Abstract
According to the self-referent executive processing (S-REF) model, test anxiety develops from interactions between three systems: executive self-regulation processes, self-beliefs, and maladaptive situational interactions. Studies have tended to examine one system at a time, often in conjunction with how test anxiety relates to achievement outcomes. The aim of this study was to enable a more thorough test of the S-REF model by examining one key construct from each of these systems simultaneously. These were control (a self-belief construct), emotional regulation through suppression and reappraisal (an executive process), and self-handicapping (a maladaptive situational interaction). Relations were examined from control, emotional regulation, and self-handicapping to cognitive test anxiety (worry), and subsequent examination performance on a high-stakes test. Data were collected from 273 participants in their final year of secondary education. A structural equation model showed that higher control was indirectly related to better examination performance through lower worry, higher reappraisal was indirectly related to worse examination performance through higher worry, and higher self-handicapping was related to worse examination performance through lower control and higher worry. These findings suggest that increasing control and reducing self-handicapping would be key foci for test anxiety interventions to incorporate.
Highlights
According to the self-referent executive processing (S-REF) model, test anxiety develops from interactions between three systems: executive self-regulation processes, selfbeliefs, and maladaptive situational interactions
Selfhandicapping refers to a variety of behaviours that captures how test anxiety can impede one’s academic achievement and was chosen to represent at the breadth of maladaptive situational interactions
The aim of this study was to examine constructs pertaining to the three central systems proposed in the S-REF model of test anxiety (Zeidner and Matthews 2005) in a single model to predict cognitive test anxiety and subsequently examination performance
Summary
According to the self-referent executive processing (S-REF) model, test anxiety develops from interactions between three systems: executive self-regulation processes, selfbeliefs, and maladaptive situational interactions. The aim of this study was to enable a more thorough test of the S-REF model by examining one key construct from each of these systems simultaneously These were control (a self-belief construct), emotional regulation through suppression and reappraisal (an executive process), and self-handicapping (a maladaptive situational interaction). These limitations are addressed by examining one key antecedent from each components of the self-referent executive processing model simultaneously in a single analytic model to predict cognitive test anxiety and subsequent examination performance. The three antecedents examined were control (a self-belief), self-handicapping (a maladaptive interaction with the situation), and emotional regulation (an executive process). Emotionality refers to the affective-physiological dimension of test anxiety and includes feelings of tension, and anxiety, along with subjective perceptions of autonomic arousal (Schwarzer 1984; Zeidner 2014)
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