DATE: April 24, 2025 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: Breathing exercises reduce test anxiety in middle school students

URL: https://www.psypost.org/breathing-exercises-reduce-test-anxiety-in-middle-school-students/

A new study published in Personality and Individual Differences has found that a structured breathing exercise program helped lower test anxiety in eighth-grade students preparing for Turkey’s centralized high school placement exam. The findings suggest that incorporating breathing routines into school schedules may be a practical and low-cost way to support mental health during high-pressure academic periods.

In many countries, high-stakes standardized exams can determine a student’s educational future. In Turkey, the centralized high school placement exam plays a pivotal role in admissions to top schools and, by extension, access to prestigious universities. These exams often trigger high levels of stress and anxiety, especially among middle school students who are navigating academic pressure alongside significant developmental changes.

Test anxiety has been linked to lower academic performance, with studies suggesting it can account for as much as 20 percent of the variation in standardized test outcomes. Meanwhile, self-esteem—how positively a person views themselves—has been shown to act as a buffer against stress and anxiety. Prior research has identified a negative relationship between self-esteem and test anxiety, suggesting that improving one might help reduce the other.

While there is growing interest in school-based mental health interventions, most studies have focused on high school or university students. Research on middle schoolers preparing for high-stakes tests has been relatively limited. This study aimed to fill that gap by evaluating whether a breathing exercise program could reduce test anxiety and improve self-esteem in a younger, academically vulnerable population.

“Central exams play a significant role in shaping students’ future careers in the Turkish education system, making test anxiety a common experience among them. The study aims to address the intensification of test anxiety as exams approach, emphasizing the need for timely educator support to manage this uncertainty,” said study author Derya Uysal, an associate professor at Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University.

“To address this, the study incorporated breathing exercises into the routines of eighth-grade students during the three months leading up to Turkey’s high-stakes centralized exam—a period of peak anxiety. This intervention was scheduled to begin three months before the exam to ensure participation while students were still attending school. Given the exam’s significant impact on admission to top high schools and universities in Turkey, the study evaluates the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing test anxiety and enhancing self-esteem, which may serve as a protective factor in this high-stakes context.”

The research took place during the spring of the 2023–2024 school year in Alanya, Türkiye. The study involved 162 eighth-grade students (78 boys and 84 girls) from two academically high-performing public middle schools. Because randomly assigning students to different conditions was not feasible, the researchers used a quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test assessments.

Participants completed two psychological scales before and after the intervention: the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, which measures overall self-worth, and the Spielberger Test Anxiety Scale, which assesses anxiety levels related to exams. The study also included a short questionnaire with two open-ended questions to capture students’ subjective experiences.

The intervention itself was an eight-week Breathing Exercise Program (BEP), delivered twice a week before morning classes. Each session lasted 15 to 20 minutes and was led by a physiotherapist with expertise in breathing techniques. The program featured 12 types of exercises, such as diaphragmatic breathing, lion’s breath, and affirmation breath, along with complementary strategies like cognitive restructuring and stress inoculation.

The researchers confirmed a statistically significant negative correlation between self-esteem and test anxiety before the intervention. Students with lower self-esteem tended to have higher levels of test anxiety, supporting earlier findings on the link between these two psychological traits.

After completing the eight-week breathing program, students showed a significant drop in test anxiety scores. On average, their scores decreased by 5.05 points—from 44.90 to 39.85—which represents a small to moderate effect size. Seventy percent of students said in their written responses that the breathing exercises helped them feel calmer and more focused during the exam.

However, the increase in self-esteem scores was relatively minor and not statistically significant. Students’ average scores rose from 28.39 to 29.09, but this change fell short of the threshold needed to be considered meaningful. This suggests that while the breathing exercises effectively reduced anxiety, they were less successful at shifting students’ overall self-perception in a short timeframe.

Qualitative data echoed these findings. Most students described feeling nervous or anxious before the exam, with common emotions including fear of failure, stress, and physical symptoms like nausea. After the breathing sessions, many said they felt more in control and better able to manage their stress, although a minority reported no noticeable change.

The study highlights the potential of integrating short, structured breathing exercises into school routines to reduce anxiety in students facing high-stakes exams. Unlike more resource-intensive interventions such as therapy or full-scale cognitive-behavioral programs, a breathing routine can be delivered by trained staff within existing class schedules, making it a feasible option for many schools.

“This study suggests that schools can easily incorporate structured breathing exercises into daily routines for meaningful psychological benefits at low cost,” Uysal told PsyPost. “Combining these exercises with CBT or social-emotional learning could enhance effectiveness for anxiety and self-esteem.”

As with all research, there are limitations to consider. Because it used a quasi-experimental design, the researchers cannot conclusively say that the breathing program caused the changes in anxiety. A randomized controlled trial would be needed to make stronger claims about effectiveness. Additionally, the study was limited to two schools in one Turkish city, which may affect how generalizable the findings are to other regions or educational systems.

