COVID-19 meets control-value theory: Emotional reactions to canceled high-stakes examinations

David W Putwain; Wendy Symes; Zhané Marsh-Henry; Herbert W Marsh; Reinhard Pekrun

doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2023.102319

COVID-19 meets control-value theory: Emotional reactions to canceled high-stakes examinations

Learn Individ Differ. 2023 Jul:105:102319. doi: 10.1016/j.lindif.2023.102319. Epub 2023 Jun 19.

Authors

David W Putwain¹, Wendy Symes², Zhané Marsh-Henry¹, Herbert W Marsh³, Reinhard Pekrun^{3

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Affiliations

¹ School of Education, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
² Department of Education, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
³ Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University, Sydney, Australia.
⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, UK.
⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Munich, Munich, Germany.

Abstract

In many countries, examinations scheduled for summer 2020 were canceled as part of measures designed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. To examine how four retrospective emotions about canceled examinations (relief, gratitude, disappointment, and anger) and one prospective emotion (test anxiety) were related to control-value appraisals, a sample of 474 participants in the UK aged 15-19 years, who would have taken high-stakes examinations if they had not been canceled, self-reported measures of control, value, retrospective emotions and test anxiety. Data were analysed using the confirmatory factor analysis within exploratory structural equation modeling (EwC) approach. Relief, gratitude, and anger were predicted from expectancy × value interactions. Disappointment was related to expectancy only. Test anxiety was predicted independently by expectancy and positive/negative value. Findings offer broad support for Control-Value Theory and show how the appraisals underpinning achievement emotions can differ when focused on canceled examinations rather than success or failure.

Keywords: Achievement emotions; COVID-19; Canceled examinations; Control-value theory.