A ansiedade dos mestrandos e doutorandos em contabilidade

Abstract

This research analyzes the effect of motivation, self-efficacy, and sociodemographic variables on the anxiety of master’s and doctoral’s accounting students. The sample consisted of 246 master’s students and 76 doctoral students from all graduate accounting programs in Brazil. The study used the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to collect data and determine the participants’ level of anxiety; the General Self-Efficacy Scale to find their level of self-efficacy; and the Academic Motivation Scale to assess their level of intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation. Data analysis used backward stepwise linear regression. The results revealed a predominance of anxiety in female students and concluded that anxiety is negative and significantly affected by self-efficacy. It is also positive and significantly affected by extrinsic motivation by external control and by amotivation. Finally, the research identified significant predictors to analyze anxiety such as the level of motivation to continue studying, being under 24 years old, the type of graduate (whether master’s or doctoral), receiving psychiatric/psychological support, receiving an academic scholarship, performance, and gender.