Relationships of trait anxiety, test anxiety, and academic performance of Chinese undergraduates with typical developments and high- and typical-functioning specific learning disabilities

This study aimed to compare trait anxiety and test anxiety among Chinese undergraduates with typical development, high-functioning specific learning disabilities (SLD), and typical-functioning SLD, and to examine the mediating role of test anxiety in the relationship between trait anxiety and academic performance across these three groups. The study included 239 s-year undergraduate students from universities in Taiwan, with 134 typically developing students, 54 students with typical-functioning SLD, and 51 students with high-functioning SLD. Our results indicated that the high-functioning SLD group reported significantly lower levels of trait anxiety and test anxiety compared to both the typically developing and typical-functioning SLD groups. The typical-functioning SLD group exhibited the highest levels of test anxiety. Mediation analyses revealed that test anxiety significantly mediated the relationship between trait anxiety and academic performance in the high-functioning SLD group, while only a direct effect of trait anxiety on academic performance was found in the typical-functioning SLD group. No significant direct or indirect effects were found in the typically developing group. Our findings highlight distinct anxiety profiles and differential patterns of direct and indirect effects of trait anxiety on academic performance among Chinese undergraduates with high-functioning SLD, typical-functioning SLD, and typical development. Copyright © 2025 The Author(s).