ERIC Number: EJ886208
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-Mar
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
Reference Count: 0
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0007-0998
Personal and Situational Predictors of Test Anxiety of Students in Post-Compulsory Education
Putwain, David W.; Woods, Kevin A.; Symes, Wendy
British Journal of Educational Psychology, v80 n1 p137-160 Mar 2010
Background: Recent models of evaluation anxiety emphasize the importance of personal knowledge and self-regulatory processes in the development of test anxiety, but do not theorize a route for situational influences. Aim: To investigate the relationship between test anxiety and personal knowledge beliefs (achievement goals and perceived academic competence), parental pressure/support, and teachers' achievement goals. Sample: One-hundred and seventy five students at a sixth-form college following pre-degree courses in Psychology and Sociology. Method: Self-report data were collected for test anxiety, personal achievement goals, academic self-concept, perceived test competence, teachers' achievement goals, and parental pressure/support. Relationships were examined through correlational and regression analyses. Results: The relationship between test anxiety and personal knowledge beliefs differed for the various components of test anxiety. A mastery-avoidance goal was related to worry and tension, and a performance-approach goal to bodily symptoms. Perceived academic competence was related to worry and tension. Parental pressure was associated with stronger worry and test-irrelevant thinking components directly, and with a stronger bodily symptoms component indirectly through a performance-approach goal. Teachers' performance-avoidance goals were related to worry, tension, and bodily symptoms indirectly through personal performance-avoidance goals, and in the case of bodily symptoms additionally through a performance-approach goal. Conclusion: Findings provide partial support for the self-regulatory model of test anxiety suggesting that additional routes are required to account for the role of parental pressure and teachers' performance-avoidance goals and a re-examination of the relationship between test anxiety and achievement goals.
Descriptors: Compulsory Education, Student Motivation, Test Anxiety, Teaching Methods, Influences, Models, Academic Achievement, Correlation, Objectives, College Students
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers: N/A

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