Contingencies of Self-Worth

Contingencies of Self-Worth and Academic Performance

Who heeds anxiety’s precautionary tale? Contingencies of self-worth and exam performance.

To students with academic—but not competitive—contingency of self-worth (ASW and CSW), pre-exam anxiety may provide an important signal to prepare, thus negating the negative impact of anxiety on future exam performance. Undergraduates (N=155) self-reported contingencies of self-worth and anxiety before an exam. Both types of contingencies predicted greater anxiety over the exam (CSW β=.212, p=.012; ASW β=.205, p=.015), and anxiety predicted poorer exam performance (β=-.339, p < .001). Critically, for those low (-1SD) on ASW being anxious undermined future performance (b=-9.79, p < .001); whereas, for those high (+1SD) on ASW being anxious did not impact performance (b=1.50, p=.371, ASW*Anxiety β=.127, p=.108). Competitive contingencies did not have an impact (CSW*Anxiety β=-.06, p=.447). The results reveal an important dynamic of self-esteem regulation.

This research was presented as a poster at SPSP 2015 in Long Beach, California. For a PDF of the poster, please visit the Open Science Framework website.