Emotional intersection: Delineating test anxiety, emotional disorders, and student well-being.

Previous studies have shown how test anxiety is positively related to symptoms of emotion disorder and that highly test anxious persons can meet diagnostic thresholds for emotion disorder. However, many studies are somewhat dated and based on older conceptualizations of key constructs. In addition, well-being is rarely considered alongside test anxiety and emotion disorder.

COVID-19 meets control-value theory: Emotional reactions to canceled high-stakes examinations.

In many countries, examinations scheduled for summer 2020 were canceled as part of measures designed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. To examine how four retrospective emotions about canceled examinations (relief, gratitude, disappointment, and anger) and one prospective emotion (test anxiety) were related to control-value appraisals, a sample of 474 participants in the UK aged 15-19 years, who would have taken high-stakes examinations if they had not been canceled, self-reported measures of control, value, retrospective emotions and test anxiety. Data were analysed using the confirmatory factor analysis within exploratory structural equation modeling (EwC) approach.

Test anxiety in primary school children: A 20-year systematic review and meta-analysis.

This study sought to systematically review the full body of research on test anxiety in primary (elementary) school children aged 5-12 years. A comprehensive electronic and manual literature search identified 76 studies (85 independent samples; N = 53,617 children) that satisfied inclusion criteria. Inverse-variance weighted random effects meta-analysis showed that test anxiety related negatively to academic achievement in Mathematics (r = 0.

Academic Buoyancy: Overcoming Test Anxiety and Setbacks.

High levels of test anxiety can be damaging for academic achievement, wellbeing, and mental health. It is important, therefore, to consider those psychological attributes that may offer protection against the development of test anxiety and its negative consequences, thereby contributing to a potential positive future life trajectory. Academic buoyancy, the ability to respond effectively to academic pressures and setbacks, is one such attribute that offers protection from high test anxiety.

Ordinary Magic in Extraordinary Circumstances: Factors Associated with Positive Mental Health Outcomes for Early Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions have had a negative impact on the mental health and wellbeing of many people worldwide, but this may have been particularly challenging for adolescents. However, there is a paucity of research examining the factors associated with good mental health during this time. The aim of the current study was to identify the protective factors amongst early adolescents in the UK that were associated with better mental health outcomes (internalising and externalising difficulties, and wellbeing) during the first national COVID-19 lockdown.

Test anxiety, anxiety disorders, and school-related wellbeing: Manifestations of the same or different constructs?

Previous studies have shown that highly test anxious persons are more likely to meet criteria for an anxiety disorder and report more frequent symptoms of anxiety disorders than their low test anxious counterparts. However, it is unclear whether test anxiety should be treated as distinct to, or a manifestation of, anxiety disorders. Furthermore, the Dual Factor Model of Mental Health proposes that high subjective wellbeing cannot be solely inferred from the absence of psychopathology.

Relations between gender stereotyping and foreign language attainment: The mediating role of language learners' anxiety and self-efficacy.

Background: Gender stereotyping of academic domains has long been a major issue in education. However, previous research has mainly focused on male-dominated fields and women's disadvantage in such fields. Little attention has been paid to the fields of study, such as foreign language learning, which are typically stereotyped as female domains.

Cognitive-behavioral intervention for test anxiety in adolescent students: do benefits extend to school-related wellbeing and clinical anxiety.

Cognitive-behavioral interventions have been shown to be effective treatments for test anxiety. Studies on school-aged populations, however, are lacking. In the present study we evaluated a six-session cognitive-behavioral intervention for test anxiety in a sample of secondary school students aged 14-16 years preparing for high-stakes examinations.

The role of achievement emotions in primary school mathematics: Control-value antecedents and achievement outcomes.

Background: Appraisals of control and value are proposed as proximal antecedents of achievement emotions, which, in turn, predict achievement. Relatively few studies have investigated how control and value may interact to determine achievement emotions, or subsequent achievement mediated by emotions.

Aim: To examine whether control, value, and their interaction predicted mathematics test score directly, and indirectly, mediated by three salient achievement emotions: enjoyment, boredom, and anxiety.

The role of academic buoyancy and emotions in students' learning-related expectations and behaviours in primary school.

Background: Academic buoyancy refers to students' ability to come through ordinary challenges they face in the academic context, and it can positively contribute to students' beliefs and behaviours in learning situations. Although buoyancy has been found to be related to positive academic outcomes, previous studies have not examined how buoyancy influences academic emotions in learning situations and how these emotions further affect students' learning-related expectations and behaviours.

Aims: This study investigated to what extent academic buoyancy predicts students' failure expectations, avoidance behaviour, and task-oriented planning in learning situations, and to what extent academic emotions mediate the effect of academic buoyancy on these expectations and behaviours.

A cross-lagged panel analysis of fear appeal appraisal and student engagement.

Background: Fear appeals are persuasive messages given by teachers to students about the importance of avoiding failure in an upcoming high-stakes test. The relationship between the way that students appraise fear appeals and engagement in lessons has not previously been tested using a robust methodological and analytical design that fully controls for concurrent relationships between the variables and stability over time.

