The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Academic Dysphoria and Test Anxiety in High School Girl Students

The aim of this study was to the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy on academic dysphoria and test anxiety in high school girl students. For this purpose, among all 15- to 18-year-old female students of Tehran's public schools in the academic year of 2016-2017, a multi-stage cluster random sampling method was used to select 383 students. Then, 30 students who had a higher test anxiety and academic dysphoria scores were included in the study and were randomly enrolled as the control group (15 member) and experimental group (15 member). Afterward the scores obtained from the questionnaires in during the sampling were considered as pre-test scores. The experimental group was then subjected to an intervention of "cognitive-behavioral therapy" in 8 sessions of 2 hours; while the control group did not receive any intervention. After the end of the intervention, both groups were followed up and followed up 3 months after the intervention. The data were evaluated using one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) by statistical software SPSS-20. The findings showed that cognitive-behavioral group therapy was effective on reducing the academic dysphoria and test anxiety. According to the findings, considering the beneficial effects of cognitive-behavioral therapy on improving academic dysphoria and test anxiety and considering the short duration of this intervention, it seems that this method can be applied to a wide range of behavioral and cognitive problems. Of course, there is a need for additional research.