Abstract
Recent evidence suggests that test anxiety is increasing among students; however, relatively little is known regarding the related factors of test anxiety. The purpose of this study was to (1) examine the relationships between two forms of perfectionism, academic hardiness, and test anxiety, and (2) examine the moderating role of academic hardiness on the association between two types of perfectionism and test anxiety. This study included 520 students ranging from 15 to 21 years of age from eight high schools in Tehran, Iran completed the self-administered questionnaires. The results of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) revealed that students with high levels of personal standards perfectionism and high levels of academic hardiness were less likely to experience test anxiety, while students with high levels of evaluative concerns perfectionism were more likely to experience test anxiety. A multi-group analysis revealed that academic hardiness moderated the relationship between evaluative concerns perfectionism and test anxiety. These findings enhance existing literature by revealing moderating processes that explain how perfectionism effects test anxiety.
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Acknowledgement
We would like to show our great appreciation to the staff and participants at the schools for their support and assistance in data collection.
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Abbas Abdollahi conducted all of the primary statistical analyses and wrote the manuscript. Per Carlbring reviewed the paper and provided the comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript.
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There was no external funding for this study.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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Abdollahi, A., Carlbring, P., Vaez, E. et al. Perfectionism and Test Anxiety among High-School Students: the Moderating Role of Academic Hardiness. Curr Psychol 37, 632–639 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9550-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9550-z