Revisiting the Role of Worries in Explaining the Link Between Test Anxiety and Test Performance

Overview

Journal Educ Psychol Rev

Date 2021 Dec 6

PMID 34866862

Citations 4

Authors

Frieder L Schillinger

Jochen A Mosbacher

Clemens Brunner

Stephan E Vogel

Roland H Grabner

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The inverse relationship between test anxiety and test performance is commonly explained by test-anxious students' tendency to worry about a test and the consequences of failing. However, other cognitive facets of test anxiety have been identified that could account for this link, including interference by test-irrelevant thoughts and lack of confidence. In this study, we compare different facets of test anxiety in predicting test performance. Seven hundred thirty university students filled out the German Test Anxiety Inventory after completing a battery of standardized tests assessing general intelligence and mathematical competencies. Multiple regressions revealed that and but not or explained unique variance in students' test performance. No evidence was found for a curvilinear relationship between arousal and performance. The present results call for revisiting the role of worries in explaining the test anxiety-performance link and can help educators to identify students who are especially at risk of underperforming on tests.

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