ANXIETY AS A MODERATOR OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY AMONG FUTURE TEACHERS

Abstract

The article conceptualizes anxiety not as a “background state” but as a psychological condition capable of restructuring attention and executive control, thereby altering the stability with which future teachers implement professional responsibility. The relevance of the study is underscored by global data indicating that in 2021 anxiety disorders affected approximately 359 million people (4.4% of the world’s population), while only about 27.6% of those in need received professional help. Within the student population, 27.9% reported having been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives.

The purpose of the study is to theoretically substantiate anxiety as a moderator—that is, a condition defining “when and for whom” the transition from dispositional responsibility to its behavioral enactment occurs in professionally significant situations among future teachers. The study employs a theoretical–analytical approach, including a conceptual analysis of the psychological constructs of “anxiety” and “professional responsibility,” integration of Attentional Control Theory with the methodological framework of moderation, and systematization of evidence-based approaches to anxiety reduction presented in a synthesizing table.

The analysis reveals a critical “blind spot” in applied research on the professional development of future teachers: the levels of anxiety at which responsibility functions as stable internal regulation, versus those at which it becomes situationally fragile or compensatory. The study demonstrates why a moderation framework is particularly effective for addressing this issue. Psychologically grounded approaches to reducing anxiety are systematized as conditions for stabilizing self-regulatory mechanisms—such as attentional control, behavioral regulation, cognitive flexibility, and action under uncertainty—and their role in supporting consistent responsible behavior is generalized, without resorting to moralization or automatic medicalization.

The findings have practical relevance for psychologists in higher education, counselors, and psychotherapists working with students, as well as for university administrators and psychological support services engaged in developing preventive interventions within the student environment