The Mediating Role of School Anxiety in The Relationship Between Academic Perfectionism and Academic Self-Concept with Academic Expectations Stress in Students

The stress of academic expectations is the main cause of stress among students. The aim of the present study was to investigate the mediating role of school anxiety in the relationship between academic perfectionism and academic self-concept with academic expectations stress.The descriptive research method was correlation. A sample consisting of 390 students (289 girls, 101 boys) from three grades (7th, 8th, 9th) from public first secondary schools in one district of Shiraz were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling and responded to Academic expectations stress Inventory (Ang & Huan, 2006), academic perfectionism of Rasouli Soli and Bahrami (2015), School self-concept Inventory (Chen & Thompson, 2004) and school anxiety Scale (Philips, 1987). Data analysis using the structural equation model showed that academic perfectionism and academic self-concept have a significant positive and negative direct effect on the stress of academic expectations, respectively. Also, the results showed that school anxiety does not have a significant direct effect on the stress caused by academic expectations, so it cannot play a mediating role in the relationship between academic perfectionism and academic self-concept with the academic expectations stress. In general, to reduce the stress caused by academic expectations in students, it is better to focus on strengthening self-concept and academic perfectionism and effective ways to deal with stress.