Exams? Why worry? Interpreting anxiety as facilitative and stress appraisals

Strack, Juliane; Esteves, Francisco

doi:10.1080/10615806.2014.931942

Cited by 52Student Stress and CopingStress and Burnout ResearchEducation, Achievement, and Giftedness

Exams? Why worry? Interpreting anxiety as facilitative and stress appraisals

Strack, Juliane, Esteves, Francisco·2015·Anxiety, Stress, & Coping

DOI 10.1080/10615806.2014.931942

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Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The present study examined why people differ in how they appraise the same stressful situation (an approaching exam). DESIGN: We explored whether interpreting anxiety as a facilitative emotion can affect the type of stress appraisal people make. METHOD: One hundred and three undergraduate students took part in this study, which lasted for 10 days (leading up to an exam). The students completed a daily self-reported evaluation of anxiety, emotional exhaustion, and stress experienced. RESULTS: The findings suggest a process by which a stressful time can be experienced as motivating rather than threatening or emotionally exhausting. For example, interpreting anxiety as facilitative moderated the relationship between anxiety and stress appraisals. When interpreting their anxiety as facilitative, individuals showed a higher tendency to make challenge stress appraisals and a lower tendency to appraising the stressor as a threat. These differences were especially visible with high levels of anxiety. Furthermore, interpreting anxiety as facilitative was negatively associated with emotional exhaustion, but positively associated with the academic performance. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest an explanation why people differ in how they appraise the same stressor: how people interpret their anxiety may to a large part affect how they appraise difficult events and situations.

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BRIEF REPORT Exams? Why worry? Interpreting anxiety as facilitative and stress appraisals
Strack, J., & Esteves, F. G. (2014)
Self-citation
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Authors: Strack, J., & Esteves, F.
Affiliations: Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (PT)
Corresponding author: Strack, Juliane
ORCID: Esteves, Francisco
Venue: Anxiety, Stress, & Coping
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Published: 2014-07-08
Volume: 28
Issue: 2
Pages: 205-214
ISSN: 1061-5806 (ISSN-L)
1477-2205
DOI: 10.1080/10615806.2014.931942
OpenAlex: W1980684278
Cited by: 52
References: 42
Citations by year: 2026: 3 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2
FWCI: 3.91
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: Anxiety Stress & Coping (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Repositório do ISCTE-IUL (submittedVersion)
Funders: Portugal's Foundation for Science and Technology
Topics: Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Education, Achievement, and Giftedness
Keywords: anxiety, stress appraisal, threat appraisal, emotional exhaustion, academic performance, exam stress, individual differences
MeSH terms: Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Anxiety, Educational Measurement, Emotions, Female, Humans, Male, Motivation, Stress, Psychological, Students, Young Adult, Self Report

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Exams? Why worry? Interpreting anxiety as facilitative and stress appraisals

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