Ansiedad y

Estrs

SLEEP TIME, TEST ANXIETY AND AGGRESSIVENESS IN UNIVERSITY

STUDENTS

ISSN: 1134-7937

2013, 19(1), 71-82

Resumen: Los objetivos de este trabajo fueron, en
primer lugar, determinar si la ansiedad en situacin
previa a un examen puede variar en funcin de las
horas de sueo durante la noche anterior. En segundo lugar, examinar si dicha ansiedad se relaciona con la presencia de agresividad y, en tercer lugar, determinar si esta agresividad podra ser considerada como una variable relevante en la relacin
entre privacin parcial de sueo y la ansiedad en
los exmenes. Adicionalmente se estudi el papel
del gnero en las variables objeto de estudio. La
muestra de estudio estaba compuesta por 137 estudiantes universitarios que participaron cuando iban
a comenzar un examen. Nuestros resultados confirman la asociacin entre ansiedad previa a un
examen y privacin de sueo durante la noche anterior, as como entre agresividad y ansiedad a los
exmenes. No se observaron efectos de interaccin,
pero la reduccin de horas de sueo y la agresividad se mostraron como buenos predictores de ansiedad a los exmenes. No se encontraron diferencias significativas en horas de sueo, agresividad ni
en ansiedad entre hombres y mujeres, pero si aparecieron diferencias en ansiedad en funcin de las
horas de sueo.
Palabras clave: Agresividad, Horas de sueo, Ansiedad a los exmenes, Diferencias de gnero.

Traditionally, research has differentiated between state anxiety and trait anxiety.
In the words of Spielberger, Gorsuch, and
Lushene (2002), state anxiety refers to a
transitory emotional condition of the human organism that is generated as a result
*Dirigir la correspondencia a:

Antonio Fernndez-Castillo
Facultad de Ciencias de la Educacin
Campus de Cartuja S/n
18071 Granada. Spain
Tel.: 34958249037
E-mail: afcastil@ugr.es
Copyright 2013: de los Editores de Ansiedad y Estrs

Antonio Fernndez-Castillo
University of Granada. Spain
Abstract: The goals of this study were, firstly, to determine whether pre-test anxiety is associated with
differences in hours of sleep during the previous
night; secondly, to examine whether such anxiety is
related to the presence of aggressiveness; and, thirdly, to determine whether aggressiveness may be considered a relevant variable in the possible relationship between partial sleep reduction and test anxiety.
In addition, differences as a function of gender were
analyzed in the target variables. The study sample
was made up of 137 undergraduate students before
taking an exam. Our results confirm the association
between sleep reduction the previous night and test
anxiety as well as that between aggressiveness and
test anxiety. No interaction effects were observed,
but sleep reduction and aggressiveness were good
predictors of test anxiety. No significant gender differences were observed in hours of sleep the previous night, aggressiveness and test-anxiety, but there
were differences in anxiety as a function of the hours
of sleep.
Key words: Aggressiveness, Hours of sleep, Test
anxiety, Gender differences.

Horas de sueo, ansiedad a los

exmenes y agresividad en
estudiantes universitarios

Ttulo:

of exposure to a specific situation or stimulation. Trait anxiety, in turn, refers to a

propensity to manifest anxiety that is relatively stable in individuals and makes them
tend to perceive situations as more or less
threatening.
A situation that has long attracted the
attention of researchers interested in anxiety has been its links with situations of academic evaluation, particularly concerning
tests and examinations (Stober, 2004). Although some moderate levels of anxiety
have been associated with better academic
performance (Fernndez-Castillo & Gutir-

72

Antonio Fernndez-Castillo

rez, 2009), most students perceive tests as

being unpleasant and adverse. An examination or test situation fulfils all the conditions one would expect to generate emotional perturbation, constituting a threatening situation in which the future prospects
of students are often at stake. Examinations
are perhaps the evaluative procedure that is
most commonly used at all levels of the
education process. According to some authors, high levels of pre-test anxiety could
affect 15-25% of all students (Escalona &
Miguel-Tobal, 1996). Some authors suggest that there is a significant population of
college students with a worrying level of
anxiety during exams but the data are inconclusive on the impact on academic performance (lvarez, Aguilar, & Lorenzo,
2012).
There seems to be a consensus regarding the efficacy of action taken to reduce
student anxiety (Afzal, Afzal, Siddique, &
Naqvi, 2012; Serrano, Escolar & Delgado,
2002), although opinions are mixed as to
whether anxiety reduction actually improves academic performance. Nevertheless, it should be noted that although anxiety and other related constructs could affect
performance, it seems clear that academic
abilities may better account for students'
good performance (Musch & Brder,
1999).
Some studies on emotional disorders,
focused on gender differences, have found
higher levels of anxiety among female university students than their male counterparts. Anxiety however, does not seem to
affect their academic performance; in fact,
men are academically less successful and
present a higher dropout rate than women
(Masson et al., 2004). The literature typically shows higher test anxiety levels in
women than in men (Bandalos, Yates, &
Thorndike-Christ, 1995; Zeidner, 1990).
An explanation for this difference is that
test anxiety levels in females may reflect a
tendency to perceive evaluative situations

