Suggesting a structural model of test anxiety based on early maladaptive schemas with mediating fear of negative evaluation students in Tehran

Abstract

Background: Exam anxiety is a prevalent psychological and educational challenge among students, significantly impacting their academic performance, mood, and social behaviors. Gaining a deeper understanding of the psychological processes involved in exam anxiety can assist in developing effective strategies to enhance academic performance and improve students' overall quality of life. However, in the existing literature, the intricate interactions among maladaptive schemas, fear of negative evaluation, and exam anxiety have not been thoroughly examined. Aims: The purpose of this study was to modeling structural test anxiety based on early maladaptive schemas with mediating role fear of negative evaluation in students in Tehran city. Methods: This study was conducted in the presence of 500 people by convinience sampling method among high school students in Tehran city in year academic 2021-2022. To measure the variables, test anxiety inventory (TAI) of Abolghasemi and et al (1996), Young schema questionnaire – short form version 3 (YSQ-S3) of Young (2005) and brief fear of negative evaluation scale (BFNE) of Leary (1983). Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and structural equation modelling with using SPSS-24 and AMOS software was investigated. Results: The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between early maladaptive schemas and fear of negative evaluation with test anxiety (P <0.01). The results also showed that most of the direct paths of this study were significant and the indirect paths of early maladaptive schemas were significant through the mediating role of fear of negative evaluation on test anxiety. Also, proposed model had an acceptable fitness to the data (RMSEA= 0/041, P-value< 0/05) and evaluated model has a good fit and is an important step in identifying the factors that are effective in test anxiety among high school students in Tehran city. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that initial maladaptive schemas have a significant impact on exam anxiety through the mediating role of fear of negative evaluation. Therefore, based on these findings, it can be concluded that in addition to their direct influence on exam anxiety, schemas can also affect the dependent variable or criterion through the mediation of fear of negative evaluation. Consequently, this finding represents a significant step towards understanding the factors influencing exam anxiety in first-year high school students in Tehran

Keywords

• early maladaptive schemas
• fear of negative evaluation
• test anxiety