AUTHOR=Krispenz Ann , Gort Cassandra , Schültke Leonie , Dickhäuser Oliver 

TITLE=How to Reduce Test Anxiety and Academic Procrastination Through Inquiry of Cognitive Appraisals: A Pilot Study Investigating the Role of Academic Self-Efficacy

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2019

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01917

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01917

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Background and Objectives:  Test anxiety can impair learning motivation and lead to procrastination.  Control-value theory of achievement emotions (Pekrun, 2006) assumes test anxiety to be a result of students’ appraisals of the testing situation and its outcomes.  Modification of cognitive appraisals such as low self-efficacy beliefs is thus assumed to reduce test anxiety and subsequent procrastination.  In the present study, we tested the effects of an inquiry-based stress reduction (IBSR) intervention on students’ academic self-efficacy, their test anxiety, and subsequent procrastination in the final stages of an academic term.  Design: Longitudinal quasi-randomized intervention control trial. Meth-ods: University students identified worry thoughts regarding a specific and frightening testing situation.  Intervention participants (n = 40) explored their worry thoughts with the IBSR method.  Participants of an active waitlist control group (n = 31) received the inter-vention after the study was completed.  Dependent variables were assessed before and after the intervention as well as at the end of the term.  Results:  Data-analyses revealed that the IBSR intervention reduced test anxiety as well as subsequent academic procrasti-nation in comparison to the control group.  The effect on test anxiety was partly due to an enhancement of self-efficacy.  Conclusions: Our findings provide preliminary evidence that IBSR might help individuals to cope with their test anxiety and procrastination.