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Abstract
This study used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to investigate whether test anxiety (TA) can be conceptualised as a bidimensional construct consisting of cognitive and emotional facets in 152 African American school children, ages 8 to 13 years, M=9.98 years (SD=1.13 years); 54% girls. A two-factor model was determined a priori by classifying items from the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (TASC; Sarason, Davidson, Lighthall, Waite, & Ruebush, Citation1960) as either “Cognitive” or “Emotional” as determined by independent raters. Results demonstrated distinct cognitive and emotional facets of TA can be meaningfully captured in African American school children. Results also demonstrated African American girls had higher mean scores than African American boys on both the Cognitive and Emotional factors specified by the TASC in the CFA model. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed with respect to the nature of TA in African American school children.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a Mid-career Development Award (K24 MH073696) from the National Institute of Mental Health to WKS and a Minority Mental Health Research Fellowship from the American Psychological Association to RC.
We gratefully acknowledge the co-operation and contributions of the school children who participated in the research.
Notes
1Although there have been a couple of recent studies that have examined the factor structure of TA in school children; neither study used the TASC (Lowe et al., Citation2007; Wren & Benson, Citation2004).
2Given Item 2 did not significantly load onto the cognitive factor; the two-factor model was re-specified so that Item 2 was excluded from the cognitive factor. We compared the re-specified two-factor model to the original two-factor model (in which Item 2 was included in the cognitive factor). The fit of the data was not appreciably altered with the exclusion of Item 2; therefore Item 2 remained in the cognitive factor.