Social Relationships and Manifest Anxiety Among Freshmen in Tertiary Institutions in Lagos State

Abstract

This study measures the extent of anxiety manifestation among freshmen, specially, as it relates to student-student and student-staff relationships. Responses were obtained from 700 freshmen (350 males and 350 females). The three types of anxiety measured were reality anxiety, moral anxiety and neurotic anxiety using items adapted from Janet Taylor's manifest Anxiety scale while the test instruments used for the independent variables were constructed and validated by the researcher. Two hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Variance statistical technique. The results of the data analysis showed that anxiety manifestation was significantly higher in respect of the freshmen who are low in adapting to student-student and student-staff relationships. These findings suggest that freshmen need help to overcome high level of anxiety manifestation.

Keywords: Social Relationships; Manifest Anxiety; Moral Anxiety.

International Journal of Educational Research Vol. 3 (2) 2007 pp. 183-190