Flanagan, Michael J., Putwain, David W., and Caltabiano, Marie L. (2015) The relationship between goal setting and students' experience of academic test anxiety. International Journal of School and Educational Psychology, 3 (3). pp. 189-201.

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Abstract

Previous studies have established that higher test anxiety (TA) is related to achievement goals with an avoidance valence. However, comprehensive empirical examination of relations between the recently proposed 3 × 2 model of achievement goals (self, task, and other-referenced goals along an approach-avoidance dimension) and test anxiety has yet to be undertaken. To address this gap, self-reported data were collected from 286 undergraduate students from England, Australia, and Singapore. Variable-centered regression analyses revealed the novel finding that over and above the influence of a range of covariates, including academic self-efficacy, a greater task-approach goal was associated with lower test-irrelevant thinking and bodily symptoms of TA. Further, a higher other-avoidance goal was related to higher worry and tension. Cluster analyses demonstrated that students tended to endorse multiple goals and, notably, strongly endorsed self and task goals above other-related achievement goals. Educational and clinical implications of these findings are: firstly, one may simultaneously endorse multiple achievement goals in profiles that can be associated with elevated or reduced TA, and secondly, the previously reported effects of mastery-approach goals on TA may have been largely related to the influence of subsumed task-related goals. Results have implications for the management of students with debilitating TA.

Item ID:	40221
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2168-3611
Keywords:	test anxiety; achievement goals; multiple achievement goals; variable-centered analysis; person-centered analysis
Date Deposited:	26 Aug 2015 03:36
FoR Codes:	17 PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES > 1701 Psychology > 170103 Educational Psychology @ 100%
SEO Codes:	93 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 9301 Learner and Learning > 930102 Learner and Learning Processes @ 100%
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