Application of a Group Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Protocol for Anxiety Management
Arianna Di Natale, Giulia Demo, Denise Farlati Pinton, Rossana De Beni
Test anxiety is defined as state anxiety generated by exposure to a specific situation, which can have a significant impact on students' academic results. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a group cognitive-behavioural treatment for the management of anxiety in university students by investigating: the anxiety symptoms reported in a specific population; the clinical effectiveness in non-experimental settings and the predictors of the outcome of this treatment. The sample is made up of 100 university students aged between 19 and 48 (M = 23.82; SD = 4.99). The proposed group interventions consist of seven weekly meetings, lasting an hour and a half. All patients completed pre- and post-treatment: the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the State - Trait Anxiety Inventory. On the basis of the pre-treatment scores, the group was divided into students with «low severity» and «high severity» symptoms. The data confirm an improvement in the scores on the questionnaires between pre- and post-treatment especially in those patients with «high severity» symptoms. The regression model shows that the outcome of the treatment is predicted by the female gender and by the scores of the questionnaires at pre-treatment.
Keywords
Test anxiety, University students, Cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy, Group psychotherapy, Clinical effectiveness.