TYPE Brief Research Report

PUBLISHED 07 February 2023

DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1008679

The association between academic

OPEN ACCESS stress and test anxiety in college
students: The mediating role of
EDITED BY
Kingston Rajiah,
Gandhi Institute of Technology and
Management University,
India regulatory emotional self-efficacy
and the moderating role of parental
REVIEWED BY
Diane Marcotte,
Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada
Yidong Shen,
The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South
University,
expectations
China

*CORRESPONDENCE
Guo Zheng 1,2*, Qiongzhi Zhang 2 and Guangming Ran 2
Guo Zheng Faculty of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xian, China, 2 School of Education, China West Normal
1

zhengguotougao@163.com University, Nanchong, China

SPECIALTY SECTION
This article was submitted to
Educational Psychology, Academic stress has been showed to be an important factor associated with test
a section of the journal anxiety. However, the internal mechanism between them is still not clear. The purpose
Frontiers in Psychology
of this study was to explore whether the relationship between academic stress and
RECEIVED 01August 2022
test anxiety was affected by parental expectations and regulatory emotional self-
ACCEPTED 18 January 2023
PUBLISHED 07 February 2023 efficacy. This study recruited 1,315 volunteers aged 17–25 to complete self-reports
CITATION
on academic stress, parental expectations, regulatory emotional self-efficacy and
Zheng G, Zhang Q and Ran G (2023) The test anxiety. The results showed that there was a significant positive correlation
association between academic stress and test between academic stress and test anxiety. Additionally, parental expectations were
anxiety in college students: The mediating role
of regulatory emotional self-efficacy and the
negatively correlated with academic stress but positively correlated with regulatory
moderating role of parental expectations. emotional self-efficacy, and regulatory emotional self-efficacy was negatively
Front. Psychol. 14:1008679. correlated with academic stress and test anxiety. The results showed that regulatory
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1008679
emotional self-efficacy played a mediating role in academic stress and test anxiety,
COPYRIGHT and the relationship between academic stress and regulatory emotional self-efficacy
© 2023 Zheng, Zhang and Ran. This is an
open-access article distributed under the terms
was moderated by parental expectations, which indicated that parental expectations
of the Creative Commons Attribution License and regulatory emotional self-efficacy may play an important role in the relationship
(CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction between academic stress and test anxiety.
in other forums is permitted, provided the
original author(s) and the copyright owner(s)
are credited and that the original publication in KEYWORDS
this journal is cited, in accordance with
accepted academic practice. No use,
academic stress, test anxiety, regulatory emotional self-efficacy, parental expectations,
distribution or reproduction is permitted which moderated mediation
does not comply with these terms.

Introduction
Test anxiety is a kind of trait anxiety in the examination situation, and it is restricted by
individual cognition, personality and other factors (von der Embse et al., 2018; Türk and Katmer,
2019). It is a psychological state, with anxiety as the basic feature, accompanied by different
emotional arousal and physiological symptoms (Zhang et al., 2019; Guo et al., 2022). Test anxiety
has negative effects on students’ academic levels and mental health, such as academic difficulties (Ne
Eman-Haviv and Bonny-Noach, 2019) and poor academic performance (Borekci and Uyangor,
2018; Thomas et al., 2018), and the risk of anxiety and depression also increases (Leadbeater et al.,
2012). At the same time, long-term test anxiety will lead to adverse consequences for individuals’
bodies, such as sleep disorders, depression, tearfulness and eating disorders. In some cases, it may
even lead to self-harm and suicidal ideation (Bentley et al., 2016; Rodway et al., 2016).

