Academic anxiety mediates between one-tenth and one-fifth of the social class test gap across social class indicators, anxiety forms, and school domains

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2024 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q2 i? In Studies 2a-2b, the negative effect of anxiety accounted for between 10% and 19% of the positive association between each social class indicator and test performance. → Nele Claes 2024 q2 i? In Study 1, mathematics anxiety accounted for 17% of the positive association between parental education and mathematics performance. → Nele Claes 2024 (2)

Evidence¶

Nele Claes 2024¶

Nele Claes, Annique Smeding, Arnaud Carré, Nicolas Sommet. (2024). The social class test gap: A worldwide investigation of the role of academic anxiety and income inequality in standardized test score disparities. Journal of Educational Psychology, 116(6), 871-888. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000881

q2 · i? · associational · r3

Mediation analyses within the PISA 2012 and 2015 multilevel models showed social class → anxiety → test performance mediations in the expected direction for all indicators; "Study 2a: all indirect effects ≥ .01, all ps <.001; Study 2b, all indirect effects ≥ 0.002, all p <.001".

"The negative effect of anxiety accounted for between 10% and 19% of the positive association between social class indicators (i.e., parental education, family cultural capital, and family economic capital) and test performance"

Nele Claes 2024 (2)¶

q2 · i? · associational · r3

Study 1 mediation analysis on PISA 2003 data (276,165 students, 41 countries) found a parental education → mathematics anxiety → mathematics performance mediation, "indirect effect = 0.02 [0.02, 0.03], p < .001" (Figure 1, upper panel).

"Parental education was negatively associated with mathematics anxiety, β = - 0.09 [- 0.11, - 0.07], p < .001, which accounted for 17%7 of the positive association between parental education and mathematics performance"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

Academic Anxiety — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
Affect Regulation — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`claim`
`id`	`anxiety-mediation-social-class-test-gap`
`title`	`Academic anxiety mediates between one-tenth and one-fifth of the social class test gap across social class indicators, anxiety forms, and school domains`
`description`	`Academic anxiety mediates between one-tenth and one-fifth of the social class test gap across social class indicators, anxiety forms, and school domains`
`status`	`review`
`evidence_strength`	`moderate`
`newest_evidence`	`2024`
`generated`	by `process:wiki-ingest` on `2026-10-24`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
`sources`	2 — `nele-claes-2024`, `nele-claes-2024-2`

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Academic anxiety mediates between one-tenth and one-fifth of the social class test gap across social class indicators, anxiety forms, and school domains¶