Fear of Failure, Disorganization, and Subjective Well-Being in the Context of Preparing for an Exam

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationships between fear of failure, disorganization, and affective well-being while preparing for a college exam. The study comprised a sample of N = 280 students and used a longitudinal crosslagged design. The results of structural equation modeling partly supported the hypotheses. Fear of failure was found to be related to disorganization in the cross-sectional but not in the longitudinal data. As expected, fear of failure negatively predicted change in affective well-being. Affective well-being predicted change in disorganization during exam preparation and exam performance. Contrary to our expectations, however, disorganization did not predict exam performance over and above affective well-being. Implications for further studies investigating the role of well-being in the learning context are discussed.