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