The researchers suggest that future studies use randomized controlled trials to validate the breathing intervention’s effectiveness and examine its long-term effects. They also propose integrating breathing exercises with broader mental health strategies, such as cognitive-behavioral programs or social-emotional learning, to better address both anxiety and self-esteem.

There is also room to explore whether these benefits extend beyond test periods and into other areas of school life, such as classroom engagement or peer relationships. Understanding how breathing-based interventions interact with other psychological factors—like motivation, emotional regulation, and identity development—could help refine school-based mental health programs and make them more impactful.

“While the current study underscores the potential of breathing exercises to reduce test anxiety, future research must focus on more robust study designs and interventions that target both anxiety and self-esteem in this population,” Uysal said.

The study, “Breathing exercises’ impact on test anxiety and self-esteem in a high-stakes centralized exam setting,” was authored by Ayça Araci and Derya Uysal.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/breathing-exercises-reduce-test-anxiety-in-middle-school-students/

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DATE: April 24, 2025 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: Impaired identity and negative affectivity predict depression and anxiety symptoms, study finds

URL: https://www.psypost.org/psychology-impaired-identity-and-negative-affectivity-predict-depression-and-anxiety-symptoms-study-finds/

A study conducted in Poland examined the relationship between maladaptive personality traits and symptoms of depression and anxiety. It found that impaired identity and negative affectivity were strong predictors of both depression and anxiety, while empathy and detachment were specifically associated with anxiety symptoms. The research was published in Scientific Reports.

Maladaptive personality traits are enduring patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that are inflexible, unhealthy, and interfere with a person’s ability to function effectively in daily life or maintain fulfilling relationships. These traits often cause distress to the individual or those around them and can create difficulties in work, social, and personal contexts. Unlike typical personality traits, maladaptive traits are extreme, rigid, and resistant to change. Although they are linked to personality disorders, they can also occur in less severe forms.

The main domains of maladaptive personality traits include negative affectivity, detachment, antagonism, disinhibition, and psychoticism. Negative affectivity involves frequent experiences of negative emotions such as anxiety and sadness. Detachment refers to social withdrawal and emotional coldness. Antagonism includes traits like hostility, manipulativeness, and grandiosity, while disinhibition involves impulsivity and poor self-control. Psychoticism reflects eccentric behaviors, unusual beliefs, and distorted perceptions of reality.

Researchers Monika Olga Jańczak and Emilia Soroko aimed to explore the relationship between the level of personality functioning, maladaptive personality traits, and symptoms of depression and anxiety in middle-aged and older adults. They hypothesized that individuals with lower personality functioning and more pronounced maladaptive traits would show higher levels of depression and anxiety. They also predicted that internalizing traits—such as negative affectivity and detachment—would be more strongly related to these symptoms than externalizing traits like disinhibition and dissociality.

The study included 530 Polish adults, 52% of whom were women. The average age was 47, with ages ranging from 30 to 97. Most participants had a university education, and 62% were married.

Participants completed several assessments: the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire and the Patient Health Questionnaire to measure anxiety and depression symptoms; the Self and Interpersonal Functioning Scale to assess personality functioning; and the Personality Inventory for ICD-11 to evaluate maladaptive personality traits. Personality functioning in this context refers to a person’s capacity for stable identity, self-direction, empathy, and intimacy—core aspects that reflect healthy or impaired personality development.

The results revealed some gender differences. Men were more likely to show impairments in empathy, intimacy, detachment, and dissociality, while women tended to have greater impairments in identity and self-direction, along with higher levels of anxiety.

Almost all maladaptive traits and indicators of impaired personality functioning were associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety. These traits were also slightly more pronounced in younger participants within the sample.

Using statistical modeling, the researchers identified which traits were most predictive of anxiety and depression. Anxiety symptoms were best predicted by impairments in identity and empathy, elevated negative affectivity, and lower levels of detachment. Depression, on the other hand, was best predicted by impaired identity and negative affectivity.

“Consistent with our hypothesis, both personality dysfunction (identity and empathy) and pathological traits (negative affectivity and detachment) emerged as significant predictors of these emotional disorders,” the authors concluded. “These findings highlight the critical role of both components of the dimensional model of personality disorders in understanding depression and anxiety symptoms.”

While the study contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between personality traits and emotional distress, the authors caution that the cross-sectional design does not permit causal conclusions. Additionally, all data were collected through self-report measures, which may introduce bias and affect the accuracy of the findings.

