Unpleasant past experience as a determinant of cognitive, behavioral and physiological responses to academic stress in professional examination candidates

Abstract This investigation established unpleasant past experience in interdependent and predictive relations with irrational beliefs, test anxiety, self-regulated study and academic stress, variables belonging to the competency for performing in highly demanding contexts. Participants were 221 candidates enrolled in preparatory academies, where they were preparing for competitive exams for posts as public elementary school teachers. The variables were measured using validated self-reports. A linear, ex post-facto design was used, with inferential and structural analyses. Unpleasant experience was shown to have significant, positive, interdependent relations with irrational beliefs and physiological stress responses, as well as negative relations with self-regulated study. Significant, predictive, structural relations were found between unpleasant experience and cognitive, behavioral, and physiological stress responses. These results partially validate the relationships shown in the SLPS Competency model, which explains learning in stressful contexts; and offer evidence of the need to train students for these situations.