Effectiveness of Pranayama to Reduce the Exam-Oriented Anxiety of Fourth-year B.Sc. (N) Students in Dhanalakshmi College of Nursing, Kannur

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the “effectiveness of pranayama to relieve the exam-oriented anxiety of fourth-year B.Sc. Nursing students in Kannur. It is a type of breathing exercise, which reduces anxiety with improve brain function. The objective of the study was by using the Westside test anxiety scale to assess the level of anxiety in the pretest, to assess the level of anxiety as post-test after giving Pranayama, to find out the co-relation of pretest and post-test anxiety scale, find out the association of anxiety with selected demographic variable. The hypothesis of the study H1- There is significant effectiveness in the reduction of exam-oriented anxiety by doing Pranayama. H2- There is a significant association between the pretest score and selected demographic variables. The conceptual framework used for the study was general system theory. Pranayama is the independent variable and exam-oriented anxiety is the dependent variable. One group pretest-posttest design was used as the research design. A purposive sampling technique was used in this study to collect the samples. Sample size was 30 for the study. After the pretest, Pranayama is given, and after a week posttest is conducted. The result of the study reveals that the pretest mean score was 3.27, with a standard deviation of 0.562. Posttest total mean score was 2.85, with a standard deviation of 0.64. The pretest score is higher than the post-test score. Hence it can be concluded that there is a significant reduction in test anxiety after giving the Pranayama. So the Pranayama is very effective to reduce anxiety among exam-going students. There is a significant association between the pretest score and related demographic variables like age, religion, previous experience in relaxation methods, number of online classes attended in the last year etc.