Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32120880›Full record

Trial reportInternational journal of environmental research and public health2020

Effects of an Acute Physical Activity Break on Test Anxiety and Math Test Performance.

Myrto F Mavilidi, Kim Ouwehand, Nicholas Riley, Paul Chandler, Fred Paas

Open access · goldAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
16citing papers in PubMed, 6 pooled it
3.8field-weighted citation impact, top 7% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

16 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.

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  6. Effects of Exercise Intervention on Students' Test Anxiety: A Systematic Review with a Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Myrto F MavilidiPriority Research Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition, School of Education, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
Kim OuwehandDepartment of Psychology, Education, and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3062 PA Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Nicholas RileyPriority Research Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition, School of Education, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
Paul ChandlerEarly Start, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, Keiraville, NSW 2522, Australia.
Fred PaasEarly Start, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, Keiraville, NSW 2522, Australia.
University of Wollongong · AUErasmus University Rotterdam · NLUniversity of Newcastle Australia · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

(1) Background: Test anxiety has been found to negatively affect students' mental health and academic performance. A primary explanation for this is that anxiety-related thoughts occupy working memory resources during testing that cannot be used for test-related processes (such as information retrieval and problem-solving). The present intervention study investigated whether physical activity could decrease anxiety levels and improve maths test performance in sixth-grade children. (2) Methods: Sixty-eight children of 11-12 years from two primary schools in New South Wales, Australia were categorised as low or high anxious from their scores on a trait-anxiety questionnaire. After this assessment, they were randomly assigned to the activity break condition, in which they had to do several physical activities of moderate intensity (i.e., star jumps) for 10 min, or the control condition, in which they played a vocabulary game for 10 min. The outcome measures were children's anxiety levels at the beginning, during, and at the end of the test, invested mental effort, perceived task difficulty and maths test performance. (3) Results: Results showed that regardless of the condition, low anxious students performed better on the maths test than high anxious children. No differences were found for any of the variables between the activity break condition and the control condition. (4) Conclusions: Although test anxiety was not reduced as expected, this study showed that short physical activity breaks can be used before examinations without impeding academic performance.

Indexed as

AnxietyExerciseMathematicsSchoolsAustraliaChildHumansNew South WalesTest Anxiety Scaleacademic performancephysical activity breakprimary school childrentest anxiety

Identifiers

PMID32120880
PMCPMC7084198
OpenAlexW3006887525

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.