The relationship between perfectionism and test anxiety of students

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between perfectionism and test anxiety of 2nd grade, private high school students in Tehran. The research sample consisted of 300 high school students who were selected using multi-stage random sampling method. The research instruments consisted of Frost’s multidimensional perfectionism questionnaire with 30 items in three dimensions of self-oriented, other-oriented, and community-based perfectionism, and Sarason’s text anxiety questionnaire with 25 items, each containing two options in two dimensions of anxiety and emotionality. It was a descriptive correlational research. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean), and multiple regression. The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship among self-oriented, other-oriented, and community-based perfectionism and students’ test anxiety. Students’ test anxiety can be predicted by perfectionism scores. Findings showed that community-based perfectionism could better predict the test anxiety of students than self-oriented and other-oriented perfectionism. Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that the dimensions of perfectionism affect students’ test anxiety and it has cumulative effect.

Keywords

• perfectionism
• self-oriented
• other-oriented
• community-based
• test anxiety
• emotionality