Does anxiety consistently affect the achievement goals of college students? A four-wave longitudinal investigation from China

The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate the relationship between anxiety and achievement goals among college students in China. The study collected the anxiety levels and achievement goals of college students from the freshman to senior years and conducted a four-wave random intercept cross-lagged model to analyze their prospective relationship. The results showed that (1) Chinese college students continued to score higher on approach goals than on avoidance goals on average, indicating that they tended to accomplish their goals through effort rather than to avoid negative results; (2) Anxiety was significantly negatively correlated with mastery-approach goals yet positively associated with mastery-avoidance goals and performance-avoidance goals over the four academic years; and (3) Anxiety among freshman students exerted significant positive effects on their mastery goals during the sophomore year, whereas high levels of anxiety during the sophomore year generated more avoidance goals during the junior year, and anxiety in the junior year led to fewer approach goals during the senior year. Furthermore, performance-avoidance goals had persistent effects on anxiety symptoms among college students. This study suggests that it is necessary to distinguish the heterogeneous effects of anxiety on achievement goals during different academic years. Students in the freshman year should maintain proper levels of anxiety to promote their pursuit of mastery goals; nevertheless, anxiety among sophomores and juniors should be approximately alleviated to reduce their avoidance goals and generate more approach goals.