The administration of an anxiety scale to students with dyslexia in secondary schools

Abstract

Mental health covers a wide range of psychological health conditions. This hides the true extent of the severity of the emotional challenges that children and adolescents encounter early in their lives. These emotional difficulties can be experienced by students with dyslexia. This study involves the administration of an anxiety scale to Form 4 and Form 5 students with dyslexia and average readers. In total, 314 respondents with and without learning difficulties attending State and Church schools took part in this research. The principal and subsidiary aims of this study were to explore the anxiety levels of (i) students with dyslexia in comparison to average readers; (ii) gender differences; and (iii) the type of school (state or church) adolescents attended, as well as investigating whether these variables had any bearing on participants’ levels of anxiety. The researcher employed a quantitative method and utilised the 'Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale' questionnaire developed by Horwitz et al. (1986) to gather research data. The research analysis found significant results between the aforementioned studied variables. This study further provides some advice about the possible mitigation of the anxiety levels of students with dyslexia attending secondary schools.