as threatening rather than challenging (Cassady & Hohnson, 2002; Kurosawa &
Harachiewicz, 1995). However, not all
studies coincide in this result because, depending on how test anxiety is assessed,
some of them have found no gender differences (Hong & Karstensson, 2002).
Despite the fact that anxiety frequently
affects young people in academic contexts,
women seem to suffer more emotional and
behavioural alterations of an internal type
(e.g., depression), unlike men, who tend to
present external manifestations (e.g., attention seeking, aggressiveness or illicit behaviour). This external manifestation could
be associated to a greater extent with examination failure, which might account, in
part, for the higher rate of academic failure
observed among male students (Lozano &
Garca, 2000).
Some authors have related pre-test anxiety with diverse variables, such as susceptibility to distraction, exam-specific expectations, examination stakes, metacognitive
beliefs (Keogh, Bond, French, Richards, &
Davis, 2004; Putwain, 2008; Spada,
Nikcevic, Moneta, & Ireson, 2006; Zohar,
1998), and different ways of coping. In
fact, anxiety is only one of the emotions
present in this kind of situation and, moreover, it is not the most important one, according to other studies. As stated by
Pekrun, Goetz, Perry, Kramer, Hochstadt
and Molfenter (2004), different emotions,
such as test-related joy, hope, pride, relief,
anger, anxiety, shame and hopelessness, as
well as different components within emotions, are intensively present or altered during exams. A comparative study (Cunha &
Paiva, 2012) revealed that adolescents with
high test anxiety score significantly higher
in negative forms of self-criticism and social anxiety, and lower in self-reassurance,
acceptance and mindfulness when compared to adolescents with low test anxiety.

Sleep time and test anxiety

It seems clear that "test-anxious students are generally higher in trait anxiety,
tend to perceive examinations as more
dangerous or threatening than individuals
low in trait anxiety, and experience more
intense levels of state anxiety when taking
tests" (Spielberger & Vagg, 1995, p. 6). It
therefore appears that trait anxiety also correlates positively with test anxiety
(Onyeizugbo, 2010). According to other
studies, the perception of an examination as
a threatening situation could be related to
fear of failure and to the individual's
achievement motivation. Therefore, the relation between test anxiety and constructs
associated with emotional alteration and
threat is logical (Putwain, 2009).
There is also empirical evidence of the
presence of aggressiveness in anxietyprovoking situations and, specifically,
within educational and social contexts and
during childhood (Loukas, Paulos & Robinson, 2005; Silverman & Treffers, 2001).
It is common for anxiety-related reactions
to be associated with aggressiveness in situations perceived as threatening, which
could be especially applicable to the case
of examinations or that of low-performing
students. Some researchers have also found
that aggressiveness is present to a higher
degree among students with greater academic difficulties (Masson et al., 2004).
According to some works, general aggressiveness reaches higher levels in young
men than in women (Kristensson & hlund, 2005) and, although these differences
are global, in some specific variables such
as anger, men and women are not different
from each other (Buss & Perry, 1992).
Some studies have found evidence that,
even when aggressiveness levels are not
excessively high, there is some degree of
aggressiveness before academic examinations. Furthermore, before taking an exam
higher levels of aggressiveness have been
associated with higher levels of anxiety
(Fernndez-Castillo, 2009).

73

A common practice among many students before an examination is to reduce

their hours of sleep during the preceding
days and nights, in order to dedicate more
time to studying the subject matter of the
examination. It is even fairly common for
students to spend the entire night before the
examination without sleeping, or with a
significant reduction in sleep time, in order
to study. Sleep reduction and deprivation
have traditionally been associated with
worse performance and with the onset of
emotional alterations. Although some authors reported that partial sleep loss (i.e.,
under 3 hours) did not adversely affect students performance on the vigilance task or
on the class exam in children (Horn &
Dollinger, 1989), sleep and relaxation were
students most frequently used measures to
overcome exam anxiety (Afzal et al.,
2012).
Thus, several researchers have reported
an association between sleep reduction and
deprivation, on the one hand, and cognitive
and behavioural impairment, mood alterations, reductions in alertness or general
arousal levels and young childrens school
performance (Engle-Friedman et al., 2003;
Gmez, Chliz, & Carbonell, 2000; Scott,
McNaughton, & Polman, 2006), on the
other hand. Specifically, some authors
found that lower levels of sleep were associated with higher levels of aggressiveness
before examinations (Fernndez-Castillo,
2009). Nevertheless, few studies have focused on the degree to which sleep deprivation might be related to the anxiety experienced in a pre-test situation. In the case of
early childhood, there seems to be an evident and significant role of sleep in academic performance (Fallone, Acebo, Seifer, & Carskadon, 2005), with sleep reduction having negative effects on attention
and possibly on other behavioural aspects,
even among children with no past history
of such problems. These effects may also
be present in older students. Some studies

