of the nationwide concerns to maintain the mental health of students. All of us have
experienced some form anxiety in our lives It is estimated that they affect approximately 1 in 10
people. Test anxious students score poor grades/marks and have poor mental health in comparison to
others. Exam anxiety is a fairly common phenomenon that involves feelings of tension or uneasiness
that occur before, during, or after an exam. Many students experience feelings of anxiety around
exams and find it helpful in some ways, as it can be motivating and create the pressure that is needed
to stay focused on studying. However, in some cases, anxiety can become so intense that it leads to
disruptive symptoms that ultimately lead to a negative impact on one’s performance. Although
anxiety can affect each person in different ways, there are several symptoms that are quite common.
Some of these are emotional, which include feelings of fear, disappointment, anger, depression, or
helplessness. Other symptoms are more behavioral, ranging from fidgeting or pacing to substance
abuse or other self-destructive behaviors. There are also physiological symptoms, which include fast
heartbeat, feelings of nausea, headaches, lightheadedness, sweating, and other disruptions in bodily
functions. Finally, many people experience cognitive symptoms, such as negative thinking about
oneself, racing thoughts, loss of memory, and “blanking” out. All these disorders are the most
common of all mental health problems. Now a day’s this problems become very pervasive so being a
parents choosing whether to send child to a boarding school may be even more difficult than
anticipated.
The present study was undertaken to analysis mental health and examination anxiety of boarders and
day scholars of a public school. Researchers used survey methodology in this study and on the basis
of conclusion drawn through critical and allied literatures related to the study the researcher
hypothesized that:

• There may be no significance difference in mental health between boarders and day scholars
students of a public school.
• There may be significance difference in examination anxiety between boarders and day
scholars students of a public school.

METHODOLOGY

Participants
Study participants were 90 students of various public schools (45 boarders and 45 day scholars) who were
males: 66.7%, (n= 60) and females: 33.3 %, (n= 30). Subjects age ranging from 15-19 (mean age =
17.31 ± 1.29). Subjects selected via random sampling from different public schools situated in Delhi,
Ghaziabad and Meerut.
Material
Mental health was assessed by using standardized Mental Health Battery (MHB) by Dr.A.K.Singh
and Dr.A.Sen Gupta. This battery consists of 130 items and it contains six popular indices of mental
health (emotional stability, over all adjustment, autonomy, security-insecurity, self concept and
intelligence).The answers of those item (in each part) which tally with the answers given in the
scoring key (true) would be given a score of 1, if they don’t tally (false), they would be given a score
of 0.

Examination anxiety was assessed by using well-developed and widely used standardized Student
Examination Anxiety Test (SEAT) developed by Dr.Madhu Agarwal and Dr. Varsha Kaushal. This
scale consists of 38 questions. Each ‘Yes’ response is indicative of anxiety, hence one mark was
given a score to a ‘Yes ’response and a score of 0 was given to a ‘No’ response. The sum total of
‘Yes’ responses would be the total anxiety score of the individual.

PROCEDURES:

Permission from the head of the institution was taken in order to visit the institution. For rapport
building (establishing), the investigator visited to the institution for many times. The researcher
interacted with children and their care takers in the institution. The purpose and features of the study
were explained to them. The children were assured that the information and data will not be disclosed
and will only be used for research purpose. They were requested to fill the both questionnaires
individually in front of the researcher and asked to complete the tests as quickly as possible to avoid
any alterations to their immediate responses. All the respondents and authorities were assured that
each of them will receive a copy of the summary of results.

