Structural model and developmental dynamics of general and subject-specific academic anxieties

Abstract

General and subject-specific conceptualizations of academic anxiety appear to coexist in the literature and have not been related to each other previously. Moreover, the potential hierarchical nature of academic anxiety has not been debated. However, referring only to one perspective and neglecting the other necessarily draws an incomplete picture of this important emotion in educational research. Thus, in the present study, we introduce a new structural model of academic anxiety that investigated and supported a subject-specific and hierarchical organization of academic anxiety with general component at the apex of the hierarchy. Further, we applied the new model to examine developmental dynamics of general and subject-specific (i.e., German, French, and mathematics) components of students’ academic anxiety. Specifically, we analyzed how the general anxiety affect change in the different subject-specific anxieties (top-down processes) and on the other hand, how subject-specific anxieties influence change in the general level of academic anxiety (bottom-down processes). Moreover, we studied how subject-specific anxieties affect change in anxiety in other subjects (across-subject processes). We did not find any support for substantial top-down nor bottom-up developmental processes. However, our results indicate substantial negative developmental effects across anxiety in different school subjects. Taken together, the present study makes a substantial contribution to a fuller and more nuanced understanding of the structure and development of academic anxiety.