Teachers use of fear appeals: Association with student and teacher mental health

Abstract

Background Fear appeals are discourses commonly used by teachers to motivate students especially when academic outcomes are paramount. Fear appeals have been associated with better and worse academic performance by the student recipients, with some evidence that fear appeals are detrimental for students who are anxious and have lower self‐efficacy. Little is known about the factors that drive teachers’ use of fear appeals beyond a desire to increase motivation to excel. Aims This study examined the relationship between the use of fear appeals, psychological distress, and self‐efficacy in both teachers and students. Sample Participants were 377 students (81% female, age range 15 to 18, M = 16.68, SD = 0.49) and 96 teachers (73% female, Mean years teaching = 18.04, SD = 12.39). Methods Participants completed surveys mid‐way through the first school term of their final year of high school. Student surveys examined student anxiety, depression, stress, self‐efficacy, and experience of teacher fear appeals. Teacher surveys examined teacher anxiety, depression, stress, emotional burnout, self‐efficacy, years of teaching, and use of fear appeals. Results Teachers use of fear appeals was associated with student distress which was heightened for students with lower academic self‐efficacy. Similarly, teachers’ use of fear appeals was associated with higher anxiety and lower self‐efficacy in teachers themselves. Conclusions Therefore, the use and consequence of fear appeals is strongly linked to both student and teacher self‐efficacy and distress. Given the detrimental impacts of fear appeals on academic performance in vulnerable students, more research is needed on the consequences of fear appeals.

What makes a student feel vital? Links between teacher-student relatedness and teachers’ engaging messages

“…In this sense, it could be that, for teachers that rely less-frequently on these kind of messages, when they do so and rely on loss-controlled messages such as "If you don't study, you'll make your parents feel angry" could be interpreted by students as a sense of concern from the teacher towards them, as there are not used to such messages, and thus, making them think their teacher really desires the best for them (Connell & Wellborn, 1991;Taylor & Ntoumanis, 2007). Contrastingly, when loss-framed messages are accompanied by an autonomous motivational appeal, relying on messages such as "If you don't pay attention, you won't study what you want" even with a low frequency might instead be interpreted by students' as an attack towards them, as a critic or intrusion (MacGeorge et al, 2008) and, thus, in line with previous studies (Belcher et al, 2021;Putwain & Remedios, 2014), negatively predicting TS-relatedness.…”

“…Such studies have focused mainly on exploring loss-framed messages, providing evidence on the negative impact these can have on student. Specifically, they have been commonly related to students' negative emotions such as anxiety, distress, worry, and hopelessness following avoidance behaviours such as disengagement, strategic withdrawal of effort, and procrastination (Belcher et al, 2021;Nicholson et al, 2019;Putwain & Remedios, 2014;Putwain et al, 2017Putwain et al, , 2019Putwain et al, , 2021. Contrastingly, the impact of gain-framed messages remains largely understudied, with only a few studies examining such messages in relation with student's learning outcomes (Santana-Monagas et al, 2022a, b; that do not examine the influence of gain-framed messages on students' well-being.…”

“…For instance, aspects such as teachers' fairness (Choi et al, 2019), their autonomy-supportive practices (Behzadnia, 2020;Chatzisarantis et al, 2019), and quality teacher-student interactions have proven to impact students' well-being and vitality (Blackwell et al, 2020;DuBois & Silverthorn, 2005;Hamre & Pianta, 2006;Ryan & Deci, 2017). Moreover, research has also highlighted the importance that teacher messages can have on triggering emotions on students (Belcher et al, 2021;Putwain et al, 2021;Schwab et al, 2022). Given the important repercussions messages and teachers can have on students, paying attention to this aspect of teaching could offer some important understanding on how teachers could influence students' well-being.…”

The interplay of dominant factors that influence adolescents’ academic performance: Motivation type and pressure vs involvement

“…There is evidence that autonomy and academic development are related to the self-determination of the individual and the process of its development (Famero, 2021). Research during COVID shows that teachers' appeal to fear as a way to increase motivation and improve performance is a failure (Belcher et al, 2022). At the same time, the lack of direct contact with the teacher in long online learning sessions reduces academic performance on average (Norris and Fenwick, 2022).…”

“…Today, the most common stressor is the COVID-19 pandemic and measures introduced to by governments to tackle its consequences and prevent further spread (Belcher et al, 2022;Norris and Fenwick, 2022). Researchers all over the globe found that these quarantine measures had a negative effect on schooling, which manifested in heightened anxiety, insecurity, and increased time spent on social media or playing video games (Hertz and Barrios, 2021;Paschke et al, 2021).…”