Is academic anxiety good or bad for students? Investigating the moderating effects of anxiety on the reciprocal relations between self-efficacy and achievement in mathematics

This longitudinal research, grounded in Bandura’s social cognitive theory, examined the cross-lagged relations between mathematics self-efficacy (MSE) and mathematics achievement (MACH), and tested how mathematics anxiety (MA) moderated these relations. Data from 777 Taiwanese seventh-graders on MSE, MA, and MACH were collected at multiple points throughout a school year. Structural equational modeling showed that (a) MSE and MACH were bidirectionally related over time, and (b) MA moderated the reciprocal relations between MSE and MACH. Specifically, lower MA amplified the positive association of MSE on MACH (i.e., students with lower MA and higher MSE scored higher in MACH), while higher MA attenuated the positive association. Conversely, higher MA boosted the positive association of MACH on MSE (i.e., students with higher MA and higher MACH reported higher MSE), whereas there was no such pattern among students with lower MA. These findings corroborate the reciprocal MSE-MACH interplay and underscore MA’s intriguing role in shaping learning trajectories depending on pathways between MSE and MACH.