Multidimensional Perfectionism and Test Anxiety: a Meta-analytic Review of Two Decades of Research

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, many studies have shown that students’ test anxiety is significantly related to their level of perfectionism. However, the reported results are relatively inconsistent, varying in both the magnitude and direction of relationships. The present study provides the first meta-analytic review of the relationships between multidimensional perfectionism and test anxiety, integrating 92 effect sizes from 22 samples (N = 4521). The results revealed that perfectionistic concerns showed a moderate to strong positive association with overall test anxiety (r+ = .42), whereas perfectionistic strivings presented a small positive but nonsignificant relationship with overall test anxiety (r+ = .04). However, perfectionistic concerns and strivings both displayed significant positive correlations with cognitive and affective test anxiety. The weighted mean effect size for the relationship between perfectionistic strivings and overall test anxiety was affected by publication bias. After controlling for the overlap between the two dimensions of perfectionism, the association of perfectionistic concerns with overall test anxiety increased slightly, whereas the associations of both perfectionism dimensions with cognitive and affective test anxiety decreased. Moderation analyses indicated that the perfectionism subscale used had a significant influence on the relationships between perfectionistic dimensions and test anxiety. In addition, the year of publication played a moderating role in the association of perfectionistic concerns with test anxiety. The findings suggest that perfectionistic concerns might share common cognitive manifestations with overall and cognitive test anxiety.