Music performance anxiety: Exploring structural relations with self-efficacy, boost, and self-rated performance

Abstract

The first aim of this study was to analyse performance self-efficacy as a predictor of music performance anxiety (MPA), and performance boost and self-rated performance as their outcomes in a sample of students and professionals (teachers and performers). This work also tries to ascertain the similarities and differences between genders and professional status by means of bivariate correlations, MANOVA, and structural equation model (SEM) analyses. A sample of 270 Spanish musicians participated in the study. With regard to the similarities, MPA was negatively predicted by self-efficacy and was a negative predictor of boost; the total effect of MPA on performance was negative and significant. Self-efficacy was a positive predictor of boost and performance. On the contrary, the predictive power of boost over performance was not significant. MPA mediated the effects of self-efficacy on boost; analogously, self-efficacy and boost mediated the influence of efficacy on performance. All of these relationships were equivalent for the four groups of females, males, students, and professionals. As for the main differences, the study showed that performers obtained the highest values in selfefficacy, boost, and performance; students surpassed teachers and performers in MPA; and females were the most anxious subsample. We discuss these findings, acknowledging their limitations and highlighting their implications.

Music Student’s Approach to the Forced Use of Remote Performance Assessments

“…The self-efficacy questionnaire, originally validated by Ritchie and Williamon (2011) has been used to assess the construct widely with music students, with direct relation to performance, and more widely with regard to the wider lives of musicians (Ritchie and Williamon, 2012;González et al, 2018;Zarza-Alzugaray et al, 2020). The Self-efficacy for Performing questionnaire consists of 9 items, several of which are reverse coded.…”

Music Self-Efficacy for Performance: An Explanatory Model Based on Social Support

“…Kenny has established an explanatory framework for MPA, which involves direct personal experience, as well as individual characteristics, specified as early context experiences, helplessness, and anxiety cognitions ( Kenny et al, 2004 ; Orejudo et al, 2017 ). We sought to analyze the direct relation of MPA with self-efficacy on the basis of Bandura’s theory as a source of information, without ignoring the issue that self-efficacy is dynamic: therefore, inverse relationships might also be possible, as suggested by González et al (2018) . The second variable we took into account concerns the role played by musical performances, which should be direct and therefore, as such, have an effect on musical self-efficacy.…”

“…Among others, Sinden (1999) ; McQuade (2009) , and Stevanovic (2014) have empirically verified the explanatory capacity of musical self-efficacy regarding MPA. In this sense, the work of González et al (2018) , developed within the context of Spain, can be considered as a reference, because it applies the model of Pekrun and Linnenbrink (2012) and Zeidner (2014) in which self-efficacy predicts MPA, which, in turn, precedes the type of stimulation prior to a performance that is capable of improving performance.…”

“A Bed of Nails”: Professional Musicians’ Accounts of the Experience of Performance Anxiety From a Phenomenological Perspective

“…MPA is a complex phenomenon that has gained research attention in recent decades, due to its high prevalence in musicians and the negative impacts it can have on their career and quality of life ( Burin and Osorio, 2017 ). Many studies report that female adult musicians experience higher levels of performance anxiety ( Fishbein et al, 1988 ; Wesner et al, 1990 ; Papageorgi, 2008 ; Iusca and Dafinoiu, 2012 ; Papageorgi et al, 2013 ; Coskun-Senturk and Cırakoglu, 2018 ; Gonzalez et al, 2018 ).…”