Transitioning to university: Coping styles as mediators between adaptive-maladaptive perfectionism and test anxiety

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.12.026Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Examined coping styles used as mediators between perfectionism and test anxiety.

  • Avoidant emotion-focused coping mediated adaptive perfectionism and test anxiety.

  • Avoidant emotion-focused coping mediated maladaptive perfectionism and test anxiety.

  • Test anxiety theory provided a sound theoretical basis for examining relationships.

Abstract

Test anxiety is an important issue in academic settings as it is related to high drop-out rates. Despite research highlighting the effects of test anxiety in students, few studies have examined mechanisms that explain the relationship between students' pre-dispositions and their experience of test anxiety. To shed light on how universities can support students during the first year of university, the current study used Spielberger and Vagg's (1995) transactional process model of test anxiety as a framework for examining whether multiple coping styles explain the relationships between adaptive/maladaptive perfectionism and test anxiety. Participants (148) were first year students from south-east Queensland universities. Participants completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale - 21, Almost Perfect Scale - Revised, Brief COPE Inventory, Test Anxiety Inventory, Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, and a demographic questionnaire. Findings indicated that adaptive/maladaptive perfectionism worked through avoidant emotion-focused coping to predict levels of test anxiety. Thus, students with adaptive perfectionism may experience less test anxiety as they use less avoidant emotion-focused coping whereas students with maladaptive perfectionism may experience more test anxiety as they use more avoidant emotion-focused coping.

Introduction

Adjusting to university life largely depends on students' abilities to adapt to a learning environment that requires greater autonomy in completing required coursework and preparing for exams (Brinkworth, McCann, Matthews, & Nordström, 2009; Karabenick & Zusho, 2015). For a considerable proportion of students, the pressure to perform well combined with the highly critical nature of examinations can result in excessive test anxiety, leading to attrition within the first year of study and burnout over the course of a degree (Abdollahi, Carlbring, Vaez, & Ghahfarokhi, 2016; Hunt & Eisenberg, 2010). Much of the literature investigating the reasons for the high prevalence of attrition in first year students has cited personality traits and coping mechanisms as well as transitional challenges (e.g., moving from home) that may increase attrition (Bassols et al., 2014; Zamira, 2016). With Australia's university dropout rate worsening since 2009, it is important to investigate whether specific coping mechanisms explain the relationship between first year students who self-impose performance pressure (i.e., perfectionism) and test anxiety (Department of Education and Training, 2017).

A review of the literature revealed inconsistent findings regarding how coping mechanisms explain the relationship between perfectionistic traits and level of test anxiety (Arana & Furlan, 2016; Larijani & Besharat, 2010). Research has primarily focused on relationships between coping mechanisms and test anxiety in the general university population. By investigating the mechanisms that mediate the relationship between pre-disposition (personality traits) and level of test anxiety, this study sought to provide an avenue for intervention to reduce attrition rates during the first year of university. As this study was conducted within an Australian population, it is proposed that Australian universities could use the findings from this study to assist new undergraduate students to cope more effectively with test anxiety (Moate, Gnilka, West, & Bruns, 2016; Regehr, Glancy, & Pitts, 2013).

High test anxiety within a university population has been linked to feelings of burnout and increased drop-out rates, suggesting heightened test anxiety during university has adverse effects on wellbeing (Chae, 2015; Duty, Christian, Loftus, & Zappi, 2016). Current conceptualisations of test anxiety are based on Spielberger and Vagg's (1995) transactional process model, which regarded test anxiety as the interaction between pre-disposition and appraisal of testing situations as stressful. Perfectionism, a personality trait, has a strong association with negative cognitive appraisal of situations and an increased propensity for experiencing negative emotions (Castro, Soares, Pereira, & Macedo, 2017; Wu et al., 2017). Weiner and Carton (2012) found that individuals with perfectionism who are concerned about social evaluation experience higher levels of test anxiety compared to individuals without this trait. This framework is important for understanding how personality factors such as perfectionism influence individuals' perceptions of testing situations, creating increased test anxiety.

