Longitudinal reciprocal relations between trait test anxiety and performance goals during transition to secondary school: within- and between-person effects

Various studies have examined the relations between test anxiety and performance goals. As these are mainly cross-sectional, less is known about the directionality of these effects. Bringing together theoretical frameworks from motivation and emotion research, the present study aimed to examine the reciprocal within- and between-person links between trait test anxiety, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals in the time of transition to secondary school. Differential effects were analyzed for the two most common facets of test anxiety: worry and emotionality. For this purpose, we analyzed data of 1,770 students (MageT1 = 10.47, SD = 0.56; 51 % girls) before (4th grade) and after the transition (5th – 7th grade), using random intercept cross-lagged panel models (within-perspective) and cross-lagged panel models (between-perspective). The results support the idea of a predominance of worry and emotionality over performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals during transition to secondary school. No reciprocal effects were found. Comparing worry and emotionality, we found stronger and temporally more stable relationships of performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals with worry. The study provides a robust methodological framework, testing bidirectional emotional and motivational relations during the transition to secondary school. The results suggest that test anxiety is an important predictor of motivational coping after the transition to secondary school.