The mediating role of automatic thoughts on the predictive power of self-respects, test anxiety, gender and burnout levels on academic success

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of mediating role of automatic thinking in explaining the academic achievement of the eighth graders by gender according to their self-esteem, test anxiety and burnout levels. Correlational screening and causal comparative screening methods were used in the study. The population of the study is middle school students in Black sea region of Turkey. The sample consists of 403 eighth graders, selected through cluster sampling method among the secondary school students in a province in the Central Black Sea region. The sample consisted of 216 girls and 187 males. Personal Information Form, developed by the researcher, Automatic Thinking Scale, Maslach Burnout Scale, Coopersmith Self-Esteem Scale and Monthly Awareness Scale were used as data collection tools. The validity and reliability of the scales were established in the previous studies. SPSS 22.00 was used in the data analysis to conduct Hierarchical Multiple Regression and a factorial ANCOVA. As a result of the research, it was found that test anxiety and burnout levels were significant predictors of academic achievement in the eighth-grade students. It was seen that while self-esteem was a significant predictor of academic achievement, it was not effective considered along with burnout and test anxiety. According to gender, burnout and test anxiety were significant predictors of academic achievement for both sexes. On the other hand, when automatic thinking was held constant, there was no difference in academic achievement according to test anxiety, burnout and test anxiety & burnout interaction. Accordingly, when evaluated together with test anxiety and burnout, there is no interaction between gender and academic achievement. When the results of the research are analyzed by gender, it was seen that the automatic thinking is held constant, burnout for the girls was a factor, explaining academic achievement. The negative bivariate relationshipsamong the variables suggested that as automatic thoughts and burnout level increases, academic achievement decreases. As an interesting finding, male students' burnout levels did not surface asa factor explaining academic achievement in the presence of automatic thoughts. Academic achievement is a multifaceted variant. Its relations with self-control and self-regulation can be considered as well as its relations with test anxiety, burnout, and automatic thoughts as considered in the current study. According to the findings of the current research, seminars, group guidance, psycho-education and group psychological counseling services can be provided to the students in improving their academic achievement through rooting positive self-thoughts, skills to reduce test anxiety and also measures to prevent burnout in adolescents.