Distinguishing between positive and negative aspects of perfectionism is important for understanding how these constructs are related to test anxiety. Hamachek (1978) postulated that individuals with maladaptive perfectionism (Discrepancy) are concerned about making mistakes, sensitive to criticism, and tend to ruminate about events. Numerous studies have supported this proposal and shown that maladaptive perfectionism may act as a transdiagnostic factor showing significant relationships with poor mental health outcomes including a high prevalence of anxiety (DiBartolo, Li, & Frost, 2008) and low self-esteem (Moroz & Dunkley, 2015). Hamachek (1978) also postulated that individuals with adaptive perfectionism (High Standards) concentrate on what has been achieved rather than focus on the discrepancy between their high standards and beliefs about being unable to achieve (Lo & Abbott, 2013; Stoeber & Otto, 2006). Positive psychological outcomes such as high life satisfaction (Park & Jeong, 2015) and high academic performance (Rice, Lopez, & Richardson, 2013) have been associated with adaptive perfectionism. These findings highlight that students with specific personality traits may possess cognitive biases that influence whether they perceive situations as stressful, supporting Spielberger and Vagg's (1995) theory.

Spielberger and Vagg (1995) also postulated that after individuals appraise a testing situation as stressful, they employ coping strategies to manage their level of test anxiety. There has been a dearth of research examining multiple coping strategies as mediating mechanisms to explain why individuals with specific personality traits experience different test anxiety levels (Arana & Furlan, 2016; Klibert et al., 2014; Park, Heppner, & Lee, 2010). Weiner and Carton (2012) examined whether an overall coping style could explain the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and test anxiety. An avoidant emotion-focused coping style (comprising coping strategies avoiding the stressor) was found to partially mediate the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and high test anxiety, suggesting that strategies that comprise other coping styles may also explain this relationship. However, further research has revealed inconsistent findings regarding whether multiple coping styles act as mediating mechanisms (Klibert et al., 2014; Park et al., 2010).

The second proposal of Spielberger and Vagg's (1995) theory is based on Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) theory of stress and coping, suggesting individuals employ coping strategies to manage stress levels. Lazarus and Folkman (1984) postulated that the coping strategies used to manage stressors can form an overall coping style, a dominant coping approach across life situations. There are two main coping styles: problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). A problem-focused coping style involves engaging in behaviours to overcome the problem causing distress (e.g., devising a plan to study for a stressful exam) whereas emotion-focused coping is an attempt to regulate emotions that are evoked by the stressful event. An active emotion-focused coping style is an adaptive emotion-regulation strategy, comprised of coping strategies such as positive reframing. In contrast, an avoidant emotion-focused coping style is an attempt to avoid the stressor, including denial and behavioural disengagement (Folkman, 2013; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). There is no particular successful coping style; however, some coping styles may be more helpful when managing stress. For example, a problem-focused coping style may be considered more adaptive when faced with a stressful upcoming exam compared to an emotion-focused coping style, which may be considered unhelpful in this context.

Endler and Parker (1990) proposed that individuals are able to utilise strategies comprising other coping styles to manage a stressful situation, despite having an overall dominant coping style. For example, individuals may have a dominant active emotion-focused coping style; however, they may make a schedule and seek social support when preparing for an upcoming exam. Despite this proposal, there has been little research examining multiple coping styles of Australian undergraduate students and inconsistent findings regarding specific coping styles that may mediate the relationships between adaptive/maladaptive perfectionism and test anxiety.

