The Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Hypnotherapy on Reducing Anxiety Symptoms and Improving the Quality of Life of First Period High School Male Students with Test Anxiety

Introduction: Test anxiety is a type of situational anxiety (certain phobia) that has a certain state of general anxiety including phenomenological, physiological, and behavioral responses to fear of failure and negatively affects one's quality of life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral hypnotherapy on reducing anxiety symptoms and improving the quality of life of students with test anxiety. Methods: The present study was an experimental study (with pre-test, post-test, and a 3-month post hoc study) in which repeated measures analysis of variance with control group were used. From among the first period high school male students of CHENAR SHAHIJAN in Fars province, 50 individuals with test anxiety disorder were selected and assigned into experimental and control groups. Data were collected using Friedman & Jacob Test Anxiety Inventory (1997) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument- Short Form (WHOQOL-BREF). The treatment protocol comprised using Wildermouth Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques in a hypnosis trance state for 9 sessions of one and a half hour weekly. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA and Bonferroni’s post hoc test using SPSS 22. Results: The results showed that the psychological intervention in the post-test and post hoc reduced students' test anxiety scores in three dimensions of social humiliation, cognitive error and stress, and improved their quality of life. Conclusion: Cognitive behavioral hypnotherapy causes significant changes in the posttest test and post hoc of both variables, and thus this method can be part of the treatment of anxiety in the future and can be effective in improving the quality of life of individuals with test anxiety.