A meta-analysis of the effects of academic interventions on academic and academic anxiety outcomes in secondary students

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the effects of academic interventions on academic achievement and academic anxiety outcomes among secondary students. A systematic search yielded 19 studies comprising 2377 participants from research conducted between 1990 and 2020. Results revealed statistically significant differences favoring academic treatments over the control on academic outcomes (g = 0.66, SE = 0.17) but no statistically significant benefits for academic anxiety outcomes (g = -0.13, SE = 0.11). Moderator analysis revealed that the domain focus of the intervention (i.e., math, literacy, or science) did not explain the variance in student outcomes in either achievement or anxiety. The findings from this study corroborate previous research with elementary students, which found that academic interventions improve academic outcomes but do not substantially reduce academic anxiety. These findings suggested that academic anxiety may need to be addressed directly. However, the authors caution against drawing strong conclusions due to the limited research in this area.