Effect of Tavasol Prayer on Reducing Test Anxiety of New Registered Nursing Students of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences

Test anxiety as a major problem in teaching affects millions of students around the world and causes a drop in their academic performance. One of effective factor on reducing anxiety is religious believes. So, present study aimed to investigate effect of Tavasol prayer on reducing test anxiety of students in Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. This quasi-experimental study with pre- and post-test design was conducted on 70 new registered nursing students of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in 2013. Data was collected by demographic information and Spielberg questionnaires. After taking an initial test on 70 students, 39 of them were identified with high anxiety and were divided to experimental (n=19) and control (n=20) groups randomly. For intervention group, 30 minutes before the test, about 15 minutes audio file of Tavasol prayer was broadcast through speaker. Immediately and 15 minutes later, students’ anxiety of both groups was assessed again. For control group didn’t broadcast any audio file. Data was analyzed by SPSS19 software using paired and independent t-test, Chi-square and Pearson correlation tests. Mean of pre-test anxiety scores in intervention group (44.26±2.43) compared with control group (42.20±2.27) showed no significant difference (P=0/09). But mean of anxiety scores after the first post-test (34.73±1.45) and 15 minutes later (31.74±1.45) showed a significant decrease in anxiety level of experimental group (P=0.001). In control group, after the first post-test (31.05±0.82) and 15 minutes later (28.80±0.53) wasn’t seen significant difference (P=1.00). So that our results showed positive effect of Tavasol prayer on reducing students’ test anxiety, use of this prayer as a low-cost and simple method is suggested for students.