74

Antonio Fernndez-Castillo

have indicated that sleeping less than 6

hours can have negative consequences on
endocrine functioning or on quality of life
(Gottlieb et al., 2005; Marn, Franco, Vinaccia, Tobn, & Sandn, 2008).
Sleep is an important component, therefore, in the accomplishment of daily tasks,
and its overall quality seems to be a crucial
aspect with implications for the performance of complex abilities and tasks. As
concerns the duration and quality of sleep,
some studies (Sierra, Jimnez-Navarro &
Martn-Ortiz, 2002) have found no significant differences between men and women
in university populations, with around 30%
of the students sampled suffering from
poor-quality sleep.
Although there is some tradition on the
study of test anxiety, few studies have analyzed the relationship between sleep deprivation the night before the exam and test
anxiety in university students. This study
also presents as a novelty the analysis of
the role that aggressiveness during exams
could play in the above relationship.
In the present study, the initial hypotheses were, firstly, that reduced hours of
sleep during the night before an examination would be associated with greater anxiety during the test. Specifically, we expected to find differences in test-anxiety
among students who slept more or less than
6 hours the previous night. Secondly, concerning gender differences, we expected to
find higher levels of test-anxiety in females
than in males and no differences in aggressiveness levels between males and females.
With regard to the amount of sleep the
night before the test, we did not expect any
gender differences either. Thirdly, we expected aggressiveness to be a variable associated with self-reported anxiety during
the examination. Specifically, we expected
higher levels of aggressiveness to be associated with, and to predict, higher levels of
test-anxiety. Finally, we hypothesized that

aggressiveness would play an important

role in the expected association between
sleep reduction and test anxiety.

Method
Participants
The participants were 137 undergraduate students aged 19-28, with an average
age of 21.15 years (SD = 2.14). Of the participants, 92 (67.2%) were female and 45
(32.8%) were male. All participants were
students at the Faculty of Educational Sciences (University of Granada). All of them
participated in the study just before the
start of a final examination, when they
were already seated in the examination
room. Most of the students in this faculty
are female and, moreover, many male students refused to participate in the study.
Because of this, there is a great predominance of women in our sample.
Instruments
Anxiety. All the participants completed
the latest Spanish version of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory
(STAI; Spielberger et al., 2002). The STAI
(Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1983)
was designed to measure both state anxiety
and trait anxiety, with two separate questionnaires. The Spanish version of the State
Anxiety form of the STAI was given to
participants in order to measure their anxiety immediately before taking an exam. This
form consists of 20 items which are rated
on a 4-point scale.
Internal consistency of the Spanish version of the State Anxiety form in the original study was high: the Kuder-Richardson
formula 20 (KR-20) was between .90 and
.93, and the split-half reliability was .94 for
the state form (Spielberger et al., 2002). Its
convergent validity with other measures of
anxiety was very good (Spielberger, 1977;
Spielberger, Gonzalez, Taylor, Algaze, &
Anton, 1978). Internal consistency of the

Sleep time and test anxiety

STAI in the present sample was excellent

(Cronbachs alpha = .93).
Aggressiveness. Levels of aggressiveness were assessed by means of the abbreviated Spanish version (Garca-Len et al.,
2002; Morales-Vives, Codorniu-Raga, &
Vigil-Colet, 2005; Rodrguez, Fernndez,
& Gmez, 2002) of the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ; Buss & Perry, 1992). This
version is a 29-item Likert-type instrument
with response options ranging from 1
(rarely) to 5 (often), designed to measure
the different dimensions of the hostility /
anger / aggression construct (Vigil-Colet,
Lorenzo-Seva, Codorniu-Raga & Morales,
2005). The instrument is one of those most
commonly used in studies of aggressive
behaviour. The version implemented in our
study has very satisfactory psychometric
properties in Spanish populations. For example, it produced an internal consistency
of .82, split-half reliability of .85, testretest reliability (with a 5-week interval) of
.81 (Garca-Len et al., 2002), and an alpha
value of .88 (Andreu, Pea, & Graa,
2002). In this study, the internal consistency was good ( = .86).
Hours of sleep: The participants were
asked to write down how many hours they
had slept the night before the examination,
counting from when they actually fell
asleep until the moment they woke up.
Procedure
The test situations were selected randomly and, in each case, the professor introduced the evaluator to the students and
briefly explained the purpose of his/her
presence in the exam room, the importance
of sincerity in the answers given, the necessity for a detailed reading and comprehension of every item, and the anonymous
nature of participation. The time taken to
complete the questionnaires was approximately ten minutes. Participation was voluntary and students who did not want to fill
in the questionnaires remained seated at

75

their desks waiting for the start of the examination.

