Adolescent Test Anxiety Intervention - Data

This study hypothesized that emotion regulation strategies would significantly reduce test anxiety, with cognitive reappraisal demonstrating superior effectiveness compared to expressive suppression; that the effectiveness of expressive suppression would increase with age; and that mixed strategies would outperform single strategies. Data revealed that cognitive reappraisal significantly increased valence and reduced arousal in both early and late adolescence, with larger effect sizes observed in late adolescence; expressive suppression reduced arousal without altering valence in early adolescence, but improved both valence and reduced arousal in late adolescence; and mixed strategies proved less effective than cognitive reappraisal alone. Notably, expressive suppression demonstrated differential developmental effectiveness: early adolescents, constrained by immature prefrontal-limbic integration, could only suppress physiological arousal using this strategy, whereas late adolescents utilized it to achieve social goals, thereby enhancing valence. The advantage of cognitive reappraisal in late adolescence stemmed from greater prefrontal cortex maturity supporting complex cognitive reframing. The inefficacy of mixed strategies likely resulted from resource depletion due to simultaneous execution of cognitive restructuring and behavioral inhibition; the limited capacity of the early adolescent neurocognitive system to coordinate dual strategies particularly exacerbated this competitive resource allocation.