Why avoiding exams never helps in the long run: relations among avoidance, mastery experiences, perceived control, and test anxiety

• Avoidant emotion regulation negatively relates to students’ mastery. • Avoidant emotion regulation positively relates to all test anxiety facets. • The lack of confidence facet of test anxiety shows the strongest relations with control. The present study examined the relations between test anxiety and avoidance based on the assumptions of control-value theory (CVT) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). Specifically, it analyzed the relationships between students’ mastery experiences, perceived control, and four test anxiety facets (emotionality, worry, interference, lack of confidence ) . Additionally, the study investigated the relations between these study variables and avoidance as emotion regulation strategy in terms of emotion-oriented, task- and environment-oriented and appraisal-oriented regulation. Based on a sample of 696 Italian university students ( M age = 21.37; SD = 3.90), structural equation modeling largely supported the proposed structure of relationships. In the final model, avoidance negatively predicted mastery, which was positively related to control. Perceived control, in turn, was negatively associated with all facets of test anxiety. Finally, while avoidance was unrelated to perceived control, significant positive relations emerged with all test anxiety facets. These findings suggest that, within the CVT framework, avoidance can be conceptualized as a maladaptive regulation strategy particularly in terms of task- and environment-oriented as well as emotion-oriented regulation.