Relationship between Coping Strategies and Social Support with Students' Test Anxiety in the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Academic Resilience

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between coping styles and social support with test anxiety with the mediating role of academic resilience.

The research method is descriptive-correlational. The statistical population included all female high school students from Kashsn city during 2020-2021, among which 316 students were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method. Data were collected using Andler and Parker's (1990) Coping Styles Questionnaire, Zimet et al.'s Multidimensional Social Support Questionnaire (1988), Martin's (2003) Academic Resilience Questionnaire, and Spielberger's Test Anxiety Questionnaire (1980). The evaluation of the proposed model was performed using structural equation modeling and the bootstrap method.

The results showed that there are significant correlations between test anxiety with problem-oriented strategy (r = -0.31, p <0.01), emotion-oriented strategy (r = 0.63, p <0.01), distraction strategy (r = 0.18, p <0.01), social employment strategy (r = -0.22, p <0.01), social support (r = -0.23, p <0.01) and academic resilience (r = -0. 63, p <0.01). The results showed that the proposed model has an acceptable fit. The results of path analysis also indicate that academic resilience mediates the relationship between problem-oriented style, emotion-oriented coping style, and social support with test anxiety.

Academic resilience mediates the relationship between problem-oriented coping style, emotion-oriented coping style, and social support with test anxiety. The findings have practical implications for school counselors and educational psychologists to prevent and control test anxiety.