Test anxiety, coping, and academic achievement: Maladaptive perfectionism as a moderator

Abstract

The educational process is saturated with evaluative situations, which often provoke a specific subtype of anxiety known as test anxiety. Since test anxiety is not a reliable direct predictor of achievement, contemporary research has consistently highlighted the need to explore how this situation-specific trait indirectly affects success through various mediation and moderation processes. The goal of this study was to determine the existence and nature of complex moderated and mediated relationships between the level of test anxiety, coping mechanisms, maladaptive perfectionism, and academic achievement. The survey was conducted on a sample of 263 students. The instruments used for data collection included the Test Anxiety Inventory, the Coping Inventory for Task Stress, and the Discrepancy subscale from the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised. Academic success was expressed through the number of points achieved on a pre-exam knowledge test. According to the results, maladaptive perfectionism proved to be a statistically significant moderator in the relationship between test anxiety and avoidance as a coping mechanism. In students with moderate maladaptive perfectionism, test anxiety indirectly predicted lower achievement through emotion-focused coping mechanisms. In subjects with high levels of maladaptive perfectionism, test anxiety indirectly predicted better performance through avoidance. The article discusses educational guidelines for reducing the negative effects of test anxiety and maladaptive perfectionism on achievement.