Frontiers in Psychology 01 frontiersin.org

Zheng et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1008679

Academic stress and test anxiety emotional self-efficacy can regulate the impact of negative events in
order to avoid anxiety (Wang and Zhao, 2015). In summary, academic
Academic stress is an important stressor in college life which stems stress may affect test anxiety through regulatory emotional self-efficacy,
from subjective psychological distress in many aspects of academic regulatory emotional self-efficacy may play a mediating role in academic
learning and will have a negative impact on college students’ mental stress and test anxiety.
health as well as the ability to complete their studies effectively (Akgun
and Ciarrochi, 2003; Sun et al., 2013; Dan et al., 2021). Several recent
studies have found a significant correlation between academic stress and The moderating role of parental
test anxiety (Bhat, 2017; Stankovska et al., 2018; Trigueros et al., 2020). expectations
Izzati et al. (2020) hold the view that the conceptual framework of
academic consists of biological and psychosocial conceptions (including The process of which academic stress affects regulatory emotional
cognitive conception, emotional conception, and social behavior), self-efficacy may be affected by other variables. According to Finn’s
which indicate that academic stress could affect individuals’ expectation theory (Finn, 1972), parental expectations could interact
physiological and psychological state. Meanwhile, according to the with students’ self-expectations, and would further influence students’
deficits model of test anxiety (von der Embse et al., 2018), the performance. We speculate that parental expectations may be related to
physiological and psychological state caused by academic stress may college students’ academic stress and regulatory emotional self-efficacy.
result in deficits in knowledge and skills that individuals who need to Parental expectations refer to the hope and expectations from parents
perform well in evaluating test situations, and influence the occurrence of several aspects in their children’s future (Briley et al., 2014; Wang and
and severity of test anxiety. In addition, the general strain theory also Benner, 2014), which are formed after a comprehensive measurement
suggests that individuals are exposed to a stressful environment may of individual ability, past academic performance, ideals and family
develop psychological distress (Agnew, 2017), and test anxiety is the situations and has an important impact on children’s academic outcomes
typical anxiety of this kind of psychological distress in the test situation. (Wells et al., 2013; Rauscher et al., 2017; Li et al., 2019; Pinquart and
Ebeling, 2020; Li and Hu, 2021). Among the resources related to
students’ learning, parental expectations are one of the most important
The mediating role of regulatory emotional family factors (Li and Wang, 2019; Zhang Q. et al., 2020). Previous
self-efficacy studies have suggested that the level of academic stress on students may
be inflated by excessively high levels of parental expectations (Nagle and
According to self-efficacy theory, self-efficacy, as the core variable of Sharma, 2018; Subramani and Venkatachalam, 2019). The high level of
individual self-belief, is an important resource and way for individuals parental expectations will lead to an excessive involvement of parents in
to cope with negative events (Bandura, 1977). Regulatory emotional their children’s lives and the over control of them. In this case, students
self-efficacy (RESE) is a kind of self-efficacy with an emotional will devote more time to studying than others and have more academic
regulatory function that refers to the degree of confidence that stress. Moreover, high parental expectations may have a negative effect
individuals have in regulating their own emotional state (Bandura et al., on test anxiety (Arusha and Biswas, 2020). This may be because parental
2003), including expressing positive emotions and managing negative expectations may give more stress and anxiety emotions to their children
emotions. Self-efficacy is often related to past experiences (Bandura, (Worku et al., 2020).
1997). Long-term academic stress will have negative effects on students, Ecosystem theory states that the development of individuals is
causing depression, anxiety and despair (Huang et al., 2020; Wuthrich largely determined by the environment in which they live
et al., 2020; Zhang W. J. et al., 2020; Jiang et al., 2021; Zhu et al., 2021). (Bronfenbrenner, 1992). As an indispensable ecosystem in the process
In the face of this stress, students’ efforts to regulate their negative of individual growth, the family is of vital importance for children’s
emotions are often ineffective (McKay et al., 2014), which eventually development. Parental expectations for children will induce parents to
leads to a decline in regulatory emotional self-efficacy. The results of make more decisions in favor of their children, giving their children a
previous studies showed that there was a significant negative correlation better material foundation. Parents’ attitudes and behaviors are a source
between academic stress and the ability of an individual to regulate his of information that helps children understand themselves and build self-
or her emotional responses (Arslan, 2017; Ying et al., 2020). Regulatory efficacy (Shen and Li, 2020). When parents have more expectations for
emotional self-efficacy can reduce vulnerability to stress and strengthen their children, they will give them more care and support. This
endurance to negative emotions (Bandura, 1999), while stress will lead emotional and psychological support can promote the child’s regulatory
to a decrease in academic performance and cognitive skills (Eysenck emotional self-efficacy (Zeng and Liao, 2019). In conclusion, parental
et al., 2007). expectations may regulate the relationship between the academic stress
Previous studies have found that self-efficacy is an endogenous of their child and his or her emotional self-efficacy.
factor of test anxiety (Yao et al., 2010). Based on self-efficacy theory, the
main reason why individuals have negative emotions, such as anxiety, is
that they think they are unable to cope with the intractable events they Current study
are facing (Tang et al., 2010). Therefore, in the face of pressure,
individuals who cannot effectively regulate their negative emotions will The main purpose of this study was to explore the relationship
be anxious. Previous studies have shown that low-level self-efficacy is among academic stress, test anxiety, parental expectations and
often accompanied with test anxiety (Chen and Ye, 2009). Regulatory regulatory emotional self-efficacy. The hypothetical model is shown in
emotional self-efficacy, the ability to regulate one’s emotional responses Figure 1. We assumed that there was a positive correlation between
to events, has an important effect on coping with stress and improving academic stress and test anxiety (Hypothesis 1); parental expectations
subjective well-being (Tang et al., 2010). Individuals with high regulatory were positively correlated with both academic stress and regulatory

Frontiers in Psychology 02 frontiersin.org

Zheng et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1008679

FIGURE 1
Hypothetical model of academic stress, test anxiety, parental expectations and regulatory emotional self-efficacy.

emotional self-efficacy; regulatory emotional self-efficacy was negatively Parental expectations

correlated with academic stress and test anxiety (Hypothesis 2); The parental expectation questionnaire (PEQ) was used to measure
regulatory emotional self-efficacy played a mediating role in academic the parental expectations of the participants. The scale was compiled by
stress and test anxiety (Hypothesis 3); and parental expectations Cheng (2010) and has 24 questions, covering 5 dimensions: academic
moderated academic stress and regulatory emotional self-efficacy achievement, future achievement, moral performance, interpersonal
(Hypothesis 4). relationships and physical and mental quality. Responses were measured
on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 “completely inconsistent” to 5
“completely consistent,” and questions 12 to 17 were reverse scored.
Materials and methods Thus, the higher the total score was, the higher the parental expectations
the participants had. An example item for this scale was “The future
Participants and procedures study and employment will bring me great stress.” Cronbach’s α in this
study was 0.844. The measurement model showed a good data fit: χ2/
A total of 1,315 participants were randomly recruited from multiple df = 6.54; CFI = 0.914, TLI = 0.901; RMSEA = 0.065 (90% CI = 0.062–
universities in Sichuan Province. The age range of the participants was 0.068); SRMR = 0.068.
17–25 years old (M = 19.53, SD = 1.41), 576 males and 739 females; 454
only children and 861 children with siblings; 242 left-behind children Regulatory emotional self-efficacy
and 1,073 children who lived with at least one parent. The regulatory emotional self-efficacy scale, compiled by Tang et al.
This study was approved by the local ethics committee, and the (2010), was employed to measure the level of regulatory emotional self-
procedure was carried out in accordance with the approved efficacy of college students. The scale had 12 questions and was divided
guidelines. The informed consent signed by the participants. They into three dimensions: regulating emotions in a positive emotional state,
completed a series of questionnaires: the Chinese version of the a negative or depressing episode, and an angry or furious state. Responses
educational stress scale for adolescents (ESSA) (Sun et al., 2011), the were measured on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 “very inconsistent” to 5
parental expectation questionnaire (PEQ) (Cheng, 2010), the “completely consistent.” The higher the total score was, the higher the
regulatory emotional self-efficacy scale-Chinese version (RES-C) regulatory emotional self-efficacy was. An example item was “When
(Tang et al., 2010), and the test anxiety scale-Chinese version I am alone, I can insulate myself from depression.” The scale showed good
(TAS-CV) (Wang, 2001). The participants were asked to complete reliability and validity when verified in Chinese college students (Wu
these questionnaires within 20 min. et al., 2020; Ye et al., 2021). Cronbach’s α in this study was 0.898.