Results
Initial descriptive analysis shows that,
in relation to anxiety, students mean score
was 29.92 (SD = 11.57) with a range of 660. Regarding aggressiveness, the mean
score was 64.66 (SD = 13.80), ranging
from 37 to 113. Lastly, students achieved a
mean of 6.44 sleeping hours the night before (SD = 1.56), with a range of 0 to 10
hours; 29% had slept 5 hours or less and
50.4% of them had slept 6 hours or less.
An initial correlation analysis enabled
us to determine the association between the
variables in the light of the hypotheses previously established. Thus, the amount of
sleep time the night before the exam was
significantly and negatively correlated with
the presence of test anxiety (r = -.46, p <
.001), whereas there was a positive association between anxiety and aggressiveness (r
= .29, p = .00).
A t-test for independent samples was
performed to identify possible differences
in test anxiety, hours of sleep the night before, and aggressiveness, depending on participants gender. Table 1 shows the comparisons of means.
No significant differences were found
between men and women in any of the variables under study.
To determine more precisely the relation between test anxiety and hours of sleep
the previous night (now considering this
variable as a quantitative one), firstly,
analysis of variance and a t-test for independent samples were carried out, and regression analysis was applied to identify a
possible linear relation between these two
variables (Table 2).
The ANOVA revealed significant differences in test anxiety as a function of the
amount of sleep the previous night, F(8,

76

Antonio Fernndez-Castillo

Table 1. T-Test Results by Gender and Amount of Sleep the Previous Night
Analysis of gender differences
Males
Females
SD
M
SD
11.47
31.11
11.56
SD
M
SD

M
27.24
M

Test anxiety
Hours sleeping

6.33
M
67.02

1.75
6.52
1.46
SD
M
SD
15.45
63.92
12.99
Analysis by hours of sleep
Group of participants with less
Group of participants with 6
than 6 hours of sleep
hours or more of sleep

Aggressiveness

n
39

Test anxiety

M
37.59

SD
10.25

n
96

M
26.68

SD
10.66

t-value
t (137 ) =
1.80, p = .07
t (137) =
.65, p = .52
t (137 ) =
1.21, p = .23

t (1,133 ) =
5.45, p < .001

F(8,126) = 5.88, p < .001

60

Mean Anxiety

50

40

30

20

10
0

10

Hours of sleep the night before

Figure 1. Test-anxiety as a function of quantity of sleep the previous night.

126) = 5.88 p < .001, with a generalized

decrease in anxiety accompanying greater
amounts of sleep the previous night, as
shown in Figure 1.
In order to determine specific differences in anxiety among participants who
had slept more or less than 6 hours the
night before, the sample was divided into
two groups as a function of this criterion.
These groups were established taking into

account that less than 6 hours of sleep is

associated with more psychological and
health interferences. Next, analyses of
mean differences were performed, showing
that participants who had slept less than 6
hours presented higher levels of test anxiety than those who had slept more than 6
hours, as shown in Table 1.
A hierarchical regression evaluated
whether the prediction of test-anxiety im-

Sleep time and test anxiety

proved when the hours of sleep the previous night and aggressiveness are considered beyond the effect of the interaction between these two variables. As shown in
Table 3, the hours of sleep entered in the
first step explained a significant 21% of the
test-anxiety score variance (p < .001). Nevertheless, aggressiveness contributed 6% (p
< .001), increasing R2 when entered in the
second model. Hours of sleep was used as a
continuous variable in this analysis.
We propose an alternative model including hours of sleep, aggressiveness, and
the interaction of these variables. Hours of
sleep the previous night and aggressiveness
are good predictors of anxiety, although
aggressiveness does not modulate the relation between hours of sleep and test anxiety.
Although the two models present an adequate degree of predictive efficacy, the
latter one is preferable to the simple model
because its R2 value is higher, although the
interaction is not significant in the model.

