School-Based Hypnotherapy Intervention for Reducing Examination Anxiety: Evidence from a Controlled Trial in West Bengal

Examination anxiety is one of the widespread mental problems of adolescence that tends to affect the ability to concentrate, the memory, and the emotional state. The research problem in this study was to determine the impact of hypnotherapy as a structured school-based intervention on the reduction of examination anxiety among secondary school students in West Bengal, India. A quasi-experimental pre-test/ post-test control group design was used and there were 200 students (100 experimental, 100 control) who were screened using Test Anxiety Questionnaire (Nist and Diehl, 1990). The experimental group was exposed to nine sessions of hypnotherapy over the three months period, and the control group was not exposed to any intervention throughout the study period. The findings showed that the levels of examination anxiety were significantly lower in the experimental group than in the control group (p <.001, Cohen d1.5), which is statistically and practically significant. Subgroup comparison of males and females showed no significant differences in benefits of various students. The results emphasize hypnotherapy as a promising, non-pharmacological, integrative culturally integrated Hypnotherapy as an option in managing the test anxiety among Indian schools.