Reappraising Test Anxiety Increases Academic Performance of First-Year College Students

• In Event: Different Routes to the Similar Outcomes: Improving Students' Well-Being in Addition to Achievement in School

Abstract

Taking a test is anxiety-provoking for most students. When students start to feel anxious, they often worry and lose confidence, ultimately undermining their performance. Recent laboratory research in psychology has shown that reappraising anxiety—thinking of it as neutral or possibly even beneficial—can reduce its negative effects. However, whether reappraisal can improve outcomes in everyday school experiences – and for whom – remains an open and important empirical question. Therefore, we conducted a randomized experiment to examine whether an unobtrusive reappraisal message embedded in regular course activities could enhance student experience and performance in a college course.

Given evidence that students experience greater anxiety and more sensitivity to intervention early in college than in later years, we expected that the reappraisal message would be particularly beneficial for first-year students. We hypothesized that the reappraisal message would lead first-year students to experience (1) equivalent anxiety during an exam, but less worry and greater confidence; (2) greater academic performance on the exam; and (3) greater academic performance overall in the course.

Methods

Four hundred thirty-one students (64% White; 58% female; 55% first-year) were randomly assigned to condition: control or reappraisal. The night before the first exam in the course, all students received an email from the course coordinator with reminders and general encouragement. The email for students in the reappraisal condition included an extra paragraph with the reappraisal message:

“…[Anxiety] doesn’t generally hurt performance on tests and can even help performance…If you find yourself feeling anxious, simply remind yourself that your arousal could be helping you do well.”

The next day, students took the exam. Afterward, they reported their levels of anxiety, worry about anxiety, and confidence. Exam and final course grades were obtained from official records.

Results

As expected, first-year students reported greater anxiety and greater worry about being anxious than upper-year students. As predicted, the reappraisal message did not affect reports of anxiety for first-year students, but it did increase their confidence. For upper-year students, the reappraisal message increased anxiety but did not affect confidence or worry.

First-year students who received the reappraisal message outperformed those who did not both on the first exam and in the course overall. Mediation analyses revealed that students’ interpretation of anxiety mediated the relationship between the reappraisal message and improved academic performance. There were no differences in performance for upper-year students.

Significance

A brief reappraisal message enhanced the confidence and academic performance of first-year students in a college course. Benefits of the message were immediate, affecting confidence and performance the next day, and durable, affecting final course grades. First-year students who received the reappraisal message earned, on average, a final grade of A- compared to their control counterparts who earned, on average, a B+.

This research provides evidence that a minimal message design to help students reappraise counterproductive emotions can shape immediate and downstream outcomes. It also demonstrates that addressing first-year students’ interpretations of academic anxiety may promote student success. These findings have clear relevance a wide range of anxiety-provoking situations in schools.

Authors

• Shannon Brady, Stanford University

• Bridgette Martin Hard, Stanford University

• James J Gross, Stanford University