Construction and Standardization of Examination Anxiety Scale for Adolescent Students

Abstract

This research paper describes the method of construction and standardization of a tool to measure examination anxiety of adolescent students. 2030 students belonging to the age group of 13-15 years from 19 schools under West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, participated in this research. The first draft of examination anxiety scale consisted 40 items. After reviewing the items and item analysis, the number of items were reduced to 38. EFA was carried out on obtained data. EFA revealed that total 21 items having factor loading greater than .40, are selected. They distributed under four factors such as, Bodily symptoms, Cognitive, Emotional reaction and behavioural reaction. CFA was executed on another sample group, consisted of 402 number of adolescent students of age group13-15. CFA results also supported the results of EFA. All the goodness of fit indices showed that the model is a good fit model. For concurrent validity, Examination Anxiety Scale made by researcher and Test Anxiety Inventory by Spielberger were administered on the same occasion on 110 school students of the age group13-15. Coefficient of correlation of two scales was estimated. The validity of Examination anxiety Scale is 0.71. The reliability coefficient of the examination anxiety scale using test-retest, split half and Cronbach’s alpha methods were 0.801, 0.767, 0.764 respectively. Norms show that 16 percent of the students belong to the high examination anxiety group, 66 percent of the students in average examination anxiety group and 18 percent in low examination anxiety group.

Keywords

• Examination anxiety
• Adolescent
• Scale construction
• Scale standardization

References

1. Abbasi, N., & Ghosh, S. (2020). Effect of yoga on examination anxiety: A systematic review. International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, 24(8), 9113-9124.
2. Akkus, A. (2019). Developing a scale to measure student’s attitude towards science. International Journal of Assessment Tools in Education, 6(4), 706-720.
3. Anastasi, A., & Ubrina, S. (2005). Psychological testing. New Delhi, India: Prentice Hall of India Private Limited.
4. Browne, B. M., & Cudeck, R. (1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. In: Bollen, K. A. and Long, J. S. (Eds). Testing structural equation models, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
5. Cassady, J. C., & Johnson, R. E. (2001). Cognitive test anxiety and academic performance. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27, 270-295.
6. Covington, M. V. (1985). Test anxiety: Causes and effects over time. In H. M. van der Ploeg, R. Schwarzer, & C. D. Spielberger (Eds.), Advances in Test Anxiety Research, 4, 55-66. Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger
7. Embse, N. V., Kilgus, S., Segool, N., & Putwain, D. (2013). Test anxiety interventions of children and adolescents: A systematic review of treatment studies from 2000-2010. Psychology in the Schools, 50, 57-71. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.21660
8. Freeman, F. S. (1960). Theory and practice of psychological testing. New Delhi: Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt Ltd.

9. Hembree, R. (1988). Correlates, causes, effects, and treatment of test anxiety. Review of Educational Research, 58(1), 47–77. https://doi.org/10.2307/1170348
10. Hodapp, V., & Benson, J. (1997). The multidimensionality of test anxiety: A test of different models. Anxiety, Stress and Coping, 10(3), 219 244. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615809708249302
11. Leech, L.N., Barrett, C.K & Morgan, A.G. (2005). SPSS for intermediate statistics. London: Lawrance Erbaum Associates Publisher.
12. Liebert, R. M., & Morris, L. W. (1967). Cognitive and emotional components of test anxiety: A distinction and some initial data. Psychological Reports, 20(3, PT. 1), 975-978. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1967.20.3.975
13. Lowe, P. A., Lee, S. W., Witteborg, K. M., Prichard, K. W., Luhr, M. E., & Cullinan, C. M. (2008). The Test Anxiety Inventory for Children and Adolescents (TAICA): Examination of the properties of a new multidimensional measure of test anxiety among elementary and secondary school students. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 26(3), 215-230. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282907303760
14. MacCallum, R.C., Browne, M. W., & Sugawara, H. M. (1996). Power analysis and determination of sample size for covariance structure modelling. Psychological Methods, 1, 130-149
15. Mandler, G., & Sarason, S. B. (1952). A study of anxiety and learning. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 47, 166-173
16. Mary, R. A., Marslin, G., Franklin, G., & Sheeba, C. J. (2014). Test anxiety levels of board exam going students in Tamil Nadu. Hindwai Publishing Corporation Biomed Research International, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/578323
17. Mcdonald, S. A. (2010). The prevalence and effect of test anxiety in school children. An International Journal of experimental educational psychology, 21(1), 89-101.
18. Sarason, I. G. (1958). Interrelationship among individual difference variables, behavior in psychotherapy, and verbal condition. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 56, 339-344.
19. Sarason, I. G. (1959). Intellectual and personality correlates test anxiety. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59(2), 272-275. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0042200
20. Sarason, S. B., Davidson, K. S., Lighthall, F. F., Waite, R. R., & Ruebush, B. K. (1960). Anxiety in elementary school children: A report of research. John Wiley & Sons Inc. https://doi.org/10.1037/14349-000
21. Sarason, I. G. (1984). Stress, anxiety and cognitive interference reactions to test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66(4), 929-938.
22. Shukla, J. U. (2013). A study of examination Anxiety among secondary school students in the context of some variable. (Unpublished doctoral dessertation). Gujrat University, Ahmedabad, India.
23. Spielberger, C. D. (2010). Test Anxiety Inventory. New Jersey, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
24. Suinn, R. M. (1969). The STABS, a measure of test anxiety for behavior therapy: Normative data. Behavior Research and Therapy, 7, 335-339.
25. Wine, J. (1971). Test anxiety and direction of attention. Psychological Bulletin, 76(2), 92-104. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0031332
26. Zeidner, M. (1992). How to high school and college students cope with test situations? British Journal of Educational Psychology, 66, 115-128.
27. Zeidner, M. (1998). Test Anxiety: The State of the art. New York: Plenum Press.