Test anxiety
Measures The test anxiety inventory (TAI), revised by Wang (2001), was used
to measure the test anxiety level of college students. There were 37
Educational stress scale for adolescents questions in the scale, with two-point scoring used (0 represented “no,”
The educational stress scale for adolescents (ESSA) compiled by Sun 1 represented “yes”), among which questions 5, 26, 27, 29 and 33 were
et al. (2011) was employed to measure the academic stress of college reverse scored. The higher the total score was, the higher the anxiety
students. The questionnaire had a total of 16 questions in 5 dimensions: level. A sample item of the scale was “If I were to take an intelligence test,
academic stress, academic burden, anxiety about performance, self- I would feel very anxious beforehand.” The scale has been verified to
expectations and depression. Responses were measured on a 5-point have good reliability and validity in Chinese college students (Xu et al.,
scale from 1 “absolute opposition” to 5 “absolute agreement.” The higher 2020; Huang et al., 2022). Cronbach’s α in this study was 0.861.
the total score was, the greater the academic stress was. An example item
was “My parents expect me to get better grades.” Cronbach’s α in this Analysis strategy
study was 0.921. CFA results showed that this scale fit the data well: χ2/ SPSS 25.0 software and the Process macro program developed by
df = 5.24; CFI = 0.942, TLI = 0.925; RMSEA = 0.057 (90% CI = 0.052– Hayes were used for data analysis, and Model 7 of 81 typical models
0.062); SRMR = 0.050. provided by Hayes (2017) was selected for analysis.

Frontiers in Psychology 03 frontiersin.org

Zheng et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1008679

TABLE 1 The means, standard deviations and gender effects of academic

stress, parental expectations, regulatory emotional self-efficacy and test
both parental expectations and regulatory emotional self-efficacy
anxiety. (p < 0.05, p < 0.01). It can be found that parental expectations were
significantly and positively correlated with regulatory emotional self-
Number Male Female Gender efficacy (p < 0.01), while regulatory emotional self-efficacy was
(N =1,315) (N =576) (N =739) effects
significantly and negatively correlated with test anxiety (p < 0.01).
M SD M SD M SD t p Additionally, gender had a significant negative correlation with
Academic 51.36 10.04 50.97 10.92 51.66 9.30 −1.22 0.221 regulatory emotional self-efficacy (p < 0.01) and a significant positive
stress correlation with test anxiety (p < 0.01). Moreover, there was a significant
Parental 82.48 10.70 83.11 12.21 81.98 9.33 1.84 0.066
negative correlation between age and test anxiety (p < 0.01). Stratification
expectations
analysis was conducted to explore the relationship between academic
stress and test anxiety in different grades. The results showed that there
Regulatory 40.96 8.26 41.68 8.95 40.40 7.65 2.74 0.006
was a significant positive correlation between academic stress and test
emotional
anxiety in freshmen (r = 0.545, p < 0.01), sophomore (r = 0.442, p < 0.01),
self-efficacy
junior students (r = 0.537, p < 0.01), and senior students (r = 0.545,
Test anxiety 17.46 6.99 16.89 7.31 17.91 6.70 −2.60 0.009 p < 0.01).

TABLE 2 Correlation between the variables.

Academic stress and test anxiety: The
1 2 3 4 5 6 moderated mediation effect test
1. Gender -

2. Age −0.04 - Model 7 of the PROCESS macro program compiled by Hayes (2017)
3. Academic 0.03 0.02 -
was employed to test the moderated mediation model. On the condition
stress
of controlling gender and age, taking academic stress as the independent
variable, test anxiety as the dependent variable, regulatory emotional
4. Parental −0.05 −0.02 −0.07* -
self-efficacy as the intermediary variable, and parental expectations as
expectations
the adjusting variable, the bias-correct percentile bootstrap method was
5. Regulatory −0.08** 0.04 −0.44** 0.26** - used for repeated sampling 5,000 times to test the theoretical hypothesis
emotional model (Hayes, 2017). Table 3 showed the specific results.
self-efficacy The results showed that after controlling for gender and age,
6. Test anxiety 0.07** −0.12** 0.52** 0.02 −0.38** - academic stress significantly predicted regulatory emotional self-efficacy
*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. (β = −0.430, p < 0.001) and test anxiety (β = 0.442, p < 0.001), and
regulatory emotional self-efficacy significantly predicted test anxiety
(β = −0.179, p < 0.001). Based on the bootstrap method, it was found that
Results regulatory emotional self-efficacy played a partially mediating role in
academic stress and test anxiety (β = 0.077, SE = 0.013, 95%CI [0.050,
Common method bias inspection 0.103]). In addition, the interaction between academic stress and
parental expectations significantly predicted regulatory emotional self-
In this process, an anonymous method and reverse scoring of some efficacy (β = 0.049, t = 3.386, p < 0.01), which indicated that parental
questions were used to control the test. The Harman single-factor test expectations could significantly moderate the impact of academic stress
was employed to analyze common method biases. The results showed on regulatory emotional self-efficacy. However, the moderating effect on
that the variation explained by the first factor was 16.70%, which was far the relationship between academic stress and test anxiety was not
less than the benchmark of 50% suggested by Podsakoff et al. (2003). significant (β = −0.002, SE = 0.014, 95%CI [−0.029, 0.025]). Moreover,
Furthermore, there were 16 factors with characteristic roots greater than parental expectations failed to moderate the association between
1, which was far greater than this standard, indicating that there were regulatory emotional self-efficacy and test anxiety (β = −0.023,
no obvious common method biases in this study. SE = 0.013, 95%CI [−0.048, 0.002]).
To further reveal the interaction between academic stress and
parental expectations, this study conducted a simple slope test. Parental
Descriptive statistics and correlation expectations were divided into high-level and low-level groups
analyses of the research variables according to a standard deviation. The simple slope test was used to
examine the regulation of parental expectations. The results showed that
The means, standard deviations and gender effects of academic on the condition of low parental expectations (M-SD), academic stress
stress, parental expectations, regulatory emotional self-efficacy and test had a significant negative prediction of regulatory emotional self-
anxiety are shown in Table 1. The results showed that the test anxiety efficacy (β = −0.478, p < 0.001); on the condition of high parental
score of females was significantly higher than males (p < 0.01), and the expectations (M + SD), the negative prediction of academic stress on
regulatory emotional self-efficacy score of males was significantly higher regulatory emotional self-efficacy was still significant, but the effect of
than females (p < 0.01). The correlations between academic stress, prediction was weakened (β = −0.381, p < 0.001). As shown in Figure 2,
parental expectations, regulatory emotional self-efficacy and test anxiety with the increase in parental expectations, at a low level of parental
were listed in Table 2. Academic stress was significantly and positively expectations, academic stress had a stronger negative predictive effect
correlated with test anxiety (p < 0.01) and negatively correlated with on regulatory emotional self-efficacy.

Frontiers in Psychology 04 frontiersin.org

Zheng et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1008679

TABLE 3 The moderated mediation effect test.

