Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation and Cognitive Avoidance in the Prediction of Test Anxiety in Female Students

Test anxiety is a mental-emotional state that reduces student performance. The use of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and cognitive avoidance has an important effect on how students get out of stressful situations. The aim of the present research was the role of cognitive emotion regulation and cognitive avoidance in predicting test anxiety in female students. The present study was descriptive-correlational and the statistical population included all 10th-grade female students in Azna city in the academic year 2019-2020, from which 336 female students were selected by available sampling. Data collection tools included the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI; Spielberger, 1980), Cognitive Emotion Regulation (CERQ; Garnefski & keraij, 2006), and Cognitive Avoidance (CAQ; Sexton & Dougas, 2008). The data were analyzed by correlation coefficient and stepwise regression analysis. The results showed that there is a positive relationship between test anxiety and self-blame, acceptance, rumination, catastrophizing, otherchr('39')s blame, and cognitive avoidance strategies, there is a negative relationship between test anxiety with positive reappraisal (P <0.05). Results of regression analysis indicated that from among adaptive strategies of cognitive emotion regulation, positive assessments negatively and from among non-adaptive strategies of cognitive emotion regulation, self-blame other blame and from among strategies cognitive avoidance: thought Substitution and thought Suppression positively, they explain 41% of the test anxiety score. predict the test anxiety. As results indicate, the strategies employed by individuals to regulate their emotions can play a significant role in the determination of their test anxiety, and strengthening the adaptive cognitive emotion regulation should be regarded as an intervention and educational goal in enhancing the test anxiety.