The Mediating Role of Study Skills in the Effect of Academic Self-Efficacy,Epistemological Beliefs and Academic Anxiety on cademic Performance of Middle School Students

This study examined the mediating role of study skills in the effect ofacademic self-efficacy, epistemological beliefs and academic anxiety on academic performance of first middle school students Orumieh city in the academic year 2015-2016. This study was descriptive (non-experimental) and studydesign was correlational plans type of the structural equations. Statistical population of the study formed all of first middle school students of Orumieh in 2015-2016 years of academic. Sampling was cluster random and determination the sample size for each of the sub-variable were considered 20 samples and 350 persons were selected as the study sample .The instruments were: Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (Patrick, Hicks & Ryan, 1997), Epistemological Beliefs Scale (Schommer, 1991), Academic Anxiety Scale (Alpert & Haber, 1960), Study Skills Scale (Congos, 2009) and to measure academic performance of students the grade point average in the first academic semester 2015-2016 was used. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the structural effects of academic self-efficacy, epistemological beliefs, academic anxiety and study skills onacademic performance. The results of structural equation modeling revealed that study skills and academic self-efficacy directly affect the academic performance of students (p<0/01). Also the results revealed that academic self-efficacy and epistemological beliefs indirectly and through study skills affect the academic performance of students (p<0/01).