While many are able to work through that fear, in some students it can spark off a string of destructive behaviours that almost guarantees the failure they are most afraid of, according to Australian National University PhD student Krista Clews De Castella.

Ms Clews De Castella, daughter of marathon legend Robert De Castella and 1985 world champion triathlete Gayelene Clews, was last night recognised as one of 25 Australians to be presented with a Fulbright scholarship. She will use hers to further her work studying student fear of failure.

A psychology graduate of the University of Canberra, the scholarship will see her conducting research at an American university as part of her PhD for a year in a field she hopes will bring some positive help to students trapped in a self-fulfilling spiral of failure.

''When students are afraid of failing they feel overwhelmed and can't cope with the challenge ahead of them and they might turn to self-handicapping, not trying, such as not handing something in. That way they can at least feel some sense of responsibility for bringing that failure about, which means it doesn't reflect on their self worth, they can tell themselves, 'Oh I would have been OK if I'd studied'.''

But these behaviours brought about failure which increased the likelihood that students would use those same strategies again to mitigate the extent to which it reflected on them.

For more on this story, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.