Aim: The present study addressed these limitations using a cross-lagged panel design to probe reciprocal relationships between students' appraisal of fear appeals as a threat and as a challenge, with their engagement in class.

School-related subjective well-being promotes subsequent adaptability, achievement, and positive behavioural conduct.

Background: Previous studies have shown that subjective well-being and adaptability are linked to adaptive educational outcomes, including higher achievement and lower anxiety. It is not presently clear, however, how school-related subjective well-being and adaptability are related, or predict behavioural outcomes such as student conduct.

Aim: The aim of the present study was to test a bidirectional model of school-related subjective well-being and adaptability, and how they relate to achievement and behavioural conduct.

Does increased effort compensate for performance debilitating test anxiety?

It is well established that test anxiety is negatively related to examination performance. Based on attentional control theory, the aim of this study was to examine whether increased effort can protect against performance debilitating test anxiety. Four hundred and sixty-six participants (male = 228; 48.

Is reducing uncertain control the key to successful test anxiety intervention for secondary school students? Findings from a randomized control trial.

The aim of the study was to conduct a randomized control trial of a targeted, facilitated, test anxiety intervention for a group of adolescent students, and to examine the mediating role of uncertain control. Fifty-six participants (male = 19, white = 21, mean age = 14.7 years) were randomly allocated to an early intervention or wait-list control group.

Is perceived control a critical factor in understanding the negative relationship between cognitive test anxiety and examination performance?

A well established finding is that the cognitive component of test anxiety (worry) is negatively related to examination performance. The present study examined how 3 self-beliefs (academic buoyancy, perceived control, and test competence) moderated the strength of the relationship between worry and examination performance in a sample of 270 final year secondary school students. Participants completed self-reports of academic buoyancy, perceived control, test competence, and cognitive test anxiety, that were matched with examination grades in English, science, and mathematics.

Fear appeals, engagement, and examination performance: The role of challenge and threat appraisals.

Background: Fear appeals are persuasive messages that draw attention to the negative consequences (e.g., academic failure) that follow a particular course of action (e.

The role of attainment value, academic self-efficacy, and message frame in the appraisal of value-promoting messages.

Background: Prior to high-stakes examinations, teachers may use value-promoting messages (VPMs) to communicate to students the value and importance of their forthcoming examinations in the hope that they will adopt adaptive learning and study behaviours. These messages can focus on achieving success (gain-framed) or avoiding failure (loss-framed).

Aims: This study examined how secondary school students appraised hypothetical gain- and loss-framed VPMs, and how these appraisals differed according to self-reported levels of attainment value (AV) and academic self-efficacy (ASE).

Academically buoyant students are less anxious about and perform better in high-stakes examinations.

Background: Prior research has shown that test anxiety is negatively related to academic buoyancy, but it is not known whether test anxiety is an antecedent or outcome of academic buoyancy. Furthermore, it is not known whether academic buoyancy is related to performance on high-stakes examinations.

Aims: To test a model specifying reciprocal relations between test anxiety and academic buoyancy and to establish whether academic buoyancy is related to examination performance.

The scare tactic: do fear appeals predict motivation and exam scores?

Prior to high-stakes exams, teachers use persuasive messages that highlight to students the possible consequences of failure. Such messages are known as fear appeals. This study examined whether fear appeals relate to self- and non-self-determined motivation and academic performance.

Achievement goals as mediators of the relationship between competence beliefs and test anxiety.

Background: Previous work suggests that the expectation of failure is related to higher test anxiety and achievement goals grounded in a fear of failure.

Aim: To test the hypothesis, based on the work of Elliot and Pekrun (2007), that the relationship between perceived competence and test anxiety is mediated by achievement goal orientations.

Sample: Self-report data were collected from 275 students in post-compulsory education following courses in A Level Psychology.

Is academic buoyancy anything more than adaptive coping?

Academic buoyancy refers to a positive, constructive, and adaptive response to the types of challenges and setbacks experienced in a typical and everyday academic setting. In this project we examined whether academic buoyancy explained any additional variance in test anxiety over and above that explained by coping. Two hundred and ninety-eight students in their final two years of compulsory schooling completed self-report measures of academic buoyancy, coping, and test anxiety.

Teachers' use of fear appeals in the mathematics classroom: worrying or motivating students?

AIM. This study examined whether teachers' use of fear appeals in the classroom, attempts to motivate students to perform well in high-stakes examinations by highlighting the educational, and/or occupational consequences of failure did indeed motivate students or whether it contributed to an increase in worry, anxiety, and fear of failure. SAMPLE.

Personal and situational predictors of test anxiety of students in post-compulsory education.

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.

The development of an instrument to measure teachers' use of fear appeals in the GCSE classroom.

Background: Previous work has suggested that teachers of General Certificate of Secondary Education classes may use fear appeals as a motivational device but these may have unwanted consequences by increasing examination-related anxiety in students.

Aim: To facilitate future work in this area, an instrument was developed to measure teachers' use of fear appeals in the course of normal classroom instruction.

Samples: Students in their final 2 years of compulsory schooling in England: 192 in Study 1 and 133 in Study 2.