The mediating role of self compassion and self regulation in the relationship between acceptance/attention parental attitudes and exam anxiety

The aim of this study is to examine the mediating roles of self-regulation and self-compassion in the relationship between parental attitudes and test anxiety levels of eighth-grade students transitioning to secondary education. The relationships between the variables of the study—parental attitude acceptance sub-dimension (external variable), self-regulation and self-compassion (mediating variables)—and test anxiety (internal variable) were analyzed within the framework of a chain mediation model. The research was conducted according to a correlational survey model, a quantitative research method. The sample consisted of 346 eighth-grade students attending various middle schools in a province located in the Central Black Sea Region. Data were collected using a Personal Information Sheet, the Parental Attitude Scale, the Turkish Self-Compassion Scale, the Self-Regulation Scale, and Ayda Test Anxiety Scale. Descriptive statistics, Structural Equation Modeling, and Bootstrap-based mediation analyses were used in data analyses by the use of AMOS and SPSS software packages. The research findings indicate that the acceptance sub-dimension of parental attitude is associated with test anxiety, and this relationship largely manifests through self-regulation and self-compassion. It was determined that the more students perceived family attitudes as "Acceptance", their self-regulation skills improved as well, an increase in self-regulation strengthened their self-compassion levels, and improved self-compassion significantly reduces test anxiety, both in cognitive/physiological, and anxiety caused by social environments. The analyses revealed that self-regulation and self-compassion play a chain mediating role in the relationship between the acceptance sub-dimension of parental attitude and test anxiety. These findings highlight the importance of approaches based on parental acceptance, as well as psycho-educational interventions aimed at improving students' self-regulation and self-compassion skills, in reducing test anxiety.