THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTRINSIC MOTIVATION, ACADEMIC SELF-EFFICACY, LEARNING ENGAGEMENT, AND TEST ANXIETY, AS PERCEIVED BY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Test anxiety or academic anxiety is an emotional state characterized by intense fear, nervousness, and stress that occurs in the context of academic assessments such as exams, tests, projects, or presentations. Test anxiety negatively affects efficiency in academic tasks, leading to decreased academic performance. Test anxiety in students can be generated or fostered by both individual and contextual, school-related factors. Teachers can play an important role in reducing test anxiety in students by adopting appropriate pedagogical practices and creating a positive, supportive, student-centered learning environment. The present work takes a structural modeling approach to explore the influence of intrinsic motivation, learning engagement, and academic self-efficacy on test anxiety. The results showed that while high levels of academic self-efficacy contribute to reduced test anxiety, learning engagement has a positive influence on test anxiety which is due to students’ expectations created by their involvement in the learning activities. Keywords: academic self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, learning engagement, test anxiety, university students