Relation between academic anxiety and primary school students’ academic achievement: problem-solving ability as mediator

This study explored the relationships among academic anxiety, academic achievement and problem-solving ability. Participants were 683 students from 10 primary schools in Wuhan, China. We analyzed participants’ scores including academic anxiety, problem solving ability, and the latest examination scores. Structural equation model and bias-corrected bootstrap method were used in this study. The results showed that academic anxiety not only affected academic achievement directly and negatively, but also indirectly affected academic achievement through problem solving ability. Therefore, it was suggested to alleviate students’ academic anxiety by creating a good learning environment, focus on the development of problem-solving ability, improve students’ academic achievement. This study contributed to understanding the important role of problem-solving ability in academic anxiety and academic achievement, provided a reference for how to improve academic achievement.