The Relationship Between Academic Social Comparison And Test Anxiety Of Junior Middle School Students:The Mediating Role And Intervention Of Rumination

With the implementation of our new secondary school examination policy,the ratio of general education to vocational education has been adjusted to a certain extent,which means that some junior secondary school students will not be able to enter general senior secondary schools for their studies after graduation.Under such pressure to progress to higher education,most students may experience adverse academic emotions such as test anxiety when facing examinations.Test anxiety refers to the anxiety that students feel about the process of taking tests and their results.High levels of test anxiety can affect an individual’s level of mental health to a certain extent.In addition,as a typical evaluation situation,students will actively or passively compare themselves with other people’s academic factors,that is,academic social comparison.In this process,students’ selfevaluations are somewhat satisfied.Differences in students’ tendency to make academic social comparisons can also manifest in different psychological states in exam situations,and ruminative thinking,as a cognitive approach within this mechanism,can also have an impact on exam anxiety.Therefore,this study aims to explore the relationship between academic social comparison,ruminant thinking and test anxiety in junior high school students and the mediating role of ruminant thinking in this mechanism,and to design a mental health education curriculum intervention programme on ruminant thinking to alleviate students’ test anxiety.The study was divided into two steps.Firstly,hundreds of junior middle school students,including grade one and grade two students,were found in a middle school in Wuhan.Then questionnaire survey was used to collect and analyze data uniformly.And test the relationship between academic social comparison,rumination and test anxiety,as well as the mediating role of rumination.Secondly,according to the data analysis results of study 1,two classes of eighth grade were selected,one was the experimental class,and the other was the control class.The former took the mental health class,while the latter avoided taking the classes with similar themes,and were tested before and after.Finally,we examined whether the mental health course had an intervention effect,reducing rumination and test anxiety.The conclusion is as follows:(1)There was a significant positive correlation between academic social comparison,ruminative thinking,and test anxiety in junior high school students.(2)Rumination plays a mediating role between social comparison and test anxiety of junior middle school students.(3)Rumination thinking mental health education course can significantly relieve junior middle school students’ negative rumination thinking level,and then relieve primary school pupils’ exam anxiety.