Discussion
The first of our descriptive results reveals a generalized reduction in sleep time
the night before the examination, with 29%
of participants having slept 5 hours or less

77

that night; sleep reduction, therefore, is relatively common in the sample population
studied. Half of the students who took the
examination had slept less than recommended by clinical criteria (Gottlieb et al.,
2005; Marn et al., 2008).
The results also indicate that participants average rate of anxiety was high.
The mean (29.92) is above the 70th percentile, according to the scale of interpretation
provided by Spielberger et al. (2002). Regarding aggressiveness, the samples mean
(64.66) is below the means reported in validation studies (75.7) (Garca-Len et al.,
2002). Therefore, it may be assumed that
participants levels of aggression were
middle-low.
With respect to the first hypothesis, results show that a reduction in the hours
slept the night before an examination
seems to be associated with greater anxiety
prior to taking an exam. Moreover, the association between test anxiety and aggressiveness in this situation is also significant.
These results confirm the initial assumptions and are coherent with studies of aggressiveness associated with anxiety in
other situations (del Barrio, Mestre & Tur,
2004; Fernndez-Castillo, 2009; Loukas et
al., 2005; Silverman & Treffers, 2001).
Regarding the second hypothesis, the

Table 2. Hierarchical Linear Regression Analysis Results

Model
1

2
Variable
excluded

Variable

Dependent variable: Test-anxiety

R
R2
Adjusted
R2

Hours of sleep the

previous night
Hours of sleep the
previous night,
Aggressiveness
Interaction:
Sleep x Aggressiveness

.46

.53

.22

.28

.21

.27

Beta

F(1, 133) =
36.40;
p < .001

-.46

.00

-.44

.00

.26

.00

-.15

.71

F(2, 132) =
25.79;
p < .001

78

Antonio Fernndez-Castillo

means-comparison tests revealed no significant differences between men and women

in test anxiety, hours of sleep the previous
night, or aggressiveness. The non-existence
of differences between men and women in
anxiety confounds our initial hypothesis,
but should be discussed in relation to the
results of other authors. In fact, whereas
some have reported significant differences
in this aspect (Masson et al., 2004; Stober,
2004), other authors, when studying other
emotional alterations, have found no such
differences (Fernndez-Castillo & LpezNaranjo, 2006). Our data show that women
report more anxiety than men, but this difference is marginally nonsignificant (p =
.07). For our population, it seems clear that,
in a situation as conducive to anxiety as an
examination, men and women suffer equally in this respect. This issue deserves more
attention in future research and also leads
us to suppose that the strategies adopted by
our population for coping with anxiety are
no more successful for women than for
men, in contrast to the results from other
studies (Stober, 2004). Some studies that
have found significant gender differences,
with female students presenting higher levels of test anxiety than males (Stober,
2004), have provided other explanations
for these differences. In this sense, there
are dissimilarities in mens and womens
strategies for coping with pre-test anxiety;
women seem to be better prepared for this,
being more task-oriented and more inclined
to seek social support (Stober, 2004). These strategies seem to be highly useful to reduce this kind of situational anxiety. Regarding coping, other studies have reported
significant differences in coping styles according to anxiety levels (Piemontesi,
Heredia, Furlan, Snchez, & Martnez,
2012). Still other results indicate that students with higher test anxiety use rehearsal
more frequently and elaboration and critical thinking less frequently than students

with less anxiety (Furlan, Rosas, Heredia,

Illbele, & Martnez, 2012).
Nevertheless, given the close margin of
absence of significance and the imbalance
in gender distribution of the sample, our results could be questioned. With a view to
the large quantity of studies that have
found these differences, we think that if the
sample had been balanced with regard to
gender, we might have found a different result. It would be interesting to further analyze the role that gender plays in this topic
and the hours students habitually sleep during the academic course, and these are
some of our recommendations for future
studies.
With regard to aggressiveness, although
various studies have found higher levels in
men than in women (Kristensson & hlund, 2005) and this motivated our initial hypothesis aggressiveness associated with a specific situation such as an examination may not produce gender differences, in line with other studies that have
not found gender differences when measuring specific characteristics of aggressiveness (Buss & Perry, 1992). Likewise, the
fact that we found no differences between
men and women in hours of sleep the night
before the examination is in accordance
with other studies that also found no gender
differences in this variable (Sierra et al.,
2002).
An important result of this work has
been to find the significant relationship between reduced sleep time and increased
anxiety. As the t-test indicated, differences
were found between the students who had
slept more than 6 hours and those who had
slept 6 hours or less. In the present case,
the quantity of sleep is a variable that, in its
own right, is related to anxiety. These results are in accordance with the studies that
have found higher levels of emotional alteration and cognitive dysfunction and
poorer performance in people with sleep

Sleep time and test anxiety

reduction (Engle-Friedman et al., 2003;

