The Mediating Role of Socio-Motivational Relationships in the Interplay of Perceived Stress, Neuroticism, and Test Anxiety Among Adolescent Students

Abstract

In this study, we examined whether socio-motivational relationships, such as student-student relationships (SSR) and teacher-student relationships (TSR), as well as peers as positive motivators (PPM) and teachers as positive motivators (TPM), would mediate the association of both perceived stress and neuroticism with test anxiety in 1,088 German students from grades seven and eight. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that a high quality of SSR mediated the relationship between neuroticism and test anxiety, which was not the case for TSR. Furthermore, both PPM and TPM acted as mediators in all hypothesized associations. Interestingly, although a high quality of SSR mitigated feelings of test anxiety, PPM and TPM intensified test anxiety in neurotic students. The role of social relationships as protective factors as well as risk factors is discussed, as are the implications of the findings for educators, school psychologists, and teachers.

Social anxiety mediates the relationship between social connectedness and test anxiety: An exploratory investigation

“…The present finding of a negative relation between these variables should be interpreted with caution considering that only approximately 4% of the variance was accounted for in this study. These results support Hoferichter et al's () suggestion that being socially connected with peers mitigates the effects of stressful situations and cultivates healthy socio‐emotional development. Additionally, positive social connections encourage the disclosure of emotions to peers and this may contribute to lessened test anxiety (Strahan, ).…”

“…Positive social connections may be negatively related to test anxiety, especially considering social connectedness has a positive impact on student engagement and belonging in education (Graunke et al, ). Hoferichter, Raufelder, and Eid () found that positive student–student relationships showed significant negative and mediating effects on test anxiety. Positive peer social connectedness fosters the capacity for the test taker to reduce perceived negative interpersonal implications of doing poorly on tests and may effectively lessen test anxiety.…”

Adolescents’ Socio‐Motivational Relationships With Teachers, Amygdala Response to Teacher's Negative Facial Expressions, and Test Anxiety

“…Conversely, a previous study by Hoferichter et al. () has found a positive association between neuroticism and socio‐motivational TSR, suggesting that neurotic students going through adolescence may be more inclined to identify a role model in their teachers than in their parents (Raufelder, ) or that they may seek a social referent in teachers (Hughes, Cavell, & Willson, ), providing support and security (Harter, ; Wentzel, ).…”

“…Adolescents’ relationships with their teachers are complex in nature. On an institutional level, teachers instruct students and provide feedback regarding their academic performance (Becker & Luthar, ; Pianta, Hamre, & Stuhlman, ; Radel, Sarrazin, Legrain, & Wild, ; Wentzel, ), thereby acting as positive motivators (Hoferichter, Raufelder, & Eid, ; Raufelder, Drury, Jagenow, Hoferichter, & Bukowski, ). In contrast, on an interpersonal level, teachers communicate their more general approval or disapproval of the student as a person (Birch & Ladd, ), which can affect students’ sense of identity (Alerby & Hertting, ; Birch & Ladd, ; Jennings & Greenberg, ).…”

“…Hypothesis III: Neuroticism as a trait anxiety indicator predicts students’ perception of their relationships with teachers, the emotion processing of negative teacher emotions in the amygdala, as well as test anxiety . Based on previous findings indicating that neuroticism is positively associated both with TPM and TSR (Hoferichter et al., ), and with amygdala activity (Cunningham et al., ; Harenski et al., ), and both components of test anxiety (i.e., worry and emotionality; Hoferichter & Raufelder, ), it was hypothesized that neuroticism functions as predictor in the proposed model.…”