Larijani and Besharat (2010) recruited 378 undergraduate students using the Tehran Coping Styles Scale, a Farsi version of the COPE scale (TCSS; Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989), to examine how coping styles explain the relationships between perfectionism types and perceived stress. Maladaptive perfectionism was significantly associated with high levels of perceived stress and an avoidant emotion-focused coping style. In contrast, adaptive perfectionism was associated with low levels of perceived stress and with problem-focused and active emotion-focused coping styles. Arana and Furlan (2016) gave the Coping with Pre-Exam Anxiety and Uncertainty – Argentinian version (COPEAU-A; Heredia, Piemontesi, Furlan, & Pérez, 2008) to 277 students to examine the relationships between perfectionism, coping, and test anxiety. In contrast to Larijani and Besharat (2010), it was found that problem-focused coping explained the relationships between adaptive/maladaptive perfectionism and test anxiety. The inconsistency in findings regarding coping styles may reflect methodological issues apparent in both studies including social desirability bias, sample bias, and the influence of extraneous variables.

Based on prior research and Spielberger and Vagg's (1995) theory, the current study sought to examine which coping strategies first year university students use to manage their test anxiety. This study aimed to quantify the strength of Lazarus and Folkman's three coping styles (i.e., problem-focused, active emotion-focused, and avoidant emotion-focused) as mediating mechanisms of the relationships between adaptive/maladaptive perfectionism and test anxiety. The current study intended to address methodological issues apparent in previous research and test the second proposal of Spielberger and Vagg's (1995) theory within a first-year Australian undergraduate student population.

To control for social desirability bias, short Form C of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC-SDS; Crowne & Marlowe, 1960) was administered to assess whether participants were responding truthfully. Participants were also instructed to rate (on a 5-point scale) the extent to which they believed that speaking English as a second language, having a disability, or impaired vision impacted their daily life. Individuals from linguistically diverse backgrounds may experience high test anxiety, believing failure strengthens negative group stereotypes (Salend, 2011); while students with disabilities have increased test anxiety associated with academic and organisational difficulties (Salend). Additionally, severe vision problems are also associated with high test anxiety due to difficulty reading (Datta, 2014). If participants indicated that these characteristics impaired them To a Great Extent (i.e., rating of 5), their data was excluded from the proposed analyses.

Many studies have found that perfectionism is associated with anxiety and depression (Arana & Furlan, 2016; DiBartolo et al., 2008; Lo & Abbott, 2013; Tran & Rimes, 2017). Accordingly, participants whose scores corresponded to ‘extremely severe’ on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) were removed to avoid potential confounding effects. Finally, previous research has not controlled for the influence of extraneous variables [females experienced more test anxiety than males (Lowe, 2014)]. The current study controlled for the effects of social desirability and gender.

In line with Spielberger and Vagg's (1995) transactional process model of test anxiety and prior research, two hypotheses were postulated:

  • I.

    A problem-focused coping style would be the strongest mediator of the relationship between adaptive perfectionism and test anxiety.

  • II.

    An avoidant emotion-focused coping style would be the strongest mediator of the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and test anxiety.

Section snippets

Participants and procedure

The initial dataset of 222 participants, consistent with the criteria for the current study, was reduced to 148 participants: 43 had missing data on key variables; 3 were not first year university students; 11 were not completing an undergraduate degree; 12 obtained extreme scores on the depression, anxiety and stress scale; 3 had not given approval for their data to be used in the study; and 2 indicated that having a disability, speaking English as a second language, or having poor vision

Preliminary analyses

Initially, an a priori G*Power 3.10 analysis (Faul, Erdfelder, Lang, & Buchner, 2007) indicated that the final sample of 148 was sufficient to detect a medium effect size of 0.15. Table 1 displays the means, standard deviations and Pearson bivariate correlations between each of the study's key variables. Bivariate correlations between key study variables indicated that the assumption of multicollinearity (<0.90) was met and the proposed analyses could be conducted (Cohen, Cohen, West, & Aiken,

Discussion

The current study identified a notable gap in the literature concerning how personality traits and coping strategies influence the level of test anxiety experienced, which may in turn affect attrition rates in first year university students. There have been inconsistent findings regarding how coping styles explain the relationships between adaptive perfectionism and low test anxiety and between maladaptive perfectionism and high test anxiety (Gnilka et al., 2012; Weiner & Carton, 2012). In

Acknowledgements

There were no funding support arrangements made in regards to the findings reported.

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