Variable Equation 1 Equation 2

Regulatory emotional self-efficacy Test anxiety
β t 95% CI β t 95% CI
Gender −0.052 −2.169* [−0.099, −0.005] 0.039 1.694 [−0.006, 0.084]

Age 0.056 2.363* [0.010, 0.103] −0.120 −5.217*** [−0.165, −0.075]

Academic stress −0.430 −17.869*** [−0.477, −0.382] 0.442 17.337*** [0.392, 0.491]

Parental expectations 0.206 8.220*** [0.157, 0.255]

Regulatory emotional self-efficacy −0.179 −6.989*** [−0.229, −0.128]

Academic stress *Parental expectations 0.049 3.386** [0.020, 0.077]

R 2
0.256 0.314

F 90.208*** 149.563***
*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

FIGURE 2
The mediating role of parental expectations in academic stress and regulatory emotional self-efficacy.

Discussion behavioral or sports components were dominant for males (Wren and
Benson, 2004; Aydin, 2019). Males were more inclined to regard the test
This study explored the relationship between academic stress, as a challenge, and they would choose strategies according to their
parental expectations, regulatory emotional self-efficacy and test anxiety. abilities to complete the task, while females were more likely to regard
The results of the correlation analysis showed that there was a significant the test as a threatening situation, responding with fear, and found it
positive correlation between academic stress and test anxiety, which difficult to complete the task (Torrano et al., 2020). There was a
verified hypothesis 1. There was a significant negative correlation significant difference in the level of regulatory emotional self-efficacy
between parental expectations and academic stress, a significant positive between males and females. More specifically, the level of regulatory
correlation between parental expectations and regulatory emotional emotional self-efficacy of males was significantly higher than that of
self-efficacy, and a significant negative correlation between regulatory females, which was consistent with the results of previous studies
emotional self-efficacy and academic stress and test anxiety, which was (Calandri et al., 2021). Compared with females, males showed more
inconsistent with hypothesis 2. Part of the relationship between confidence in dealing with negative emotions and were socially
academic stress and test anxiety was regulated by regulatory emotional conditioned to respond with silence or positive emotions (Putwain and
self-efficacy, which verified hypothesis 3. More importantly, parental Daly, 2014; Wu, 2020).
expectations mediated the relationship between academic stress and This study indicated that there was a significant positive correlation
regulatory emotional self-efficacy, which verified hypothesis 4. between academic stress and test anxiety, that was, the higher the
The research results showed that there was a significant difference academic stress was, the higher the level of individual test anxiety was,
between males and females in the test anxiety level, and the level of test which was consistent with the results of previous researches (Stankovska
anxiety in females was significantly higher than in males, which was et al., 2018; Fuentes et al., 2019). Various courses, competitions among
consistent with that described in previous researches (Aydin, 2017; Sari students, preparations for a large number of tests in a short time and
et al., 2018; Mascret et al., 2021). In the examination situation, cognitive employment problems created academic stress (Misra and McKean,
and psychological components were dominant for females, while 2000; Fang et al., 2019). Individuals who have been exposed to these

Frontiers in Psychology 05 frontiersin.org

Zheng et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1008679

kinds of pressure for a long time would increase their anxiety levels (Yeo college students perceived their parental expectations, they were
and Lee, 2017; Zhang et al., 2022). Academic stress could not only motivated to enhance their achievements and self-efficacy (Zhang Q. et
directly affect individual test anxiety but also indirectly affect test anxiety al., 2020). According to social capital theory (Coleman, 1988), high
by affecting individual cognition (Wuthrich et al., 2020). levels of parental expectations would affect parental investment in their
Previous studies had rarely explored how the internal mechanism children, such as providing good material conditions and investing more
of academic stress affected test anxiety. This study found that regulatory time and energy in parenting (Liu et al., 2020). In addition, parental
emotional self-efficacy played a partially mediating role between expectations and attitudes would affect individuals’ values and behaviors
academic stress and test anxiety, indicating that academic stress not only through family socialization. Children acquired their parental
directly affected test anxiety but also affected test anxiety by reducing expectations and formed a kind of motivational psychological energy
regulatory emotional self-efficacy. Although the beta value was small, (Goodman and Gregg, 2010). The motivational energy could help
this also suggested that regulatory emotional self-efficacy is one of the individuals cope with academic stress and improve self-efficacy. The
factors affecting academic stress and test anxiety. Long-term academic “Rosenthal Effect” cycle model of parental expectations found that
stress would make students feel that they were in a weak state (Muza and parental expectations helped improve parents’ parenting behaviors
Muhammad, 2020), which would reduce their confidence and decrease toward their children (Ma and Wei, 2017). When parental expectations
their self-efficacy in emotion regulation. In this state, they would pay was at a high level, parents would adopt more positive parenting
more attention to negative emotions rather than positive emotions behaviors and fewer negative parenting behaviors (Li, 2012), which will
(Huang and Guo, 2001). Besides, they could not integrate resources in affected students’ academic attitudes and academic performance.
time and adopt appropriate strategies to effectively deal with their own Moreover, good parental patterns also helped students better cope with
emotional problems so that they were immersed in negative emotions academic stress (Kour et al., 2020). Parental expectations offered
(Xie et al., 2022). Social cognitive theory proposed that individual self- children more external support to improve their academic performance
efficacy played a key role in students’ anxiety and depression and better cope with academic stress. Furthermore, a low level of
(Tahmassian and Moghadam, 2011; Wang and Liu, 2015). The stress of parental expectations might make individuals do not take life and study
tests easily caused anxiety and other negative emotions. Thus, seriously, resulting in poor academic performance and low self-efficacy
individuals who could not fully adjust their negative emotions can (Ndukwu and Ndukwu, 2017; Li et al., 2020). Moreover, we found that
be overwhelmed (Tang et al., 2010), which led to an increase in test the moderating effects on the other two pathways were not significant.
anxiety level. This study failed to find that parental expectations were a significant
It is worth noting that this study found a negative correlation predictor of test anxiety, this might be the reason why parental
between academic stress and parental expectations, which was expectations fail to moderate the other two pathways (Wen and Ye,
inconsistent with results of previous researches (Nagle and Sharma, 2014). Parental expectations in this study included not only academic
2018). This may be because the participant group and level of parental achievement, but also other aspects such as physical and mental quality
expectations of this study were different from previous researches. More (Wei and Xu, 2019; Chai et al., 2020), these aspects were not closely
specifically, the participants in previous researches were students in related to test anxiety.
middle school (Talha et al., 2020; Al Noursi and Al Daheri, 2021).
Compared with middle school students, college students spent less time
with their parents, and they had less needs for higher education Research limitations and future directions
(Högberg, 2021). As a result, parental expectations put more stress on
them. In addition, previous studies suggested that high parental Researches on test anxiety have mainly focused on middle school
expectations were positively related to academic stress (Yamamoto and students, and specific research on college students is not complete. This
Holloway, 2010; Guo et al., 2020), however, the level of parental study took college students as the research participants to explore the
expectations in this study was not too high. This study also found that relationship and internal mechanism between college students’ academic
parental expectations could moderate the relationship between stress and test anxiety. However, there were still some deficiencies. First,
academic stress and regulatory emotional self-efficacy. Despite the beta this study was a cross-sectional study, which could not determine the
value was small, this indicated that parental expectations were one of the causal relationship between academic stress and test anxiety. In the
factors influencing academic stress and regulation emotional self- future, researchers can conduct longitudinal tracking or experimental
efficacy. More specifically, in the condition of low level of parental designs to further explain the impact of academic stress on test anxiety.
expectations, academic stress had a greater negative predictive effect on In addition, although there was no obvious common method deviation
regulatory emotional self-efficacy, while in the condition of a high level in this study, future research can collect data from multiple perspectives;
of parental expectations, academic stress had a smaller negative for example, the expectation questionnaire for students is filled in by
predictive effect on regulatory emotional self-efficacy. The theory of parents to better avoid the problems of common method biases.
relational development systems holds the view that individual
development was a two-way interaction process between individuals
and the environment. Individual systems and environments could Conclusion
independently predict individual development and could also have an
impact through their interaction (Lerner and Callina, 2013). Academic In summary, the present study was an attempt to explore the
stress reflected an individual’s subjective view of academic success or associations between academic stress, parental expectations,
failure (Buzek et al., 2019) and was a risk factor for regulatory emotional regulatory emotional self-efficacy and test anxiety. There was a
self-efficacy. Parental expectations were positive environmental factors significant positive correlation between academic stress and test
that could reduce the negative impact of academic stress on their anxiety. In addition, we found that parental expectations were
children’s regulatory emotional self-efficacy. At the same time, when negatively correlated with academic stress and positively correlated

