Test Anxiety, Emotion Regulation, and Achievement: Lagged and Contemporaneous Reciprocal Relations

Many studies have shown that test anxiety is negatively related to achievement, but studies testing reciprocal relations with achievement are largely lacking. Furthermore, non-adaptive forms of emotion regulation have been linked to elevated anxiety but there are few studies of emotion regulation and test anxiety specifically, and emotion regulation is rarely considered alongside relations between test anxiety and achievement. Given that strategies to regulate emotions about exams could have a substantive bearing on test anxiety, we aimed to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how test anxiety relates to achievement by also considering emotion regulation strategies. Data were collected from 533 students (mean age 16.4 years; male = 25.8%) in a sample of upper secondary students over five waves with six-month intervals. Achievement was measured at the first, third, and fifth waves, and test anxiety and emotion regulation, at the second and fourth waves. Data were analyzed in a series of structural equation models to model relations between test anxiety and achievement over time and test anxiety and emotion regulation contemporaneously. Test anxiety showed negative reciprocal relations with achievement and positive reciprocal relations with two emotion regulation strategies, catastrophizing and rumination. Of the remaining emotion regulation strategies, test anxiety followed putting into perspective in a negative unidirectional relation; positive reappraisal and refocus on planning followed test anxiety in negative unidirectional relations, and acceptance, self-blame, and other-blame, followed test anxiety in positive unidirectional relations. Catastrophizing, rumination, and putting into perspective may be useful foci for test anxiety intervention.