Vagally-mediated heart rate variability longitudinally predicts test anxiety in university students.

IF 2.3 3区心理学 Q2 PSYCHIATRY

Anxiety Stress and Coping Pub Date : 2025-02-02 DOI:10.1080/10615806.2025.2460230

Lena Mareen Grabo, André Schulz, Silja Bellingrath

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background and objectives: Self-regulatory processes, namely behavioral regulation (in terms of executive functions) and emotion regulation, are assumed to be central for test anxiety. Both self-regulation components, along with vagally-mediated heart rate variability (HRV) - a proposed concomitant of top-down self-regulation - are associated with anxiety.

Design: A longitudinal design was adopted to test the hypotheses that (1) higher vagally-mediated HRV, (2) adaptive emotion regulation and (3) better executive functioning (i.e., higher inhibitory control) at the semester beginning (t1) predict lower levels of test anxiety at the end of the semester (t2).

Methods: A sample of N = 70 (58 female) university students (M [SD] age = 25.04 [7.14] years) completed a measurement of resting HRV (RMSSD), performed an affective go/no-go task, and reported on emotion regulation and test anxiety at t1. Test anxiety and certain examination characteristics were assessed at t2. A hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses.

Results: Supporting hypothesis 1, HRV at t1 significantly predicted test anxiety at t2, whereas emotion regulation and inhibitory control were no significant predictors.

Conclusions: As vagally-mediated HRV seems meaningful for the prediction of test anxiety, interventions designed to reduce test anxiety could benefit from incorporating HRV biofeedback training.

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来源期刊

Anxiety Stress and Coping Multiple-

CiteScore

7.20

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： This journal provides a forum for scientific, theoretically important, and clinically significant research reports and conceptual contributions. It deals with experimental and field studies on anxiety dimensions and stress and coping processes, but also with related topics such as the antecedents and consequences of stress and emotion. We also encourage submissions contributing to the understanding of the relationship between psychological and physiological processes, specific for stress and anxiety. Manuscripts should report novel findings that are of interest to an international readership. While the journal is open to a diversity of articles.