Abstract

190 students randomly selected from senior secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria participated in this study. The instruments used for the measurement of the construct included Spielberger (1980) Test Anxiety Scale, Hudson (1982) Self-Esteem scale, and gender through demographic data.  A 2x2x2 factorial design was adopted in this study while a three way analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for unequal sample sizes was used for data analysis. The result showed that the subjects with low anxiety performed better than those with high anxiety [F(1, 182) = 3.87, p<^.05], subjects with high self concept performed better than those with low self concept [F(1,182) =7.59; p<.05] and female gender performed better than the male gender  [F(1,182) = 16.99; p<.05]. In addition, there was an interaction of anxiety and self concept [F(1, 182) = 10.69; p<.05]; anxiety and gender [F(1, 182) = 5.13, p<.05] and anxiety, self concept and gender [F(1, 182) = 7.76; p<.05]. It is recommended that the blood pressure of students be tested with their emotions calm down by psychologists before the commencement of exams. Also, psychologists should be used to employing conditioning, behaviour modification, counselling and modelling to build self concept in students.

Key words: Anxiety, gender, self concept, academic performance.