Running head: Reducing anxiety 1

Reducing Anxiety with Stress Balls

Gillian Myers and Jordan Holdaway

Harrison High School

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Abstract

Does the use of stress balls help reduce test anxiety? In this project we have selected 2

science and math classrooms with most freshman students because we believe they have the

hardest time with experiencing high school for the first time. We will hand out pre-surveys and

post-surveys consisting of questions about how they feel pertaining to the test that will be

administered by their normal teachers and if they feel like they have experienced test anxiety

before. On the post-survey we add the additional question of whether they used the stress ball we

have provided to them. To compare our data, we will use histograms and bar graphs to show the

correlation between stress balls and test anxiety. We will be comparing the pre and post test

scores along with the surveys to see if their grade increased along with their confidence. Our

hope, if our test results so significant correlation, is to get stress balls administered to the greater

public. Once these stress balls have helped students in any grade level, we could expect it to be

sold or manufactured for educational use and include it on school supply each year.
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Introduction

Test anxiety is defined as an acute stress due to an examination or any form of testing that

individual’s experience in a school environment. When students advance in their educational

career, they encounter multiple exams they seem life changing or threating; especially towards the

freshmen students who are adapting form presumable no studying and little homework to more

than they can handle. Although this is an acute stress, it is important to focus on the long term

affects as they could be detrimental on development of the cognitive process. Other experiments

tend to focus on college level students and elementary kids, but we believe that high school is the

most pivotal time of student's career. Since the environment and worth ethic in high school is vast,

we are using what's most applicable to us.

Stress balls have been used frequently to relieve stress because when the body is stressed

it tenses up, the stress ball promotes you to squeeze and release and that sudden release of tension

in your muscles causes you to feel less stressed. This study will help advance our knowledge of

stress balls and its psychological effect on the body. Of course, the long-term use of these stress

balls can cause a weakness in grip strength and tendonitis complaints like tennis elbow. But we

will find the psychological connection to the use of the stress balls to find a device or mind method

like the ball but that has less negative side effects. We give students surveys before and after their

test that they knew of beforehand from that data we will see how it effects the subjects.

Literature Review

After studying the effects of stress balls on the attention span of middle school

students, Stalvey, Sheryll (2006) came to a conclusion that the scores of students and low test
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anxiety had a strong correlation, and that their test scores and predictions improved. Another

study about under-graduate students and procrastination levels, Johnson, Ronald E. (2001)

showed the same results. However, Maralani, Farnaz (2016) says it is because our hierarchy

of psychological needs have not been met. This supports Malsow’s hierarchy of needs and

his self-actualization stage, that if we do not have our most basic needs met, we will not

reach our full potential. Maralani states there is an indirect relationship between test anxiety

and our psychological needs. She took 2nd and 3rd year high school students and gave them a

questionnaire of 4 subjects about their emotional state, cognitive abilities, behavior and

agency. Her results showed academic achievement and psychological needs have a direct

impact on each other, supporting Johnson’s questionnaire. Johnson’s questionnaire consisted

of gender, race, procrastination, emotional stability, and test grade average. His results

support both sides, but mainly Stalvey. Her test on attitudes towards task completion

supports his results about predictions, that their predictions increased when given stress balls.

While both experiments support stress balls increase test anxiety, Maralani says we need

psychological support more than an object.

Methodology

In our experiment we selected four class rooms that would have a test given to them by

their teacher. We gave them the consent forms and asked for the participant to return them on the

day of the test. They were given Survey 1 and Survey 2 on both days, Survey 1 was taken before

a test and Survey 2 was taken after. We chose four class rooms, one geometry class and three

biology classes. We anticipated about 35 kids in each class room and this became our estimated

number of stress balls. For this experiment we gave out human consent forms along with a sheet

attached to it with more information about our experiment for the parents. The paper described the
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limits of our experiment and that their participation is not mandatory, they could quit at any time,

and we will not know any of their child’s names connected to their survey answers. We gave them

three days to return the forms to their teachers and those who did not return the form signed did

not participate in the study. The first day of testing started with no stress balls, Survey 1 was given

out before they took the test and Survey 2 was given out after they took the test. The next day the

same steps were repeated but with stress balls.

Figure 1: Stress Ball Design, Figure 2: Survey 1 Figure 3: Survey 2

To make the stress balls, we
put the end of the funnel into
a balloon and poured flour
through the funnel. We tied
off the ends of the balloons.

Data Analysis

This is our first data set from the geometry class, there are a total of 22 students who are

all freshman that we tested on.

Descriptive Statistics: Walsh Pre

Sample Mean Std. Dev. Minimu Q1 Median Q3 Max IQR

Size m

22 3.273 1.120 1.000 3.000 3.500 4.000 5.000 1.000

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Figure 4: Walsh Pre data Anxiety levels

Their pretest survey average was 3.3, which is a higher score on a pretest survey we

expected. Because our scale was ranked on a 1-5 a 3 on a pre survey. 9% ranked 1, 13.6%

ranked 2, 27% ranked 3, 40.9% ranked 4, 9% ranked 5.

