FEAR OF FAILURE

Hayden Carroll

Unlike other phobias, the fear of failure is situational. College students are at a heightened risk with an average of 62.3% of students reporting they felt overwhelming anxiety of some sort within the past 12 months.

Fear of failure: you are not alone

Academic peer mentors help combat students academic, career fears

By Regan Bennett

Fear of failure can be a paralyzing, all-encompassing experience. For college students, it may strike when taking an exam or trying to navigate a complicated degree plan. Whenever the fear of failure decends, students need to know they are never alone, being prepared to deal with anxieties in advance is the best defense, and there are personalized campus resources that can help.

Unlike other phobias, the fear of failure is situational. Though it can happen to anyone, college students are at a heightened risk with an average of 62.3% of students reporting they felt overwhelming anxiety of some sort within the past 12 months, according to a 2018 study from the American College Health Association.

Academic peer mentoring is just one initiative Texas A&M offers to help guide students through academic and future occupational fears.

Atychiphobia, or the fear of failure, is the constant and irrational fear of failing. It can produce emotional and behavioral symptoms such as anxiety, avoidance, feeling a loss of control, helplessness and powerlessness, according to verywellmind.com.

The fear of academic failure has been estimated to be as high as 35% in college students, according to the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Health and Wellbeing.

Communication professor Joseph Lopez, who prefers “joey lopez phd,” recognizes students struggles with fear and its symptoms, and said he tries to alleviate those through a teaching style which allows students to apply instructional material to areas and topics students are passionate about.

“I am trying to bring sincerity into the classroom, from both a professor’s standpoint and also students’,” Lopez said. “Students literally fear failure, and it is not until after the rst assignment that my students really realize that I will let them do what they want and not rip apart what they are doing, but [instead] give them constructive feedback and encouragement.”

As someone who has been through academic failure, Lopez said he has gained a deeper insight into the ways students learn and keeps this truth in mind when instructing his courses. Lopez said he believes his experiences of failure may be why he empathizes with a student’s fear of failure.

“The way I teach classes now is with the fear of failure in the back of my head,” Lopez said. “I know I’m going to mess up. I know I am going to have problems, and the best advice I can give to those su ering from fear of failure is to always ask for help.”

The sharpest increase in anxiety occurs in the initial transition to college, according to Harvard Health Publishing. Carol D. Binzer, Ph.D., director of Administrative & Support Services for Residence Life, said with a large number of incoming freshmen living away from their families for the rst time, the university works to provide helpful transition resources.

“We have about 12,000 students living on campus, and 70% of them are freshman,” Binzer said.

As new students move on campus, Residence Life is nding new ways to make students feel more comfortable and learn to care for themselves with less guidance from family. Most academic peer mentors, or APMs, live in residence halls and apartments alongside students to provide help so new campus members can succeed academically. APMs o er guidance through academic programs and events such as o ce hours, peer panels and on-campus living collaborative initiatives. Although any student can ask for mentoring, the program focuses primarily on rst-year students living in dormitories.

“I’m a sophomore, it is a lot less intimidating for a student to come to us for help rst before going to other resources, because I am also a student just like them,” said Miriya Botz, senior academic peer mentor.

Partnering with the Academic Success Center, APMs have been able to reach out and o er mentoring services to students coming into the university, particularly those who were agged as struggling academically and at risk of being dropped from their majors.

“Just by the sheer volume of work that is now coming their way, di erent tactics are needed,” Binzer said. “Learning di erent methods and approaches to studying in college can be really valuable.”

Academic peer mentors meet with students one-on-one via personalized academic checkups on a requested basis for strategies to improve time management and goal setting.

“Students that seek help from us have this idea of where they want to be,” Botz said. “And when they are not there it can be very stressful and frightening for them, and the fear of failure kicks in.”

For more information on academic peer mentors, their services and events, visit reslife. tamu.edu.