Test Anxiety and Standardized Achievement Test Performance in the Middle School Years

Abstract

Some researchers have suggested that the relationship of test anxiety and test performance differs for Black and White youth, but limitations in the researchers' analyses prevented adequate testing of this hypothesis. A sample of 222 seventh and 188 eighth graders responded to a test anxiety scale before taking the Metropolitan Achievement Test. In a multivariate multiple regression, race and test anxiety were significantly related to test performance in all five academic subjects, but there were no significant interactions between race and test anxiety, or sex and test anxiety. This result calls into question the differential relationship hypothesis.