Performance Anxiety in Slovak Students at Adolescent and Young Age

Abstract

The paper presents outcomes of a study on the levels of performance anxiety in Slovak school and university students in adolescence and early adulthood from a gender perspective and depending on their educational stage. The research sample consisted of 589 respondents, 270 students of secondary schools and 319 students of the Economic University. The data was collected using a standardized questionnaire KSAT [13] and brainstorming method. The following hypotheses were tested: 1) there are statistically significant differences in the level of anxiety between males and females; 2) performance anxiety decreases with age. Our research didn’t confirm the direct impact of sex on stage fright; nor did it prove that performance anxiety decreases with age. A statistically significant difference in the level of stage fright between males and females was found only in the second-year university students (p-value = 0.0001).In our pedagogical practice, we will focus on the development and implementation of special strategies for overcoming stage fright that would fit every person.

Keywords

• stage fright
• occurrence and level of performance anxiety
• rating of reasons
• secondary school students