Control antecedents and achievement effects of test anxiety components : An intra-individual approach

Abstract

As test anxiety is a prevalent emotion in school, knowledge about its antecedents and effects is crucial. Pekrun’s control-value theory (CVT) refers to control as a central antecedent and performance as a major effect of anxiety. However, although anxiety constitutes of multiple components (i.e., cognitive, affective, motivational, and physiological components) and some findings suggest that there might be differences regarding their antecedents and effects, previous research largely neglected to examine them separately. Therefore, this study investigated the individual anxiety components in the framework of the CVT in a sample of N = 137 German 8th graders and had the goal to identify which component should be primarily addressed in order to increase students’ performance. As the CVT describes intra-individual processes, we aimed at complementing findings from traditional inter-individual studies by applying an intra-individual realtime approach. Results showed that lower control was associated with higher anxiety (i.e. all of the anxiety components) and that the anxiety components indeed differ with regard to their relative impact on performance in such a way that the cognitive component seems to be central for performance. Therefore, our findings suggest that the CVT also holds true on an intra-individual level and that it is important to distinguish between the anxiety components and focus anxiety interventions on the cognitive component in order to increase students’ performance. Implications for future research are outlined regarding the use of multiple-component measures and intra-individual approaches when examining anxiety.