| dc.description.abstract | Introduction: Test anxiety [TA] is a big issue in the Netherlands and Australia for both adolescents and adults. More than 50 per cent of students say they are anxious about their study. TA is correlated with other psychological issues: lower ambition, less teacher engagement, more perceived bullying and less perceived sense of belonging in the classroom. Gender also plays a role; girls seem to be more test-anxious than boys. This study seeks the effect of predictors of TA and the correlation of country and TA.
Method: 19 915 fifteen-year-old students are asked questions about TA, gender, ambition, sense of belonging, teacher engagement and bullying in the PISA 2015 study. Statistical programme R is used.
Results: The mediation analysis shows that the predictors of TA play a small but significant role in mediating country and TA. The direct effect of being Australian on TA is positively correlated. Being female is also highly positively correlated with TA, but not with the mediating factors.
Discussion and implications: This study is the first trying to explain TA through contextual factors. However, it is still unknown which contextual factors (and other factors) play a role in the correlation between TA and country of the student. This study can be the beginning of an evaluation of existing literature of TA, and possible policymaking with contextual factors of the country in mind. | |