Gmez et al., 2000; Scott et al., 2006).
The regression model that best fits the
data is the one that includes hours of sleep
and aggressiveness, although there is no interaction between the two variables. More
hours of sleep obtained the night before
and low aggressiveness are both associated
with less test anxiety. Taking into account
the two variables studied, sleep reduction is
the variable that best predicted anxiety in
test situations.
The association found between aggressiveness and test anxiety coincides with
previous
studies
(Fernndez-Castillo,
2009). Likewise, anxiety has been associated with emotional alteration and perception
of threat (Loukas et al., 2005; Putwain,
2009). The presence of worry, emotional
alteration and threat could make the onset
of aggressiveness in an examination situation more understandable. Nevertheless,
this line of theoretical relationships needs
to be further investigated in the case of test
anxiety.
Perhaps future studies could take into
account other sleep-related variables, aside
from its duration, for example, its quality,
in the light of the importance of this sleep
dimension (Sierra et al., 2002).
A possible limitation of our study resides in the fact that we were unable to use
a specific scale for assessing test anxiety,
such as the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI)
(Spielberger, 1977; Spielberger et al.,
1978). The reason for this is that, when designing our study, no assessment instruments had been validated yet in a Spanish
population. We have observed a preliminary use of the TAI in some studies, but
data is still lacking concerning its reliability or validity for Spanish samples (Camuas, Cano-Vindel, Prez & Gonzlez,
2002). Faced with the question of whether
to use an instrument of uncertain reliability,
without having been properly adapted to a

79

Spanish population, or to use a less specific

instrument, but one with recognized reliability and validity, we decided to apply the
latter, that is, the STAI (Spielberger et al.,
2002). It should be noted, moreover, that
this instrument presents a very good convergent validity with the TAI (Spielberger
et al., 1978), and that, basically, the state
form is well suited for assessing anxiety in
specific situations.
Our results should be taken with precaution, given the large number of variables that could be influencing anxiety. Future studies could examine the role played
by variables such as substance use (stimulants, etc.), medication, and previous history of anxiety, the study time during the last
night and on the days shortly before the exam, and the importance of testing for students, among others.
The small sample of participants in the
study and the lack of balance between the
number of men and women imply that our
results should be interpreted with caution.
Despite the clarity of these results, and given the methodological characteristics of
this study, we recommend future research
to attempt to determine whether sleep reduction is just an epiphenomenon of trait
test anxiety or whether it explains additional variance in state test anxiety.
To sum up, the results of the present
study lead us to conclude that examination
situations contain many ingredients associated with an important degree of emotional
alteration. Therefore, initiatives and intervention programmes designed to address
this question (Diego, Field, HernndezReif & Shaw, 2002; Serrano et al., 2002;
Serrano, Snchez-Mateos & Escolar,
2010), including promoting the benefits of
sleep hygiene, could produce greater efficiency in responding to such situations.
Artculo recibido: 18-10-2012
aceptado: 07-03-2013

80

Antonio Fernndez-Castillo

References
Afzal, H., Afzal, S., Siddique, S.
A., & Naqvi, S. A. A. (2012).
Measures used by medical students to reduce test anxiety.
Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 62, 982-986.
lvarez, J., Aguilar, J. M., & Lorenzo, J. J. (2012). La ansiedad
ante los exmenes en estudiantes universitarios: relaciones
con variables personales y acadmicas. Electronic Journal of
Research in Educational Psychology, (10), 333-354.
Andreu, J. M., Pea, M. E., & Graa, J. L. (2002). Adaptacin
psicomtrica de la versin espaola del Cuestionario de
Agresin. Psicothema, 14, 476482.
Bandalos, D. L., Yates, K., &
Thorndike-Christ, T. (1995).
Effects of math self-concept,
perceived self-efficacy, and attributions for failure and success on test anxiety. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 87,
611-623.
Buss, A. H., & Perry, M. (1992).
The Aggression Questionnaire.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 452-459.
Camuas, N., Cano-Vindel, A., Prez, M. A., & Gonzlez, H.
(2002). Inventario de atribuciones causales ante exmenes
- IACE -: Propiedades psicomtricas. Ansiedad y Estrs, 8,
183-192.
Cassady, J. C., & Hohnson, R. E.
(2002). Cognitive test anxiety
and academic performance.
Contemporary
Educational
Psychology, 27, 270-295.
Cunha, M., & Paiva, M. J. (2012).
Test anxiety in adolescents:
The role of self-criticism and
acceptance and mindfulness
skills. The Spanish Journal of
Psychology, 15, 533543.
del Barrio, M. V., Mestre, M. V., &
Tur, A. M. (2004). Factores