Figure 5: Miller Day 1 Anxiety Levels

This is Millers data set for the first day of testing, the Pre data is skewed to the right and

the post data is skewed to the left. The post data has a higher average because of the higher

levels, showing more test anxiety also causes the standard deviation to increase because of the

larger variety. The mean increased by .38 so our results were not statistically significant, the
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largest increase was the Q3 and IQR by one point. 50% of the levels stayed the same, 18.75%

increased and 31.25% decreased. The Pre Day 1 is evenly split with 25% for people who ranked

a 1-4, 0% ranked 5. 25% ranked 1, 37.5% ranked 2, 6.25% ranked 3, 25% ranked 4, 12.5%

ranked 5.

Figure 6: Miller Day 2 Anxiety Levels

This is Day 2 of testing, shows overall higher data. In day 2 we added stress balls and it

shows higher stress levels than without. They are both skewed left, but the post data shows a

larger deviation causing the numbers to skew left. 62.5% of their levels stayed the same, 12.5%

increased and 25% decreased. On Pre Day 2, 6.25% ranked 1, 31.25% ranked 2, 25% ranked 3,

25% ranked 4, and 12.5% ranked 5. 12.5% ranked 1, 25% ranked 2, 31.25% ranked 3, 12.5%

ranked 4, and 18.75% ranked 5 for the Post Day 2.

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Figure 7: Miller Day 1 Predictions

This is day 1 of the data set with the stress balls, these are their predictions on the X-axis

of what their test score will be. The Pre Day 1 predictions are skewed left, this means they think

their scores will be lower while the post day 1 is fairly symmetrical. The difference is the means

is 2.5, the largest average being 81.88 from the post survey. Their mean increased after the test

without the stress ball by, the largest difference is the IQR being a –17.50 decrease. 50% of their

predictions stayed the same, 31.25% increased and 18.75% decreased. 6.25% ranked 60, 25%

ranked 70, 37.5% ranked 80, 31.25% ranked 90, and 0% ranked 100, this is our pre-day 1 set of

data. 0% ranked 60, 18.75% ranked 70, 56.25% ranked 80, 12.5% ranked 90 and 100, this is our

post-day 1 predictions.
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Figure 8: Miller Day 2 Predictions

Their mean predictions surprisingly decreased, and their standard deviation went down

by 2 points. They were less confident about their scores when they used the stress balls than

without. The largest changes were the IQR, Q3 and the median. 50% had the same predictions,

31.25% had increased predictions and 18.75% had decreased predictions. 18.75% ranked 60,

31.25% ranked 70, 18.75% ranked 80, 31.25% ranked 90, and 0% ranked 100. This is our Pre

Day 2 data set. 12.5% ranked 60, 43.75% ranked 70, 31.25% ranked 80, 12.5% ranked 90, 0%

ranked 100, this concludes are post-day 2 data.

Discussion

Our results were unexpected, when given a stress ball their level of test anxiety increased,

and their predictions decreased. Without a stress ball they seemed to be less anxious and had

better predictions about their grade, which goes against what the literature results said from other

schools. The difference between test anxiety levels were not statistically significant because the

largest increase was by 1 point, however, the predictions had the most dramatic changes, the
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most noticeable change being the mean. We could not say if our hypothesis could support a

direct correlation between stress balls and anxiety because of the lack of participants in our

experiment. The experiment yielded 38 people in total, we would have about 100 but other

participants failed to turn in the form on time and did not follow the directions given to them by

the teacher. Another error was not making our survey scale from 1-5 on all of them and some

students study more often than others, lowering their test anxiety. This leaves a large margin of

error and the validity of our findings may not be concrete. Stress balls seem to have little or

negative effects against test anxiety, there are other ways to reduce test anxiety like changing

study habits or breathing exercises. Stress balls are commonly used and sold on the market

repeating they will relieve stress which we presume is false. Psychological parts like belief

perseverance and overconfidence could potentially play a role, other things like biological

predispositions to stress and gender have definite hinderances on the results of the study. Future

research could include a larger data set with more specific rules, we could also compare the

grades of students in the study.

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References

Cassady, J. C., & Johnson, R. E. (2001). Test Anxiety and Cognitive Performance.

Perspectives on Individual Differences Test Anxiety, 207-236. doi:10.1007/0-306-47145-0_9

Maralani, F. M., & Hejazi, E. (2016, August 24). ERIC - Education Resources

Information Center. Retrieved March 25, 2016, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/

Stalvey, S., & Brasell, H. (2006, June/July). ERIC - Education Resources Information

Center. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/