The influence of emotional regulation strategies in the relationship between test anxiety and performance in the educational competitions context of adolescents with high intellectual abilities

• Main Authors: HOLIC I. Roxana, CREŢU Carmen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: West University of Timisoara 2018-12-01
• Series: Revista de Știinţe Educaţiei
• Subjects: test anxiety; performance; emotional regulation strategies; educational competitions; high intellectual abilities
• Online Access: https://rse.uvt.ro/pdf/2018/Nr2_update/7.pdf

Competitions are one of the most important and attractive activities for students in Romanian schools because they give them the opportunity to deepen the study of a certain discipline and to achieve performance in the favorite field.What is somewhat neglected in literature about educational contests is precisely the presence and influence of emotions experienced by students in the context of competitions that may have a positive or negative impact on the performance achieved. Test anxiety is the most frequently studied phenomenon and mentioned as a problem in the educational psychology, but there are no studies (at least identified by us) that have approached this topic with direct reference to the context of educational competitions (except for sports studies that frequently addresses the issue of competitive anxiety). Another aspect that is rather little studied in research concerned with academic emotions is the influence of emotional regulation on academic performance. Very few studies address the role that emotional regulation strategies have in the relationship between test anxiety and performance.Given the lack of studies on the impact of test anxiety and emotional regulation strategies on performance in educational competitions of adolescents with high intellectual abilities, we have investigated this issue in this study. The selected group of subjects consisted of 541 teenagers who participated in various national Olympiads (2017). The results show that cognitive test anxiety has a positive influence on the performance achieved in educational competitions. Even though emotional regulation strategies do not moderate the relationship between test anxiety and performance, they still have some relationship with both. Thus, test anxiety has positive relationships with all emotional regulation strategies, less with cognitive reappraisal. Performance has only positive relationships with two of the emotional regulation strategies (task-focused strategies and emotion-focused strategies) and negative relationships with other two of them (cognitive-appraising strategies and suppression). These links identified between the variables analyzed can be a contribution to the educational practice, both for students participating in various educational competitions as well as in the case of day-to-day school performance.