Does Test Anxiety Predispose Poor School-Related Wellbeing and Enhanced Risk of Emotional Disorders?

Effects of mindfulness, music therapy, and social support on adolescents test anxiety

BACKGROUND

Test anxiety is a common form of situational anxiety among adolescents, which can seriously affect their academic performance and mental health. Guided by Emotion Regulation Theory and Social Support Theory, this study explores the mechanism by which mindfulness influences adolescent test anxiety, introducing music therapy and social support as chained mediators.

METHOD

A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among 372 adolescents from a secondary school in China. Measurement tools included the Mindfulness Scale, Music Therapy Perception Scale, Social Support Scale, and Test Anxiety Scale. Correlation analysis was performed using SPSS 26.0, and chained mediation analysis was conducted using the PROCESS macro (Model 6).

RESULTS

The results showed that mindfulness had a significant negative effect on adolescent test anxiety (β = -0.349, p < 0.001). Music therapy mediated the relationship between mindfulness and test anxiety, with an indirect effect of -0.074 (95% CI [-0.109, -0.042]), accounting for 12.1% of the total effect. Social support also served as an independent mediator (β = -0.161, 95% CI [-0.216, -0.112]), explaining 26.2% of the total effect. In addition, music therapy and social support jointly played a chained mediating role (β = -0.029, 95% CI [-0.049, -0.014]), accounting for 4.8% of the total effect.

CONCLUSION

Mindfulness can alleviate adolescent test anxiety both directly and indirectly through music therapy and social support. This study reveals the potential mechanisms of mindfulness-based interventions and provides theoretical and practical implications for school-based mental health education. Especially in resource-limited settings, promoting mindfulness training and music therapy appears to be a feasible and valuable intervention strategy.

Nature-based mind-body intervention for test anxiety in adolescents: a feasibility study

Introduction

Traditional interventions for test anxiety often fall short of addressing the specific needs of adolescents and educational institutions due to issues of stigmatization and professionalization. In contrast, nature-based interventions (NBIs) have gained traction for their potential to enhance mental health, as they are generally accepted and cost-effective, thereby offering a promising alternative for alleviating test anxiety.

Methods

This study seeks to investigate the feasibility of a nature-based mind- body intervention (NMI) designed to reduce test anxiety among adolescents by integrating elements of NBIs and mind-body therapies (MBTs).

Results

The findings suggest that NMI can significantly diminish excessive test anxiety and academic stress, along with alleviating symptoms of general anxiety and depression.

Discussion

This approach presents a low-stigma, low-cost strategy for managing test anxiety in adolescents and offers valuable insights for mental health policymakers. Furthermore, it may enhance academic performance and broaden educational access for disadvantaged populations in developing countries.

Beyond the blues: The protective influence of adaptability and well-being on university students' mental health

INTRODUCTION

Theoretical approaches suggest that adaptability and well-being could serve as protective factors in influencing mental health. However, it remains empirically unclear how students' prior adaptability and well-being predict depression (and vice versa) in the long term. Hence, using a longitudinal design, the present study explores the reciprocal relations among university students' adaptability, well-being, as well as depression before, during, and after the lockdown resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

In a sample of 7527 Chinese university students (51.7% female; mean age = 18.38, standard deviation [SD] = 0.77), we measured adaptability, university-related well-being, and depression. Self-report assessments were administered before (Time 1, October 2019), 1 year after (Time 2, March 2021), and 2 years after (Time 3, March 2022) the COVID-19 outbreak in a comprehensive public university in China.

RESULTS

Cross-lagged panel analysis revealed that prior adaptability and university-related well-being negatively predicted subsequent depression, even when statistically controlling for demographic factors such as gender, family economic status, and so on. Moreover, results showed positive reciprocal relations between adaptability and university-related well-being.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings indicate that adaptability and university-related well-being have long-term protective effects on the mental health of university students, which could mitigate the negative effects of COVID-19 or other crises. The implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Emotional intersection: Delineating test anxiety, emotional disorders, and student well-being

Previous studies have shown how test anxiety is positively related to symptoms of emotion disorder and that highly test anxious persons can meet diagnostic thresholds for emotion disorder. However, many studies are somewhat dated and based on older conceptualizations of key constructs. In addition, well-being is rarely considered alongside test anxiety and emotion disorder. In the present study, we addressed this limitation by using contemporaneous conceptualizations of test anxiety and emotion disorder, alongside school-related well-being (SRWB), using two analytic methods that are rarely combined to establish how constructs are related. The sample comprised 1167 participants (nmale = 500, nfemale = 621, nnon-binary = 21, ndeclined to report = 25; Mage = 15.4 years, SD = 1.81) from secondary and upper secondary education. Data were analyzed using psychometric network analysis and receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The psychometric network analysis showed that test anxiety, generalized anxiety, panic disorder, social anxiety, major depression, and SRWB formed distinct and largely coherent communities. Generalized anxiety was principally linked to the worry and tension components of test anxiety, panic disorder to the physiological indicator's component, social anxiety and SRWB to the worry and cognitive interference components, and major depression to the cognitive interference component. The ROC curve analysis indicated that test anxiety scores from the 63rd to 75th scale percentiles could predict clinical risk with relatively high accuracy (0.79-0.88) and acceptable levels of sensitivity (0.75-0.86) and specificity (0.70-0.77). Results suggest that test anxiety, emotion disorder, and SRWB are distinct, albeit related constructs. Although constrained by the cross-sectional design, our findings suggest that high test anxiety presents an elevated risk for the development of emotion disorder.

COVID-19 meets control-value theory: Emotional reactions to canceled high-stakes examinations

In many countries, examinations scheduled for summer 2020 were canceled as part of measures designed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. To examine how four retrospective emotions about canceled examinations (relief, gratitude, disappointment, and anger) and one prospective emotion (test anxiety) were related to control-value appraisals, a sample of 474 participants in the UK aged 15-19 years, who would have taken high-stakes examinations if they had not been canceled, self-reported measures of control, value, retrospective emotions and test anxiety. Data were analysed using the confirmatory factor analysis within exploratory structural equation modeling (EwC) approach. Relief, gratitude, and anger were predicted from expectancy × value interactions. Disappointment was related to expectancy only. Test anxiety was predicted independently by expectancy and positive/negative value. Findings offer broad support for Control-Value Theory and show how the appraisals underpinning achievement emotions can differ when focused on canceled examinations rather than success or failure.

Autonomic Nervous System Response Patterns of Test-Anxious Individuals to Evaluative Stress

Test anxiety is a widespread and primarily detrimental emotion in learning and achievement settings. This research aimed to explore the autonomic nervous system (ANS) response patterns of test-anxious individuals in response to evaluative stress. By presenting a standard interview task, an evaluative scenario was effectively induced. Heart rate variability (HRV), a biomarker that can accurately reflect the ANS activity, was used to reflect the physiological responses of 48 high test-anxious subjects and 49 low test-anxious subjects. Results indicate that: (1) both groups show a significantly increased emotional arousal in the evaluative scenario; (2) high test-anxious individuals show a significantly decreased emotional pleasantness in the evaluative scenario, whereas low test-anxious individuals show no significant changes; (3) both groups show a significantly increased low-frequency HRV; (4) high test-anxious individuals show a significantly decreased high-frequency HRV and root mean square of successive heartbeat interval differences (RMSSD), whereas low test-anxious individuals remain stable. These findings suggest that high test-anxious individuals display an increased sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity and a decreased parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity in response to evaluative stress, while low-anxious individuals display an increased SNS activity and a stable PNS activity in response to evaluative stress.