RESULTS:

Each questionnaire was scored according to the directions in its respective user’s manual then data
from acceptable returned questionnaires were entered into SPSS 15.0 statistical software for
windows. The data was analyzed using an independent ‘t’ test to compare examination anxiety and
mental health of boarders and day scholars students of public school and level of significance was set
at 0.05. Further norms based grading between two psychological parameters is presented to depict the
group status on examination anxiety and mental health.
The analysis of data reveals that there was no significant difference in Mental Health on the other
hand significant difference found in Examination Anxiety between both the groups.
 Table-1

Norms Based Grading of Mental Health

(In percentage)

Total
Groups Excellent Good Average Poor Very Poor

Boarders 06% 35% 04% 00% 00% 50% (n=45)

Day scholars 05% 35% 05% 00% 00% 50% (n=45)

Table -2

Norms Based Grading of Examination Anxiety

(In percentage)

Extremely High Normal Low Extremely Total

Groups
high anxiety anxiety anxiety anxiety low anxiety

Boarders 14% 24% 05% 02% 00% 50% (n=45)

Day scholars 06% 30% 09% 00% 00% 50% (n=45)

 Table-3

Means, Standard Deviations and ‘t’ value for boarders and day scholars students of public
schools on the Variable of Examination Anxiety

Variable Group N Mean SD df t-value

Boarders 45 31.33 3.94

Examination 88 2.902*
Anxiety
Day 45 79.88 7.54
scholars

*Significant at 0.05 level for the df (N-2) (90-2=88) tab. value=2.000

Table-4

Means, Standard Deviations and ‘t’ value for boarders and day scholars students of public
schools on the Variable of Mental Health

Variable Group N Mean SD df t-value

Boarders 45 28.80 4.32

Mental 88 1.483
Health
Day 45 82.28 7.81
scholars

Not significant at 0.05 level for the df (N-2) (90-2=88) tab. value=2.000

It is evident from table 3, that‘t’ value (2.902) for examination anxiety which is significant at
0.05 level for the df (n-2) =88, this indicates that means scores of Examination Anxiety between
boarders and day scholars is significant hence the hypothesis (There would be significance difference
in examination anxiety between these groups.) is accepted as the mean scores of day scholars is
higher than boarders.

It is also pertinent from table 4 that t value (1.483) for Mental Health which is not significant
at 0.05 level for the df (n-2) =88, this indicates that means scores of boarders and day scholars is not
significant hence hypothesis (There may be no significance difference in mental health between
boarders and day scholars students of a public school) is accepted.
 Fig.-1

Mean and SD of Boarders and Day scholars

Students

90
80
70
60 Boarders Mean
50 Boarders SD
40 Day scholars Mean
30 Day scholars SD
20
10
0
Examination anxiety Mental health

DISCUSSIONS:

Exam anxiety is a common phenomenon negatively affecting the academic, emotional, personal and
social lives of almost 20% students across nationalities including India. As hypothesized, that there
was no difference found in mental health and on the other hand in examination anxiety there was
significant difference found in boarders and day scholars students of public school.

Probable reasons for more examination anxiety in boarders students could be lack of intrinsic
motivation, lack of concentration on studies, developmental issues, homesickness and loneliness and
both groups had similar level of mental health parameter, this may be attributed to the fact that all two
groups have same studying conditions, relationship with other students, school atmosphere and same
system of supervision. This study has some limitations that should be outlined. First, the sample size
was not sufficient enough to demonstrate characteristics of a number of day scholars and boarders students,
therefore, the results of this study cannot be generalized beyond this group and second, the study
relied on self-reported data. There is always a risk of bias and selective recall when using such data
(Smith & Glass, 1987), but the use of other techniques was outside the scope of this paper and third,
the personality difference among the subjects in relation to the examination anxiety and mental health
level.
REFERANCES:

1. Shirotriya A.K. (2009) Comparative Analysis of Academic Anxiety and Mental Health of
Regular Male Participants in Sports in the Government & Private School of Uttar
Pradesh.,Parmita, Quarterly Shodh Patrika, Issue 1, April-June, pp. 90-92.
2. Gregor Astrid (2005) Examination Anxiety Live With It, Control It Or Make It Work For You
.School Psychology International, Vol. 26, No. 5, 617-635.
3. www.mentalhealth.com
4. http://mentalhealth.samsha.gov/child/childhealth.asp
5. http://www.mentalhealtharticles.net/
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8. http://www.cmha.ca