Frontiers in Psychology 06 frontiersin.org

Zheng et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1008679

with regulatory emotional self-efficacy. Regulatory emotional self- Author contributions

efficacy was negatively correlated with academic stress and test
anxiety. Futhermore, the relationship between academic stress and GZ and GR contributed to the conception, design, and the
test anxiety was partially mediated by regulatory emotional self- examination of data of the present research. GZ and QZ were
efficacy. This indicated that regulatory emotional self-efficacy played contributors to the collection and examination of data and responsible
an important role in the relation between academic stress and test for writing. GR revised the written manuscript. All authors contributed
anxiety. More importantly, we found that parental expectations could to the article and approved the submitted version.
moderate the association between academic stress and regulatory
emotional self-efficacy, suggesting that parental expectations had a
significant effect on the relationship between academic stress and Funding
regulatory emotional self-efficacy. Given the limited numbers of
studies examining the links among parental expectations, regulatory This research was supported by the Meritocracy Research Funds of
emotional self-efficacy, academic stress and test anxiety, further China West Normal University (project no. 17YC221).
studies are needed to investigate additional factors that might link
academic stress and test anxiety.
Conflict of interest
Data availability statement The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence
of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made a potential conflict of interest.
available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Publisher’s note
Ethics statement
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and
The studies involving human participants were reviewed and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or
approved by China West Normal University. Written informed consent those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that
from the participants' legal guardian/next of kin was not required to may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its
participate in this study in accordance with the national legislation and manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
the institutional requirements.

References
Agnew, R. (2017). “General strain theory: current status and directions for further Briley, D. A., Harden, K. P., and Tucker-Drob, E. M. (2014). Child characteristics and
research” in Taking Stock: The Status of Criminological Theory. eds. F. T. Cullen, J. P. Wright parental educational expectations: evidence for transmission with transaction. Dev.
and K. R. Blevins (New York: Routledge), 101–123. Psychol. 50, 2614–2632. doi: 10.1037/a0038094
Akgun, S., and Ciarrochi, J. (2003). Learned resourcefulness moderates the relationship Bronfenbrenner, U. (1992). “Ecological systems theory” in Six Theories of Child
between academic stress and academic performance. Educ. Psychol. 23, 287–294. doi: Development: Revised Formulations and Current Issues. ed. R. Vasta (London: Jessica
10.1080/0144341032000060129 Kingsley Publishers), 188–249.
Al Noursi, O., and Al Daheri, O. (2021). The effects of parental high expectations on Buzek, T., Poulain, T., Vogel, M., Engel, C., Bussler, S., Körner, A., et al. (2019). Relations
middle school students’ overall achievement. Int. J. Contemp. Educ. 4, 58–66. doi: 10.11114/ between sleep duration with overweight and academic stress-just a matter of the
ijce.v4i2.5351 socioeconomic status? Sleep Health 5, 208–215. doi: 10.1016/j.sleh.2018.12.004
Arslan, N. (2017). Investigating the relationship between educational stress and Calandri, E., Graziano, F., and Rollé, L. (2021). Social media, depressive symptoms and
emotional self-efficacy. Univ. J. Educ. Res. 5, 1736–1740. doi: 10.13189/ujer.2017.051010 well-being in early adolescence: the moderating role of emotional self-efficacy and gender.
Front. Psychol. 12:660740. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.660740
Arusha, A. R., and Biswas, R. K. (2020). Prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression due
to examination in Bangladeshi youths: a pilot study. Child Youth Serv. Rev. 116:105254. doi: Chai, C., Feng, X., Liu, L., and Chen, H. (2020). Effect of parenting expectation on
10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105254 parenting stress in primary school students’ parents: a mediating effect of parenting sense
of competence. Chin. J. Health Psychol. 10, 1514–1518. doi: 10.13342/j.cnki.
Aydin, U. (2017). Test anxiety: do gender and school-level matter? Eur. J. Educ. Res. 6,
cjhp.2020.10.018
187–197. doi: 10.12973/eu-jer.6.2.187
Chen, S., and Ye, G. (2009). The relationship of test anxiety and academic achievement:
Aydin, U. (2019). Test anxiety: gender differences in elementary school students. Eur. J.
the role of moderated mediators. Psychol. Res. 1, 74–79.
Educ. Res. 8, 21–30. doi: 10.12973/eu-jer.8.1.21
Cheng, L. (2010). Parents’ Expectation, Self-Expectation and Their Relations with
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Adv.
Learning Achievement on Junior Middle School Student. Henan University. Unpublished
Behav. Res. Ther. 84, 191–215. doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191
Master Dissertation. Henan University, Kaifeng.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: W.H Freeman.
Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. Am. J. Sociol. 94,
Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory: an agentic perspective. Asian J. Soc. Psychol. S95–S120. doi: 10.1086/228943
2, 21–41. doi: 10.1111/1467-839X.00024
Dan, Z., Guan, F., and You, X. (2021). The relationship between psychological stressors
Bandura, A., Caprara, G. V., Barbaranelli, C., Gerbino, M., and Pastorelli, C. (2003). Role and stress experience of college students in Tibet: the mediating and regulating effects of
of affective self-regulatory efficacy in diverse spheres of psychosocial functioning. Child psychological capital. J. Tibet Univ. 3, 229–234. doi: 10.16249/j.cnki.1005-5738.2021.03.030
Dev. 74, 769–782. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00567
Eysenck, M. W., Derakshan, N., Santos, R., and Calvo, M. G. (2007). Anxiety and
Bentley, H., O’Hagan, O., Raff, A., and Bhatti, I. (2016). How safe are our children? The cognitive performance: attentional control theory. Emotion 7, 336–353. doi:
most comprehensive overview of child protection in the UK. London, UK: NSPCC. 10.1037/1528-3542.7.2.336
Bhat, R. H. (2017). Emotional intelligence of adolescents in relation to their test anxiety Fang, Y., Dong, Y., and He, W. (2019). Research on influencing factors and
and academic stress. Rehabilitation 2, 21–25. doi: 10.11648/j.rs.20170201.15 countermeasures of college students’ academic stress. Sci. Techol. Vision 1, 1–2. doi:
10.19694/j.cnki.issn2095-2457.2019.01.001
Borekci, C., and Uyangor, N. (2018). Family attitude, academic procrastination and test
anxiety as predictors of academic achievement. Int. J. Educ. Methodol. 4, 219–226. doi: Finn, J. D. (1972). Expectations and the educational environment. Rev. Educ. Res. 42,
10.12973/ijem.4.4.219 387–410. doi: 10.3102/00346543042003387

