مقابله اجتنابی: یک میانجی از کمال گرایی ناسازگارانه و اضطراب امتحان

Evaluative concerns perfectionism, a form of maladaptive perfectionism, is associated with a number of negative outcomes including test anxiety, depression, and poor academic performance. Previous research has found certain variables to mediate the relationship between evaluative concerns perfectionism and distress, such as perceived social support and avoidant coping. We extended previous research by investigating whether avoidant coping is a mediating variable of the relationship between evaluative concerns perfectionism and test anxiety. One hundred and seventy-two college participants completed a battery of scales including the Frost Multidimensional scale, the COPE scale, and the Test Anxiety scale. We found that personal standards perfectionism was related to active coping and inversely related to test anxiety. In addition, evaluative concerns perfectionism was related to test anxiety, and this relationship was mediated by avoidant coping.

Much progress has occurred on the study of perfectionism within the last two decades. Once thought to be a unidimensional construct, perfectionism currently is conceptualized as multidimensional with adaptive and maladaptive forms (Frost et al., 1993 and Frost et al., 1990). Personal standards perfectionism is a form of adaptive perfectionism characterized by the personal establishment and pursuit of high standards and goals (Dunkley, Blankstein, Halsall, Williams, & Winkworth, 2000). This form of perfectionism is generally regarded as beneficial and constructive (Klibert, Langhinrichsen-Rohling, & Saito, 2005). For example, it is related to positive affect, a high grade point average, and adaptive learning strategies (Brown et al., 1999, Frost et al., 1993 and Mills and Blankstein, 2000). In contrast to adaptive perfectionism, those with evaluative concerns perfectionism believe that others set unrealistic standards for themselves and they struggle to experience pleasure from the completion of their goals (Dunkley et al., 2000).1 Evaluative concerns perfectionism is generally considered to be a negative characteristic and is related to social and academic hassles, self-criticism, solitude, and emotional coping (Cox et al., 2002 and Dunkley and Blankstein, 2000). These individuals have a tendency to doubt their actions, are excessively concerned with their mistakes, and believe others are highly critical of them (Dunkley et al., 2000). An additional disadvantage of evaluative concerns perfectionism is its association with clinical anxiety and depression (e.g., Hewitt & Flett, 1991a). Given the relationship between evaluative concerns perfectionism and forms of psychopathology, researchers have attempted to elucidate mediators of the relationship between these variables. Researchers found that active coping, which involves constructive problem-solving methods to overcome problems, is healthy and advantageous (Endler and Parker, 1990 and Epstein and Meier, 1989). However, avoidant coping, which is characterized by a disengagement from problems, is associated with distress (Carver and Scheier, 1994 and Dunkley et al., 2000). After controlling for perceived social support, daily hassles, and other variables, Dunkley and colleagues (2000) found that avoidant coping mediated the relationship between evaluative concerns perfectionism and distress. Furthermore, they found that personal standards perfectionism was related to active coping. One implication that can be drawn from their seminal work is that experiencing distress appears to be contingent upon mediating variables such as avoidant coping, not solely on perfectionistic qualities. A more specific construct than distress or anxiety is test anxiety, defined as the tendency to respond with concern, apprehension, and physiological arousal to conditions in which one’s knowledge is being formally appraised (Spielberger & Vagg, 1995). Research has found that test anxiety is relatively stable over time and that individuals who report high test anxiety often struggle with feelings of inadequacy (Schwarzer and Jerusalem, 1992 and Spielberger and Vagg, 1995). Not surprisingly, test anxiety is strongly correlated with general anxiety, the latter of which is one of the most prevalent mental health conditions in the United States (Barlow, 2002 and Hembree, 1988). Across studies, 15–30% of students report experiencing test anxiety, indicating that the number of individuals affected is substantial (Goonan, 2004, Hill, 1984 and Hill and Wigfield, 1984). Test anxiety can be elicited by many variables (e.g., the perceived threat of a task) and it often interferes with academic performance (Mendes et al., 2008 and Zeidner, 1998). There also is evidence that the experience of test anxiety may differ by specific subject domain (Everson, Tobias, Hartman, & Gourgey, 1993). Of particular relevance for the present study, previous findings indicate that test anxiety and evaluative concerns perfectionism are related. Thus, high achieving evaluative concerns perfectionists are vulnerable to performance decrements due to their high test anxiety (Mills & Blankstein, 2000). To the best of our knowledge, however, no one has examined whether avoidant coping mediates the relation between evaluative concerns perfectionism and test anxiety. One rationale for examining the potential role of avoidant coping in this relationship is a parallel line of research conducted on the topic of self-focus and test anxiety. Briefly, self-focus refers to the tendency to focus attention on processes occurring within the self. Carver, Peterson, Follansbee, and Scheier (1983) experimentally manipulated the degree of self-focus experienced by participants, who were either high or low in test anxiety. Results indicated that those with high test anxiety who experienced high self-focus did worse on anagrams and tasks measuring persistence than those with low test anxiety who experienced high self focus. Moreover, the individuals with high test anxiety who were in the high self-focus condition reported that they were less able to concentrate on the task at hand and were often mentally disengaged from the task. This disengagement may explain why they performed more poorly on the tasks. It appeared to us that the disengagement observed by Carver et al. (1983) among highly test anxious students had similarities with the avoidant coping observed by Dunkley and colleagues among evaluative concerns perfectionists reporting general distress (Dunkley et al., 2000). Thus, based on what we perceived as potentially converging lines of research, we hypothesized that avoidant coping would mediate the relationship between evaluative concerns perfectionism and test anxiety. To test this hypothesis, we selected university students for two primary reasons: (1) we wanted to replicate Dunkley et al. (2000) and (2) they represent a population where test anxiety is relatively prevalent. Our specific hypotheses were: (1) evaluative concerns perfectionism would be significantly related to test anxiety; (2) personal standards perfectionism and test anxiety would be inversely related; (3) evaluative concerns perfectionism and avoidant coping would be associated; (4) personal standards perfectionism and active coping would be associated; and (5) avoidant coping would mediate the relationship between evaluative concerns perfectionism and test anxiety.