• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.513-522
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• 2023

There is a lack of empirical research on the level of students' state anxiety according to their perceived task difficulty when confronting science questions. This study seeks to investigate whether perceived task difficulty moderates the process of arousing students' state anxiety in science learning. In pursuit of this objective, we engaged 410 fifth- and sixth-grade elementary school students (186 fifth graders; 194 females) in solving two science questions. We then verified the moderating effect of perceived task difficulty on the relationship between science anxiety and state anxiety arousal when confronting science questions using the PROCESS Macro Model 1. Results confirmed that science anxiety and perceived task difficulty significantly and positively predicted state anxiety. Notably, perceived task difficulty had a significant moderating effect on the process of arousing state anxiety, where lower perceived task difficulty led to a greater increase in state anxiety after confronting the science questions. We discuss the implications of the findings for science education and propose potential directions for future research.