scholarly journals Acculturating Stress, Language Anxiety and Procrastination of International Students in the Academic Settings

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-140
Author(s):  
Лариса Засєкіна ◽  
Олена Журавльова

Objectives. The aim of the study is to examine the procrastination among international students in academic settings in Ukraine. Materials & Methods. The 41 participants were recruited from two national universities in Volyn oblast who came from African countries to obtain higher education in Ukraine. Procrastination Scale, Acculturative Stress Scale, Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale were applied in the research. Results. Evidence consistently suggests that there are no gender differences in procrastination, acculturating stress, and language anxiety. However, a weak negative correlation between procrastination and age of the participants was found (r=-0.26 p<0.05). It is possible to hypothesise that academic procrastination is less likely to occur in mature age, being replaced by the procrastination in other life domains. The findings of multiple regression suggest that acculturative stress and language anxiety taken together predict procrastination of the international students (R2 = 0.469, F (4, 37) = 2.741, p=0.015). However, amongst other predictors only fear of negative evaluation as a separate scale of language anxiety is an independent robust predictor of procrastination. One unanticipated finding was that accultuarion is not a significant moderator of the interaction between fear of negative evaluation and procrastination. Therefore, international students’ procrastination is predicted by rather social anxiety of being evaluated than cultural settings and language anxiety per se. This inference is in line with the evidence that test anxiety and communication apprehension are not independent significant predictors of procrastination. Conclusion. The current study showed that the main predictor of procrastination is linked to social anxiety which might be triggered by new cultural and academic settings and, therefore, transformed into procrastination. However, with a small sample size which represents only African students, caution must be applied, as the findings might not be extrapolated for the international students from other countries. Further studies, which take these limitations into account, will need to be undertaken.

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin L. Maresh ◽  
Bethany A. Teachman ◽  
James A. Coan

Socially anxious individuals exhibit cognitive performance impairments; it is unclear whether this is due to trait differences in abilities or effects of the experimental context. This study sought to determine how social context, individual differences in fear of negative evaluation (FNE), and task difficulty interact to influence working memory performance as indicated by effectiveness (accuracy) and efficiency (reaction times). Participants (N = 61) performed the n-back task at 2-back and 3-back difficulty levels under three conditions: alone (“Anonymous”), in presence of a non-evaluative experimenter (“Presence”), and under explicit performance evaluation by the experimenter (“Threat”). Overall, participants showed improved accuracy during Threat, but only on 2-back trials. FNE was positively associated with longer reaction times during Threat on 3-back trials. FNE did not relate to accuracy, suggesting that threat-related impairments tied to social anxiety may alter efficiency rather than effectiveness. Thus, social anxiety may elicit cognitive performance impairments even in minimally evaluative environments.


Author(s):  
Esmail Soltani ◽  
◽  
Seyed Abdolmajid Bahrainian ◽  
Ali Farhoudian ◽  
Abbas Masjedi Arani ◽  
...  

Objectives: The purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of ACT on symptom severity, fear about negative evaluation, quality of life and mediation role of acceptance, cognitive fusion and value among patients with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). Methods: Thirty patients diagnosed with SAD were randomized in the intervention (n=15) or waiting list groups (n=15). The Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI), Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNE), WHO Quality of Life (WHOQOL), Social Anxiety - Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (SA-AAQ), Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ) and Valued Living Questionnaire (VLQ) were administered before, immediately after, and at one month follow up. Repeated measurement design was used in the intervention group to investigate the changes of mediation and outcomes variables in the pretest, during, and post- therapy. Twenty-four patients completed the study. One-way analysis of covariance, Multivariate analysis of covariance and repeated measures was used for analysis. Results: Results showed that there were differences between the intervention and waiting list groups on the severity of symptoms (p=0.001), fear of negative evaluation (p=0.002), and quality of life (p=0.03), as well as in terms of specific measures of SA-AAQ(p=0.001), cognitive fusion (p=0.001), and important section of VLQ(p=0.001). Repeated measurement result showed that acceptance and action of social anxiety and cognitive fusion had a mediating role in the severity of anxiety, fear about negative evaluation, and quality of life. Discussion: Results of the study indicate the effectiveness of ACT for SAD and highlighted mediator contribution acceptance and action and cognitive fusion in severity of social anxiety.


Appetite ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 125-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheri A. Levinson ◽  
Thomas L. Rodebaugh ◽  
Emily K. White ◽  
Andrew R. Menatti ◽  
Justin W. Weeks ◽  
...  

1992 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elysa Feigenbaum ◽  
Ronald Friend

Contrary to the commonly held view, we hypothesized that freshmen would prefer small classes and that upper division students would prefer large classes. Twenty freshmen and 20 upper division students rated their preferences for 16 class structures, which varied on combinations of four variables: small or large class size, multiple-choice or essay exams, heavy or moderate work load, and average class grade of B or C. Subjects also filled out the Watson and Friend (1969) Social Avoidance and Distress (SAD) and Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE) Scales as control variables. Finally, upper division students identified and rated the size of psychology classes they had taken. Results support our prediction: Freshmen prefer small classes, and upper division students prefer large classes. Moreover, upper division students with greater experience of large classes report stronger preferences for them. Gender and social anxiety do not affect these findings. We discuss these results as well as the need for longitudinal investigations of the effects of academic experience on personal and intellectual development in university students.


2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-72
Author(s):  
Renée F. Seebeck ◽  
Malcolm H. Johnson ◽  
Ross A. Flett

The present study explored the nature and extent of social anxiety and avoidance, anxiety sensitivity, and pain-related anxiety and avoidance in 46 clinic-referred chronic pain patients, compared with a community-based group reporting pain (n = 66) and healthy controls (n = 57). The chronic pain patients consistently reported higher levels of social distress, social avoidance, fear of negative evaluation, anxiety sensitivity, and pain-related anxiety and avoidance as compared with controls. Group differences in social distress, social avoidance, fear of negative evaluation, pain-related cognitive anxiety, and fear of cognitive and emotional dyscontrol, remained stable when pain severity was controlled for. Anxiety sensitivity was strongly related to both social and pain-related fears. The source of these social fears is examined in relation to the elevated pain-related fear and anxiety sensitivity also exhibited by chronic pain patients, and implications for treatment and rehabilitation are discussed.


Author(s):  
Mitchell P. A. Howarth ◽  
Miriam Forbes

AbstractSocially anxious individuals hold negative beliefs about their appearance, abilities and personality. These negative self-conceptions increase expectations of negative evaluation from others and, consequently increase anxiety. Self-verification theory states that individuals seek, accept and prefer feedback that is congruent with their self-conceptions. This study explored the assumptions of self-verification theory in social anxiety. This was achieved by examining the type of feedback socially anxious individuals seek and how positive and negative feedback is processed. Results from an undergraduate sample (n = 84) indicate that socially anxious individuals were no more or less likely to seek negative feedback than individuals with low social anxiety. However, participants with greater social anxiety rated positive feedback as less accurate, rated negative feedback as more accurate, and were more comfortable with negative feedback, compared to participants with low social anxiety. Greater social anxiety was also found to predict increased discomfort with positive feedback, and fear of negative evaluation fully mediated this relationship. These findings suggest that self-verification processes operate in social anxiety and highlight the need for researchers to include measures of fears of evaluation when examining self-verification theory in samples of socially anxious individuals.


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