Frontiers in Psychology 07 frontiersin.org

Zheng et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1008679

Fuentes, M. C., García-Ros, R., Pérez-González, F., and Sancerni, D. (2019). Effects of Nagle, Y. K., and Sharma, U. (2018). Academic stress and coping mechanism among
parenting styles on self-regulated learning and academic stress in Spanish adolescents. Int. students: an Indian perspective. J. Child Adolesc. Psychol. 2, 6–8.
J. Environ. Res. Public Health 16:2778. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16152778
Ndukwu, E. C., and Ndukwu, E. N. (2017). Influence of parental expectations on pupils’
Goodman, A., and Gregg, P. (Eds.). (2010). Poorer Children's Educational Attainment: self-efficacy and academic success. Int. Acad. J. Soc. Sci. Educ. 1, 75–88.
How Important are Attitudes and Behaviour? (pp. 76–92). York: Joseph
Rowntree Foundation. Ne Eman-Haviv, V., and Bonny-Noach, H. (2019). Substances as self-treatment for
cognitive test anxiety among undergraduate students. J. Psychoactive Drugs 51, 78–84. doi:
Guo, X., Guo, L., He, S., Liu, C., and Luo, L. (2020). Mothers’ filial piety and 10.1080/02791072.2018.1564090
children’s academic achievement: the indirect effect via mother-child discrepancy in
perceived parental expectations. Educ. Psychol. 40, 1230–1248. doi: Pinquart, M., and Ebeling, M. (2020). Parental educational expectations and academic
10.1080/01443410.2020.1749235 achievement in children and adolescents—a meta-analysis. Educ. Psychol. Rev. 32, 463–480.
doi: 10.1007/s10648-019-09506-z
Guo, C., Hu, X., Li, G., and Fang, J. (2022). The effects of time management disposition
on high school students’ test anxiety: a multiple mediation model. Psychol. Res. 2, 174–184. Podsakoff, P. M., Mac Kenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., and Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common
doi: 10.19988/j.cnki.issn.2095-1159.2022.02.012 method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended
remedies. J. Appl. Psychol. 88, 879–903. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879
Hayes, A. F. (2017). Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process
Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach. New York: Guilford Publications. Putwain, D., and Daly, A. L. (2014). Test anxiety prevalence and gender differences in a sample
of English secondary school students. Educ. Stud. 40, 554–570. doi: 10.1080/03055698.2014.953914
Högberg, B. (2021). Educational stressors and secular trends in school stress and mental
health problems in adolescents. Soc. Sci. Med. 270:113616. doi: 10.1016/j. Rauscher, E., Elliott, W., O'Brien, M., Callahan, J., and Steensma, J. (2017). Examining
socscimed.2020.113616 the relationship between parental educational expectations and a community-based
children’s savings account program. Child Youth Serv. Rev. 74, 96–107. doi: 10.1016/j.
Huang, M., and Guo, D. (2001). Emotion regulation and depression of college students. childyouth.2017.02.005
Chin. Ment. Health J. 6, 438–441.
Rodway, C., Tham, S. G., Ibrahim, S., Turnbull, P., Windfuhr, K., Shaw, J., et al. (2016).
Huang, Q., Hou, L., Zhang, W., and Zhou, R. (2022). The dysregulation of top-down Suicide in children and young people in England: a consecutive case series. Lancet 3,
control in individuals with high test anxiety: a resting state fMRI study. J. Psychiatr. Res. 751–759. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(16)30094-3
151, 649–656. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.05.023
Sari, S. A., Bilek, G., and Çelik, E. (2018). Test anxiety and self-esteem in senior high
Huang, N., Qiu, S., Alizadeh, A., and Wu, H. (2020). How incivility and academic stress
school students: a cross-sectional study. Nord. J. Psychiatry 72, 84–88. doi:
influence psychological health among college students: the moderating role of gratitude.
10.1080/08039488.2017.1389986
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 17:3237. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17093237
Shen, Q., and Li, Y. (2020). The influence of parenting style on college students’ social
Izzati, I. D. C., Tentama, F., and Suyono, H. (2020). Academic stress scale: a psychometric
responsibility: the mediating role of self-efficacy. Chin. J. Clin. Psych. 5, 1042–1046. doi:
study for academic stress in senior high school. Eur. J. Educ. Stud. 7, 153–168. doi:
10.16128/j.cnki.1005-3611.2020.05.038
10.46827/ejes.v7i7.3161
Stankovska, G., Dimitrovski, D., Angelkoska, S., Ibraimi, Z., and Uka, V. (2018).
Jiang, S., Ren, Q., Jiang, C., and Wang, L. (2021). Academic stress and depression of
Emotional intelligence, test anxiety and academic stress among university students. Bulg.
Chinese adolescents in junior high schools: moderated mediation model of school burnout
Comp. Educ. Soc. 16, 157–164.
and self-esteem. J. Affect. Disord. 295, 384–389. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.08.085
Kour, S., Rani, F., and Vats, N. (2020). Academic stress and self concept in adolescent Subramani, C., and Venkatachalam, J. (2019). Sources of academic stress among higher
students: a moderated mediation model of coping strategies and democratic parenting secondary school students. Int. Rev. Soc. Sci. Humanit. 9, 488–492.
styles. Eur. J. Mol. Clin. Med. 7:2020. Sun, J., Dunne, M. P., Hou, X. Y., and Xu, A. Q. (2011). Educational stress scale for
Leadbeater, B., Thompson, K., and Gruppuso, V. (2012). Co-occurring trajectories adolescents: development, validity, and reliability with Chinese students. J. Psychoeduc.
of symptoms of anxiety, depression, and oppositional defiance from adolescence to Assess. 29, 534–546. doi: 10.1177/0734282910394976
