Abstract

This study assessed the administration of punishment, students’ test anxiety, and performance in mathematics in secondary schools of Cross River State. Three null hypotheses were formulated following a correlational research design. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was employed in selecting a sample of 2,554 respondents representing 5% of the population of 51,097 junior secondary school students distributed across 271 public secondary schools in Cross River State. Administration of Punishment Questionnaire (APQ) designed by the researchers, Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) developed by Dawood et al., (2016), and Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) designed by Owan (2012), were used as instruments for data collection. The null hypotheses were tested using one-way MANOVA), Pearson Product Moment Correlation, and Multiple regression analyses with the aid of SPSS v23. Findings revealed amongst others that administration of punishment has a significant influence on students’ test anxiety and performance in mathematics F (6, 5098) = 24.149, p<.05; Wilk’s Λ = 0.945, partial η2 = .028 on a joint basis; administration of punishment has a significant influence respectively on students’ test anxiety F (3, 2550) = 22.697, p<.0005, partial η2 =.026 and performance in mathematics F (3, 2550) = 23.090, P<.0005, partial η2 =.026; there is an inverse significant relationship (r= -339, p<0.05) between students’ tests anxiety and performance in mathematics. It was recommended that the use of corporal punishment should be totally abolished on strict grounds that it hurts the psychological disposition of learners resulting in a dip in their performance consequently