Abstract
Student motivational profiles and self-regulated learning strategies are significant influences on overall academic success in university settings. Test anxiety has been repeatedly linked to maladaptive learning strategies and ineffective motivational frameworks. However, the results in the field have been inconsistent with respect to the precise interactions among these variables. This study employed anonymous responses from a group of volunteer students in a mid-sized Midwestern United States university, serving a primarily Caucasian and female population with an average age of 20 years. Adopting a curvilinear analytic design, this study attempted to examine the relationships among these common domains of inquiry into student thriving. The results of this study provide insights examining under which conditions cognitive test anxiety is most likely to be heightened or diminished. The results demonstrated that levels of test anxiety were greatest when (a) learners adopted primarily extrinsic or primarily intrinsic goal orientations, (b) academic tasks where the outcome was uncertain, (c) learners adopted passive learning strategies, and (d) learning strategies were more personally involved (as opposed to externalized study behaviors). Our results add to the field by identifying curvilinear models provide greater utility in identifying the relationships among these critical emotional and cognitive factors in academic settings. Furthermore, we advocate for employing identification and intervention strategies that recognize individually specific profiles of interactions among test anxiety, motivation, and self-regulation to promote more optimal success in supporting learners in university settings.
Highlights
In contemporary educational settings, the success and thriving of students is of critical concern to university leaders as rates of retention and graduation are challenged across all sectors (Cheslock and Kroc, 2012)
Using the four dimensional variables discerned from the unfolding model described above as predictor variables, we explored relationships among cognitive test anxiety and the motivational and self-regulated learning dimensions using Generalized Additive Models (GAMs), with the purpose of ascertaining whether curvilinear functions were present
Classic studies on effective interventions for those with test anxiety often resulted in weak or moderate effects (e.g., Hembree, 1988; von der Embse et al, 2018). We believe this was often due to an over-simplified approach to intervention, where a single intervention was applied to all learners who presented with elevated test anxiety
Summary
The success and thriving of students is of critical concern to university leaders as rates of retention and graduation are challenged across all sectors (Cheslock and Kroc, 2012). Support mechanisms have been increasingly proposed to support those students in meeting the challenges they face in academic, emotional, and financial domains (Heller and Cassady, 2017). Research in the field illustrates between 20 and 45% of students experience debilitating emotional states (e.g., anxiety, depression) that impact their performance in universities (Kessler et al, 2005). A related finding in this domain is that these indicators of academic anxieties in college campuses are good indicators of students who currently experience or are at heightened risk to develop anxiety and/or depression (Cassady et al, 2019)
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