moduladores de la conducta
agresiva y prosocial. El efecto
de los hbitos de crianza en la
conducta del adolescente. Ansiedad y Estrs, 10, 78-88.
Diego, M. A., Field, T., Hernandez-Reif, M., & Shaw, J. A.
(2002). Aggressive adolescents
benefit from massage therapy.
Adolescence, 37(147), 597607.
Engle-Friedman, M., Riela, S., Golan, R., Ventuneac, A. M., Davis, C. M., Jefferson, A. D., &
Major, D. (2003).The effect of
sleep loss on next day effort.
Journal of Sleep Research, 12,
113-124.
Escalona, A., & Miguel-Tobal, J. J.
(1996). La ansiedad ante los
exmenes: Evolucin histrica
y aportaciones prcticas para
su tratamiento. Ansiedad y Estrs, 2, 195-209.
Fallone, G., Acebo, C., Seifer, R.,
& Carskadon, M. A. (2005).
Experimental restriction of
sleep opportunity in children:
Effects on teacher ratings.
Sleep, 28, 1561-1567.
Fernndez-Castillo, A. (2009). Ansiedad durante pruebas de evaluacin acadmica: influencia
de la cantidad de sueo y la
agresividad. Salud Mental, 32,
479486.
Fernndez-Castillo, A., & Gutirrez, M. E. (2009). Atencin
selectiva, ansiedad, sintomatologa depresiva y rendimiento
acadmico en adolescentes.
Electronic Journal of Research
in Educational Psychology, 17,
49-76.
Fernndez-Castillo, A., & LpezNaranjo, I. (2006). Estrs parental en la hospitalizacin infantil. Ansiedad y Estrs, 12, 17.
Furlan, L., Rosas, J. S., Heredia,
D., Illbele, A., & Martnez, M.
(2012). Estrategias de aprendi-

zaje y afrontamiento en estudiantes con elevada ansiedad

frente a los exmenes. Anuario
de Investigaciones de la Facultad de Psicologa, 1, 130-141.
Garca-Len, A., Reyes, G. A., Vila, J., Prez, N., Robles, H., &
Ramos, M. M. (2002). The
Aggression Questionnaire: A
validation study in student
samples. The Spanish Journal
of Psychology, 5, 45-53.
Gmez, C., Chliz, M., & Carbonell, E. (2000). Anlisis experimental de la capacidad de
vigilancia: efecto de la privacin parcial de sueo y dificultad de la tarea. Anales de Psicologa, 16, 49-59.
Gottlieb, D. J., Punjabi, N. M.,
Newman, A. B., Resnick, H.
E., Redline, S., Baldwin, C.
M., & Nieto, F. J. (2005). Association of sleep time with diabetes mellitus and impaired
glucose tolerance. Archives of
Internal Medicine, 165, 863867.
Hong, E., & Karstensson, L.
(2002). Antecedents of State
Test Anxiety. Contemporary
Educational Psychology, 27,
348-367.
Horn, J. L., & Dollinger, S. J.
(1989). Effects of test anxiety,
tests, and sleep on childrens
performance. Journal of School
Psychology, 27, 373-382.
Keogh, E., Bond, F. W., French, C.
C., Richards, A., & Davis, R.
E. (2004). Test anxiety, susceptibility to distraction and
examination performance. Anxiety, Stress and Coping, 17,
241-252.
Kristensson, P., & hlund, L.S.
(2005).Swedish upper secondary school pupils sense of coherence, coping resources and
aggressiveness in relation to
educational track and performance. Scandinavian Journal
of Caring Sciences, 19, 77-84.

Sleep time and test anxiety

Kurosawa, K., & Harackiewicz, J.
M. (1995). Test anxiety, selfawareness, and cognitive interference: A process analysis.
Journal of Personality, 63,
931-951.
Loukas, A., Paulos, S. K., & Robinson, S. (2005). Early adolescent social and overt aggression: Examining the roles of
social anxiety and maternal
psychological control. Journal
of Youth and Adolescence, 34,
335-345.
Lozano, L., & Garca, E. (2000). El
rendimiento escolar y los trastornos emocionales y comportamentales. Psicothema, 12,
340-343.
Marn, H.A., Franco, A.F., Vinaccia, S., Tobn, S., & Sandn, B.
(2008). Trastornos del sueo,
salud y calidad de vida: una
perspectiva desde la medicina
comportamental del sueo.
Suma Psicolgica, 15, 217240.
Masson, A. M., Hoyois, P., Cadot,
M., Nahama, V., Petit, F., &
Ansseau, M. (2004). Girls are
more successful than boys at
the university. Gender group
differences in models integrating motivational and aggressive components correlated
with test-anxiety. EncephaleRevue de Psychiatrie Clinique
Biologique et Therapeutique,
30, 1-15.
Morales-Vives, F., Codorniu-Raga,
M. J., & Vigil-Colet, A.
(2005). Psychometric properties of the reduced versions of
Buss and Perry's Aggression
Questionnaire. Psicothema, 17,
96-100.
Musch, J., & Brder, A. (1999).
Test anxiety versus academic
skills: A comparison of two alternative models for predicting
performance in a statistics exam. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 69, 105116.
Onyeizugbo, E. U. (2010). Selfefficacy, gender and trait anxiety as moderators of test anxie-

ty. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 8, 299-312.

