Abstract
Background and ObjectivesTest anxiety can impair learning motivation and lead to procrastination. Control-value theory of achievement emotions (Pekrun, 2006) assumes test anxiety to be a result of students’ appraisals of the testing situation and its outcomes. Modification of cognitive appraisals such as low self-efficacy beliefs is thus assumed to reduce test anxiety and subsequent procrastination. In the present study, we tested the effects of an inquiry-based stress reduction (IBSR) intervention on students’ academic self-efficacy, their test anxiety, and subsequent procrastination in the final stages of an academic term.DesignLongitudinal quasi-randomized intervention control trial.MethodsUniversity students identified worry thoughts regarding a specific and frightening testing situation. Intervention participants (n = 40) explored their worry thoughts with the IBSR method. Participants of an active waitlist control group (n = 31) received the intervention after the study was completed. Dependent variables were assessed before and after the intervention as well as at the end of the term.ResultsData-analyses revealed that the IBSR intervention reduced test anxiety as well as subsequent academic procrastination in comparison to the control group. The effect on test anxiety was partly due to an enhancement of self-efficacy.ConclusionOur findings provide preliminary evidence that IBSR might help individuals to cope with their test anxiety and procrastination.
Highlights
Test anxiety is a phenomenon well known to many students of different ages
As structural equation modeling procedures are susceptible to The fit statistics of the model were acceptable to good, abnormalities in the data (Kline, 2016), we examined if the data χ2(19) = 19.817, p = 0.406; CFI = 0.997; RMSEA = 0.025; TABLE 4 | Univariate statistics for academic self-efficacy, test anxiety, and academic procrastination
We investigated the effects of an inquiry-based stress reduction (IBSR) short intervention on test anxiety, procrastination, and selfefficacy as well as their causal interplay in the last part of an academic term in a sample of university students suffering from test anxiety and procrastination
Summary
Test anxiety is a phenomenon well known to many students of different ages. For example, Putwain and Daly (2014) reported 16.4% of English secondary students to suffer from test anxiety. Similar rates were reported by Thomas et al (2018) who found about 25% of undergraduate university students to be highly test anxious. These prevalence rates are alarming because test anxiety may debilitate. Self-Efficacy, Test Anxiety, and Procrastination academic performance and impair subjective well-being (e.g., Steinmayr et al, 2016). Test anxiety comes along with specific worry thoughts including negative cognitive self-statements regarding academic failure. Modification of cognitive appraisals such as low self-efficacy beliefs is assumed to reduce test anxiety and subsequent procrastination. We tested the effects of an inquiry-based stress reduction (IBSR) intervention on students’ academic self-efficacy, their test anxiety, and subsequent procrastination in the final stages of an academic term
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