Cognitive test anxiety in university students in Brazil: The role of sociodemographic variables and personality traits

• Autor(a) principal: Nascimento da Silva, Paulo Gregório Nascimento
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Ramnsés Silva e Araújo, de Araújo, Gleyde Raiane, Alves, Mateus Egilson da Silva, de Medeiros, Paloma Cavalcante Bezerra, Patrícia Nunes da Fonseca, Emerson Diógenes de Medeiros
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.31211/rpics.2022.8.1.246
• topic: Ansiedade à Prova; Personalidade; Psicologia; Universitários; Estudo ex-post facto; Anxiety tests; Personality; Psychology; University students; Ex-post facto study

Objective: The goal of the present study was to verify the predictive power of personality traits, controlling for the effect of sociodemographic variables (age, sex, and period being studied) in the explanation of cognitive preoccupation in estimates. Methods: Two hundred university students from public institutions in the city of Parnaíba, Piauí (Mage = 23.97), most of them women (75.0%) and studying Psychology (52.5%), were assessed with the Cognitive Anxiety Scale, the Big Five Personality Factors Inventory, and sociodemographic questions. Results: Pearson’s correlation and hierarchical multiple linear regression analyzes showed that the personality traits conscientiousness (β = -.15; p < .01), neuroticism (β = .35; p < .01), and the gender of the participant (β = -.19; p < .05) contributed significantly to the explanation of cognitive anxiety of academic tests, with the model explaining 20% of the variance. Results also suggested that conscientiousness can function as a protective factor and neuroticism an agent of vulnerability to anxious symptoms in evaluative contexts, especially in women, with no difference regarding the period being studied. Conclusions: The findings emphasize the importance of carrying out interventional psychoeducational proposals, particularly for women with high levels of neuroticism.