Pekrun, R., Goetz, T., Perry, R. P.,
Kramer, K., Hochstadt, M., &
Molfenter, S. (2004). Beyond
test anxiety: Development and
validation of the Test Emotions
Questionnaire (TEQ). Anxiety,
Stress and Coping, 17, 287316.
Piemontesi, S. E., Heredia, D. E.,
Furlan, L. A., Snchez, J., &
Martnez, M. (2012). Ansiedad
ante los exmenes y estilos de
afrontamiento ante el estrs
acadmico en estudiantes universitarios. Anales de Psicologa, 28, 89-96.
Putwain, D. (2008). Do examination stakes moderate the test
anxiety-examination
performance relationship? Educational Psychology, 28, 109118.
Putwain, D.W. (2009). Situated and
contextual features of test anxiety in UK adolescent students.
School Psychology International, 30, 56-74.
Rodrguez, J. M. A., Fernndez, M.
E. P., & Gmez, J. L. G.
(2002). Validation of the Spanish version of the Aggression
Questionnaire. Psicothema, 14,
476-482.
Scott, J. P. R., McNaughton, L. R.,
& Polman, R. C. J. (2006). Effects of sleep deprivation and
exercise on cognitive, motor
performance and mood. Physiology & Behavior, 87(2),
396-408.
Serrano, I., Escolar, C., & Delgado,
J. (2002). Eficacia diferencial
de estrategias de afrontamiento
en la reduccin de la ansiedad
ante los exmenes. Anlisis y
Modificacin de Conducta, 28,
523-552.
Serrano, I. Snchez-Mateos, J. D.,
& Escolar, M. C. (2010). Eficacia diferencial de estrategias
de afrontamiento en la reduccin de la ansiedad ante los
exmenes en funcin del tipo

81
de variable principalmente
afectada. Ansiedad y Estrs,
16, 109-126.
Sierra, J. C., Jimnez-Navarro, C.,
& Martn-Ortiz, J. D. (2002).
Quality of sleep in university
students: The importance of
sleep hygiene. Salud Mental,
25(6), 35-43.
Silverman, W. K., & Treffers, P. D.
A. (2001). Anxiety disorders in
children and adolescents: Research, assessment and intervention.
Cambridge,
UK:
Cambridge University Press.
Spada, M., Nikcevic, A. V., Moneta, G. B., & Ireson, J. (2006).
Metacognition as a mediator of
the effect of test anxiety on a
surface approach to studying.
Educational Psychology, 26,
615-624.
Spielberger, C. D. (1977). Test
Anxiety Inventory. Palo Alto,
CA: Consulting Psychologists.
Spielberger, C. D., Gonzalez, H. P.,
Taylor, C. J., Algaze, B., &
Anton, W. D. (1978). Examination stress and test anxiety.
In C. D. Spielberger & I. G.
Sarason (Eds.), Stress and anxiety (Vol. 5, pp. 167-191). New
York: Wiley.
Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L.,
& Lushene, R. E. (1983).
State-Trait Anxiety Inventory.
San Francisco, CA: Consulting
Psychologists Press.
Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L.,
& Lushene, R. E. (2002).
STAI: Cuestionario de Ansiedad Estado-Rasgo. Madrid:
TEA.
Spielberger, C. D., & Vagg, P. R.
(1995). Test anxiety: A transactional process model. In C.
D. Spielberger & P. R. Vagg
(Eds.), Test anxiety: Theory,
assessment and treatment (pp.
3-14).Washington, DC: Taylor
& Francis.
Stober, J. (2004). Dimensions of
test anxiety: Relations to ways
of coping with pre-exam anxiety and uncertainty. Anxiety,

82
Stress and Coping, 17, 213226.
Vigil-Colet, A., Lorenzo-Seva, U.,
Codorniu-Raga, M. J., & Morales, F. (2005). Factor structure of the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire in different

Antonio Fernndez-Castillo
samples and languages. Aggressive Behavior, 31, 601608.
Zeidner, M. (1990). Does test anxiety bias scholastic aptitude test
performance by gender and sociocultural group? Journal of

Personality Assessment, 55,

145160.
Zohar, D. (1998). An additive
model of test anxiety: Role of
exam-specific
expectations.
Journal of Educational Psychology,
90,
330-340.

Copyright of Ansiedad y Estrs is the property of Ansiedad y Estres and its content may not
be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's
express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for
individual use.