A study of the influence of academic achievement on anxiety and self-actualization of first-semester nursing students

The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of academic achievement on psychological status among first-semester nursing students, specifically, the relationship between degree of anxiety experienced and level of self-actualization between higher achieving and lower achieving first-semester nursing students. Additionally, the study considered the effect of age and gender, as well as level of achievement, on the various component scores of self-actualization scores.; Although stress is a natural function of the day-to-day experience of being human (National Mental Health Association, 2004; Wills, 2003) and is not necessarily a negative experience (Tyrer, 1999; Kopolow, 2004), it was stress and anxiety in negative manifestation that was the particular focus of the present study. With stress viewed as the provoking force, anxiety was viewed as the resulting negative emotion (King, Stanley, & Burrows, 1987; Spielberger, 1979).; A causal comparative (Ex Post Facto) design was employed to collect and analyze the data (Gall, Borg & Gall, 1996). The sample was comprised of the entire enrollment of first-semester nursing students in the Associate Degree Nursing Program at Houston Community College during the spring of 2005. Of the 183 participants, 7 were male and 176 were female. The sample was divided into four age groups: (a) 20 and under (n = 14), (b) 21 to 25 (n = 130), (c) 26 to 30 (n = 27), and (d) 31 and above (n = 12).; Two instruments were employed: (a) the IPAT Anxiety Scale Questionnaire (IPAT) (Krug, Scheier, & Catell, 1963) and (b) the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) (Shostrum, 1964). As the instruments yielded quantitative data for the dependent variables and qualitative data for the independent variable, the t test of independent samples, a parametric procedure, was used. The data were tested through the application of the One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the Scheffe Multiple Comparison Procedure.; All participating students were found to be affected by anxiety. However, higher achieving nursing students had a significantly higher level of anxiety than lower achieving nursing students. Moreover, the present findings did not support earlier findings of a positive relationship between self-esteem and anxiety (Gardam, 1969; Suinn & Hill, 1964), in that higher achieving and lower achieving nursing-student participants in the study had similar self-actualization scores on the 10 components of the POI, as well as the total component.; Age was a significant factor in five of the components of the self-actualizing score: (a) self-actualizing, (b) feeling-reactivity, (c) constructive, (d) synergy, and (e) capacity for intimate contact. The younger the student, the greater the capacity for intimate contact. Otherwise, the older the student, the higher the score on the self-actualizing, feeling-reactivity, constructive, and synergy components.; Gender displayed a statistically significant effect in three of the components of the self-actualizing score: (a) self-regard, (b) constructive, and (c) capacity for intimate contact. Female students scored significantly higher on the capacity-for-intimate-contact component, while male students scored significantly higher on the self-regard and constructive components.