Randomized crossover trial studying the effect of music on examination anxiety.

Full Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of lento music on examination anxiety among nursing students. A randomized crossover classroom-based trial was conducted. Thirty-eight students with a mean age of 19.4 years (SD = .54) were randomly assigned to either a music/silence or a silence/music group sequence. The students in the music group were given a 40-min group-based music intervention in a classroom, whereas the students in the silence group received the regular test without music. Using paired t-tests, there were no significant different in pretest scores for state anxiety, examination anxiety, finger temperature and pulse rate between the two conditions. Nonetheless, the findings indicated that music intervention did effectively decrease examination anxiety and state anxiety as well as reducing pulse rate and increasing higher finger temperature (p = 0.05 to 0.001). In addition, significant differences were detected between the pretest and posttest measures for silence (p = 0.001). The results suggest that lento music is effective at anxiety reduction. This study provides evidence for nursing faculty and clinical educators to foster nursing students' mastering over the anxiety of examination by using lento music.

Author information

Author/s: Lai, Hui-Ling (HL); Chen, Pin-Wen (PW); Chen, Chia-Jung (CJ); Chang, Hui-Kuan (HK); Peng, Tai-Chu (TC); Chang, Fwu-Mei (FM);

Affiliation: Department of Nursing, Tzu Chi University, Taiwan, ROC. snowjade(-atsign-)mail.tcu.edu.tw

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial

Journal: Nurse education today (Nurse Educ Today), published in Scotland. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Nov; vol 28 (issue 8) : pp 909-16

Dates: Created 2008/10/20; Completed 2009/01/30;

PMID: 18597899, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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