Examining the mediating role of metacognitive writing strategies in the relationship between self‐regulated writing skills and writing anxiety among middle school students

Abstract This study aimed to examine the mediating role of metacognitive writing strategies in the relationship between middle school students' self‐regulation skills in the writing process and their writing anxiety. Using structural equation modelling, the data collected from 513 middle school students were analysed with advanced statistical techniques that allow analysing complex variable relationships. The study revealed that there was a significant negative relationship between self‐regulation skills and writing anxiety. With the inclusion of metacognitive writing strategies in the model, the direct relationship between self‐regulation skills and writing anxiety completely disappeared and the full mediating role of strategies was determined. Analyses by gender revealed that metacognitive writing strategies had a significant negative effect on writing anxiety in male students. While love of writing had a positive effect on self‐regulation skills, it was concluded that mother's education level positively affected the awareness of metacognitive writing strategies. The findings of the study reveal the central role of metacognitive strategies in writing education and provide important information for pedagogical approaches to improve students' writing skills that take individual differences into account.