Ovadia-Blechman Zehava, Tarrasch Ricardo, Velicki Maria, Chalutz Ben-Gal Hila
School of Medical Engineering, Afeka-Tel Aviv Academic College of Engineering, Tel Aviv, Israel.
School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Front Psychol. 2022 May 23;13:678098. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.678098. eCollection 2022.
Test anxiety remains a challenge for students and has considerable physiological and psychological impacts. The routine practice of slow, Device-Guided Breathing (DGB) is a major component of behavioral treatments for anxiety conditions. This paper addresses the effectiveness of using DGB as a self-treatment clinical tool for test anxiety reduction. This pilot study sample included 21 healthy men and women, all college students, between the ages of 20 and 30. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups: DGB practice ( = 10) and wait-list control ( = 11). At the beginning and the end of 3-weeks DGB training, participants underwent a stress test, followed by measures of blood pressure and reported anxiety. Anxiety reduction in the DGB group as compared to controls was not statistically significant, but showed a large effect size. Accordingly, the clinical outcomes suggested that daily practice of DGB may lead to reduced anxiety. We assume that such reduction may lead to improved test performance. Our results suggest an alternative treatment for test anxiety that may also be relevant for general anxiety, which is likely to increase due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
考试焦虑对学生来说仍然是一个挑战，并且具有相当大的生理和心理影响。常规进行缓慢的设备引导式呼吸（DGB）是焦虑症行为治疗的一个主要组成部分。本文探讨了将DGB作为一种自我治疗临床工具来减轻考试焦虑的有效性。这项初步研究的样本包括21名年龄在20至30岁之间的健康男女大学生。参与者被随机分为两组：DGB练习组（n = 10）和候补对照组（n = 11）。在为期3周的DGB训练开始和结束时，参与者接受了压力测试，随后测量了血压并报告了焦虑情况。与对照组相比，DGB组的焦虑减轻在统计学上并不显著，但显示出较大的效应量。因此，临床结果表明，每天进行DGB练习可能会减轻焦虑。我们假设这种焦虑减轻可能会提高考试成绩。我们的结果表明了一种针对考试焦虑的替代治疗方法，这可能对一般焦虑也有意义，而由于持续的新冠疫情，一般焦虑可能会增加。