young adulthood. J. Clin. Child Adolesc. Psychol. 41, 719–730. doi: Sun, J., Dunne, M. P., Hou, X. Y., and Xu, A. Q. (2013). Educational stress among Chinese
10.1080/15374416.2012.694608 adolescents: individual, family, school and peer influences. Educ. Rev. 65, 284–302. doi:
Lerner, R. M., and Callina, K. S. (2013). Relational developmental systems theories and 10.1080/00131911.2012.659657
the ecological validity of experimental designs. Human Development 56, 372–380. doi: Tahmassian, K., and Moghadam, N. J. (2011). Relationship between self-efficacy and
10.1159/000357179 symptoms of anxiety, depression, worry and social avoidance in a normal sample of
Li, J. (2012). The Relationship Among Parenting Style, Student Burnout and Learning students. Iran. J. Psychiatry Behav. Sci. 5, 91–98.
Engagement. Shandong Normal University. Unpublished Master Dissertation. Shandong Talha, M. A., Qi, X., and Rizwan, M. (2020). Cultural impact of perceived parental
Normal University, Jinan. expectations on students’ academic stress. Ann. Soc. Sci. Perspect. 1, 53–65. doi: 10.52700/
Li, J., and Hu, Y. (2021). How does shooting for the stars come true? – from the assap.v1i2.25
perspective of consistency and difference of parent-child educational expectation. Soc. Tang, D., Dong, Y., Yu, G., and Wen, S. (2010). The regulatory emotional self-efficacy: a
Stud. 3, 204–224+230. new research topic. Adv. Psychol. Sci. 4, 598–604.
Li, Y., Hu, T., Ge, T., and Auden, E. (2019). The relationship between home-based
Thomas, C. L., Cassady, J. C., and Finch, W. H. (2018). Identifying severity standards on
parental involvement, parental educational expectation and academic performance of
the cognitive test anxiety scale: cut score determination using latent class and cluster
middle school students in mainland China: a mediation analysis of cognitive ability. Int. J.
analysis. J. Psychoeduc. Assess. 36, 492–508. doi: 10.1177/0734282916686004
Educ. Res. 97, 139–153. doi: 10.1016/j.ijer.2019.08.003
Torrano, R., Ortigosa, J. M., Riquelme, A., Méndez, F. J., and López-Pina, J. A. (2020).
Li, L., Shi, J., Wu, D., and Li, H. (2020). Only child, parental educational expectation,
Test anxiety in adolescent students: different responses according to the components of
self-expectation and science literacy in Zhuang adolescents in China: a serial mediation
anxiety as a function of sociodemographic and academic variables. Front. Psychol.
model. Child Youth Serv. Rev. 115:105084. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105084
11:612270. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.612270
Li, Y., and Wang, Y. (2019). Hukou-based housing stratification of parental education
aspiration: analysis of rural parental educational expectation disadvantage and its Trigueros, R., Padilla, A. M., Aguilar-Parra, J. M., Rocamora, P., Morales-Gázquez, M. J.,
influencing factors. Lanzhou Acad. J. 10, 194–208. and López-Liria, R. (2020). The influence of emotional intelligence on resilience, test
anxiety, academic stress and the mediterranean diet. A study with university students. Int.
Liu, Y., Jiang, Q., and Chen, F. (2020). Children’s gender and parental educational J. Environ. Res. Public Health 17:2071. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17062071
strategies in rural and urban China: the moderating roles of sibship size and family
resources. Chin. Sociol. Rev. 52, 239–268. doi: 10.1080/21620555.2020.1717942 Türk, F., and Katmer, A. N. (2019). A study on the effectiveness of coping with test
anxiety program based on cognitive-behavioral approach. Int. J. Eval. Res. Educ. 8,
Ma, X., and Wei, Y. (2017). The study of “Rosenthal effect” cycle model on parental 666–675. doi: 10.11591/ijere.v8i4.20316
education aspiration – based on the model testing of CEPS. Soc. Sci. Xinjiang 1,
135–140. von der Embse, N., Jester, D., Roy, D., and Post, J. (2018). Test anxiety effects, predictors,
and correlates: a 30-year meta-analytic review. J. Affect. Disord. 227, 483–493. doi:
Mascret, N., Danthony, S., and Cury, F. (2021). Anxiety during tests and regulatory 10.1016/j.jad.2017.11.048
dimension of anxiety: a five-factor French version of the revised test anxiety scale. Curr.
Psychol. 40, 5322–5332. doi: 10.1007/s12144-019-00481-w Wang, C. (2001). Reliability and validity of test anxiety scale-Chinese version. Chin.
Ment. Health J. 2, 96–97+95.
McKay, M. T., Dempster, M., and Byrne, D. G. (2014). An examination of the relationship
between self-efficacy and stress in adolescents: the role of gender and self-esteem. J. Youth Wang, Y., and Benner, A. D. (2014). Parent–child discrepancies in educational
Stud. 17, 1131–1151. doi: 10.1080/13676261.2014.901494 expectations: differential effects of actual versus perceived discrepancies. Child Dev. 85,
891–900. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12171
Misra, R., and McKean, M. (2000). College students’ academic stress and its relation to
their anxiety, time management, and leisure satisfaction. Am. J. Health Stud. 16:41. Wang, J., and Liu, A. (2015). The mediating effect of emotional regulation self-efficacy
on abuse and depression in college students. Chin. J. Ment. Health 4, 305–310.
Muza, S. H., and Muhammad, S. (2020). Academic stress and academic motivation
among undergraduate students of Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, Aliero Wang, Y., and Zhao, X. (2015). Mediating effect of regulatory emotional self-efficacy
Kebbi state, Nigeria. Int. J. Adv. Acad. Res. Arts Hum. Educ. 6, 67–76. doi: 10.46654/ between mindfulness and test anxiety. Chin. J. Clin. Psych. 4, 746–749. doi: 10.16128/j.
ij.24889849 cnki.1005-3611.2015.04.042

