Abstract
We assumed that self-control capacity, self-efficacy, and self-esteem would enable students to keep attentional control during tests. Therefore, we hypothesized that the three personality traits would be negatively related to anxiety-impaired cognition during math examinations. Secondary school students (N = 158) completed measures of self-control capacity, self-efficacy, and self-esteem at the beginning of the school year. Five months later, anxiety-impaired cognition during math examinations was assessed. Higher self-control capacity, but neither self-efficacy nor self-esteem, predicted lower anxiety-impaired cognition 5 months later, over and above baseline anxiety-impaired cognition. Moreover, self-control capacity was indirectly related to math grades via anxiety-impaired cognition. The findings suggest that improving self-control capacity may enable students to deal with anxiety-related problems during school tests.
Highlights
Successful performance on tests and examinations is an important determinant of long-term life outcomes in modern society
Our study examined which factors reduced anxietyimpaired cognition
The present findings extend the generalizability of these previous studies as we were able to demonstrate that high self-control capacity reduced the degree to which students suffered from anxiety-impaired cognition on actual math tests in a real school setting
Summary
Successful performance on tests and examinations is an important determinant of long-term life outcomes in modern society. It is hardly surprising that many people suffer from anxiety about test performance—anxiety that can cause various unwelcome and problematic impairments (Sarason, 1959; Spielberger and Vagg, 1995). Anxiety can generally be understood as an unpleasant emotional experience. Test anxiety has been conceptualized as an aversive emotional arousal that occurs in connection with evaluative situations, especially academic exams (Spielberger and Vagg, 1995; Zeidner, 1998). Anxiety appears able to interfere with all stages of information processing, so that anxious people suffer impairments in encoding, storing, organizing, elaborating upon, and retrieving information (see Zeidner, 1998, for an overview)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
