Self-regulation as a Mediator in the Relationship between Anxiety and Academic Examination Performance

The research addresses the problem of psychological predictors of academic success. It had the task to scrutinize the relationships of self-regulation, anxiety, and the final examination results on the sample of Russian schoolchildren (N=231). To diagnose regulatory features we used the Morosanova's Self-Regulation Profile Questionnaire (SRPLQM) measuring the students' level of learning activity self-regulation and different regulatory aspects related to achieving academic objectives. To estimate anxiety level the Russian adaptation of Spilberger's Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) was used. Unified State Exam scores in mathematics and the native language (Russian) had been also collected. Correlation, regression and mediator analysis of individual data made it possible to construct the model revealing a partial mediator effect of the conscious self-regulation in the relationships between the test anxiety and examination success. The study results provide for the main conclusion that the conscious self-regulation acts as a mediator of students' anxiety influence on exam results. The higher the level of conscious self-regulation, the lower the anxiety level and the better exam results. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.