The paper, “Level of personality functioning and maladaptive personality traits in relation to depression and anxiety symptoms in middle and older adults,” was authored by Monika Olga Jańczak and Emilia Soroko.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/psychology-impaired-identity-and-negative-affectivity-predict-depression-and-anxiety-symptoms-study-finds/

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DATE: April 24, 2025 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: Most bereaved people dream of or sense the deceased, study finds — and the two may be linked

URL: https://www.psypost.org/most-bereaved-people-dream-of-or-sense-the-deceased-study-finds-and-the-two-may-be-linked/

A new study published in the journal Dreaming finds that the majority of bereaved individuals—whether grieving the death of a romantic partner or a pet—report vivid dreams or waking experiences involving the deceased. The research suggests these occurrences are more common than often assumed and may play a meaningful role in the grief process. Those who dream of the deceased are also more likely to report experiencing their presence while awake.

For years, researchers have examined the role of dreams in bereavement, as well as so-called “continuing bonds”—the ways in which people maintain a connection with lost loved ones. Many dying individuals also report comforting visions or dreams of deceased family members. Yet, few studies have explored the overlap between these sleep and waking experiences among the bereaved. The new study seeks to bridge that gap by exploring both types of experiences and examining how they may be related.

The authors conducted a post hoc analysis of previously unexamined data from two earlier studies. The first study involved 268 adults in the United States who had lost a romantic partner or spouse within the past two years. The second study included 199 participants who had lost a dog or cat in the prior six months. In addition to asking about dreams of the deceased, researchers had also included questions about waking experiences—such as seeing, hearing, or feeling the presence or touch of the deceased. These items had not been analyzed in earlier reports.

Participants in both studies were recruited through Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing platform frequently used in psychological research. Previous studies have found that data gathered from Mechanical Turk samples is comparable in quality to other non-randomized survey methods. In both samples, participants completed multiple standardized questionnaires, including the Continuing Bonds Scale, which measures the extent to which a person feels a continued presence of the deceased in their life, and a dream questionnaire that asked about recent experiences involving the deceased.

To assess waking experiences, participants were asked whether in the past month they had seen the deceased standing before them, heard the deceased’s voice, or felt their physical touch. Participants rated the frequency of each experience on a five-point scale. For analysis, any response indicating the event occurred at least once was coded as a positive occurrence.

The results showed that 73.5% of participants who had lost a romantic partner and 59.3% who had lost a pet reported dreaming of the deceased in the past month. Waking experiences were also common. Among those grieving a partner, 50.7% said they had at least one waking experience of the deceased in the same timeframe—whether seeing, hearing, or feeling them. In the pet loss group, 32.2% reported such experiences. When both dreaming and waking experiences were combined, the proportions rose to 82.5% in the partner loss group and 68.3% in the pet loss group.

Importantly, the researchers found a statistically significant relationship between dreaming of the deceased and experiencing their presence while awake. Among those who had dreamed of a deceased partner, 56.1% also reported a waking experience, compared to 36.2% of those who had not dreamed. In the pet loss group, 39% of those who dreamed of the deceased also had waking experiences, compared to just 22.5% of those who had not dreamed. This suggests that the two types of experiences may be related, possibly reflecting a more general openness to experiencing ongoing connections with the deceased.

These findings build on a growing body of research that has explored dreams of the deceased and so-called “externalized continuing bonds.” Past studies have found that such dreams are often comforting, and in most cases the deceased appear healthy and happy. For many people, these dreams serve a therapeutic role—providing a chance to say goodbye, feel a sense of closure, or reconnect with positive memories.

The idea that waking experiences of the deceased are pathological or signs of unresolved grief has also been challenged by recent work. While some studies have linked these experiences to avoidant attachment or trauma symptoms, others suggest they may support emotional regulation and healing, especially when the experiences are felt as comforting rather than distressing.

Still, this line of research is in its early stages, and there are important limitations. The study relied on retrospective self-reports, which can be influenced by memory biases or interpretation differences. Participants may have varying understandings of what it means to “see” or “hear” the deceased, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the nature of these experiences. Additionally, the sample was not representative of the general population, which may limit the generalizability of the findings.

The researchers emphasize that more investigation is needed to understand the causes and consequences of these phenomena. It remains unclear why some people have positive experiences while others do not, or whether these experiences help or hinder the process of adjusting to loss over time. Future studies may benefit from using longitudinal designs and more objective measures, such as dream diaries, to better understand when and why these experiences occur.

Despite the limitations, the findings have potential clinical value. Bereaved individuals often worry that dreaming of or sensing a deceased loved one means something is wrong. Clinicians and support providers may be able to reassure people that such experiences are common and not necessarily signs of mental health issues. Raising awareness about the frequency and emotional tone of these experiences could help reduce unnecessary distress and encourage open conversations about grief.

The study, “The Bereavement Experience: Dreams and Waking Experiences of the Deceased,” was authored by Joshua Black, Kathryn Belicki, and Jessica Ralph.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/most-bereaved-people-dream-of-or-sense-the-deceased-study-finds-and-the-two-may-be-linked/

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