The predictive effects of fear appeal evaluation and achievement emotions on student engagement

Fear appeals are persuasive teacher messages that highlight the negative consequences of failing a high-stakes test. Student evaluations of fear appeals differentially relate to motivational variables and achievement. The current aim was to investigate how a challenge and threat evaluation of fear appeals about an upcoming high-stakes test predict four test-related emotions and behavioural engagement in secondary school students. Additionally, the mediational role of achievement emotions was examined. The control-value theory of achievement emotions (CVT; Pekrun, 2006) proposes that enjoyment and hope will positively predict engagement, hopelessness will be a negative predictor and anxiety can have variable effects. Participants were 1,488 students (52.5% female, aged 14-16 years) in the final two years of compulsory education in England. They completed questionnaires at three time points over two years. Structural equation modelling showed that challenge evaluation positively predicted enjoyment, hope and engagement, negatively predicted hopelessness and did not predict anxiety. Threat evaluation positively predicted anxiety and hopelessness, and negatively predicted enjoyment, hope and engagement. Enjoyment and anxiety positively predicted engagement, while hope and hopelessness did not. Enjoyment partially mediated the relationship between challenge and engagement. Anxiety partially mediated the relationship between threat and engagement. The propositions of CVT were supported. The positive predictive effects of anxiety on engagement reflect the increased effort that anxious students put in to avoid failure, this anxiety being induced by fear appeals. The role of anxiety as a mediator between fear appeal evaluations and outcomes should be investigated further using various measures of motivation, engagement and achievement.