Scholastic Performance, Test Anxiety, Dietary Intakes and their Interrelationship in Urban and Rural Adolescents

Objective To study the association of test anxiety, scholastic performance and dietary intake in urban and rural adolescents. Methods Anthropometry, test anxiety (TA) demographic questionnaire, 24-h diet recall and scholastic performance (SP) from school records as well as by administering multiple choice questions (MCQ) to related subjects were obtained. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (V.21). Level of significance was set at p < 0.05. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to assess associations between variables. Results Mean TA score for urban vs. rural adolescents was similar (58 +/- 12 urban boys vs. 58 +/- 12 rural boys, p > 0.1 and 57 +/- 11 urban girls vs. 55 +/- 12 rural girls, p > 0.1). Urban boys and girls scored significantly higher marks in MCQs conducted in the study period (69%, 80% respectively) as compared to rural boys and girls (41%, 29% respectively) (p > 0.05). TA levels only of urban children were significantly negatively associated with scholastic performance (Spearman's coefficient rho = - 0.217, p = 0.002 for final year marks and Spearman's coefficient rho = - 0.247, p < 0.001 for MCQs). TA was positively associated with junk food intake among urban children (r = 0.127, p < 0.1). Also, junk food intake of children was negatively associated with their SP (r = -0.125, p = 0.012). Regression analysis (Generalised linear model) indicated TA and junk food intake negatively affected SP (beta = -0.299, p = 0.001 and beta = -0.13, p = 0.04 respectively) among urban children. Rural children showed no association of SP with TA or junk food intake. Conclusions Test anxiety, scholastic performance and junk food consumption are interrelated. Creating nutritional awareness among these populations is crucial.