The Effects of an Experience of Success or Failure on State Anxiety Level

This study measured the direction of the effect of an experience of success or failure on the level of anxiety of boys and girls of different attainment levels in thirty-one ninth grade classes. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children was used to measure anxiety level before and after an experimentally manipulated experience of success or failure on a vocabulary test. Effects in two directions were found, anxiety level rising in the failure groups and falling in the success groups, This happened for both boys and girls and for both high and low attainment groups. The findings provide experimental validation for the anxiety scale used and have relevance for the explanation of the higher anxiety levels often observed in children in lower stream classes.