Frontiers in Psychology 08 frontiersin.org

Zheng et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1008679

Wei, Y., and Xu, F. (2019). Relationship among academic adjustment, school alienation Yao, J., Liu, X., and Li, B. (2010). Effects of achievement goals and academic self-efficacy on
and teachers/parents’ expectation perception in rural left - behind junior high school test anxiety among middle school students. J. Inner Mongolia Norm Univ. (Educ. Sci. Ed.) 6,
student. Chin. J. Health Psychol. 10, 1559–1564. doi: 10.13342/j.cnki.cjhp.2019.10.029 53–56.
Wells, R. S., Seifert, T. A., and Saunders, D. B. (2013). Gender and realized educational Ye, B., Li, L., Wang, P., Wang, R., Liu, M., Wang, X., et al. (2021). Social anxiety and
expectations: the roles of social origins and significant others. Res. High. Educ. 54, 599–626. subjective well-being among Chinese college students: a moderated mediation model.
doi: 10.1007/s11162-013-9308-5 Personal. Individ. Differ. 175:110680. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.110680
Wen, Z., and Ye, B. (2014). Different methods for testing moderated mediation models: Yeo, S. K., and Lee, W. K. (2017). The relationship between adolescents’ academic stress,
competitors or backups? J. Psychol. 46, 714–726. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.00714 impulsivity, anxiety, and skin picking behavior. Asian J. Psychiatr. 28, 111–114. doi:
Worku, D., Dirriba, A. B., Wordofa, B., and Fetensa, G. (2020). Perceived stress, 10.1016/j.ajp.2017.03.039
depression, and associated factors among undergraduate health science students at Arsi Ying, J., You, J., and Guo, J. (2020). The protective effects of youth assets on the
university in 2019 in Oromia, Ethiopia. Psychiatry J. 2020, 1–8. doi: 10.1155/2020/4956234 associations among academic stress, regulatory emotional self-efficacy, and suicidal risk: a
Wren, D. G., and Benson, J. (2004). Measuring test anxiety in children: scale development moderated mediation model. Child Youth Serv. Rev. 119:105660. doi: 10.1016/j.
and internal construct validation. Anxiety Stress Coping 17, 227–240. doi: childyouth.2020.105660
10.1080/10615800412331292606 Zeng, D., and Liao, S. (2019). Effect of social support on the regulatory emotional self-
Wu, Y. (2020). Assessing regulatory emotional self-efficacy within overseas Chinese efficacy in the patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. China Med. Herald 24,
university students. Curr. Psychol. 41, 4789–4801. doi: 10.1007/s12144-020-00987-8 126–128.

Wu, Q., Ran, G., and Zhang, Q. (2020). Rejection sensitivity and trait anxiety: the Zhang, W., De Beuckelaer, A., Chen, L., and Zhou, R. (2019). ERP evidence for inhibitory
indirect effects of regulatory emotional self-efficacy and shyness. Curr. Psychol. 41, control deficits in test-anxious individuals. Front. Psych. 10:645. doi: 10.3389/
5481–5490. doi: 10.1007/s12144-020-01070-y fpsyt.2019.00645
Wuthrich, V. M., Jagiello, T., and Azzi, V. (2020). Academic stress in the final years of Zhang, C., Shi, L., Tian, T., Zhou, Z., Peng, X., Shen, Y., et al. (2022). Associations
school: a systematic literature review. Child Psychiatry Hum. Dev. 51, 986–1015. doi: between academic stress and depressive symptoms mediated by anxiety symptoms and
10.1007/s10578-020-00981-y hopelessness among Chinese college students. Psychol. Res. Behav. Manag. 15, 547–556.
doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S353778
Xie, Y., Wu, J., Wang, S., and Yang, Z. (2022). The effect of childhood emotional neglect
on college students’ depression: the chain mediating effect of perceived control and Zhang, W. J., Yan, C., Shum, D., and Deng, C. P. (2020). Responses to academic stress
regulatory emotional self-efficacy. Psychol. Dev. Educ. 3, 407–417. doi: 10.16187/j.cnki. mediate the association between sleep difficulties and depressive/anxiety symptoms in
issn1001-4918.2022.03.12 Chinese adolescents. J. Affect. Disord. 263, 89–98. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2019.11.157
Xu, F., Cai, Y., and Tu, D. (2020). Psychometric properties of TAS, TAI, FAT test anxiety Zhang, Q., Yang, H., Liu, F., and Li, S. (2020). Parental educational aspiration and school
scales 6 in Chinese university students: a Bifactor IRT study. Curr. Psychol. 41, 2250–2263. engagement among left-behind children: parental involvement and self-educational
doi: 10.1007/s12144-020-00610-w aspiration as mediators. Chin. J. Spec. Educ. 3, 76–82.
Yamamoto, Y., and Holloway, S. D. (2010). Parental expectations and children's academic Zhu, X., Haegele, J. A., Liu, H., and Yu, F. (2021). Academic stress, physical activity, sleep,
performance in sociocultural context. Educ. Psychol. Rev. 22, 189–214. doi: 10.1007/ and mental health among Chinese adolescents. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 18:7257.
s10648-010-9121-z doi: 10.3390/ijerph18147257

Frontiers in Psychology 09 frontiersin.org