A Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Test Anxeety Inventory Using Canadian High School Students

Abstract

The Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) is one of the most widely used surveys to assess overall test anxiety. In addition, scores are available for two components of anxiety: emotionality and worry. However, there is controversy about the nature of these two components. The authors of the TAI suggest that these two factors are orthogonal, whereas others suggest that they are oblique. Working with a sample of 335 male and 389 female school-leaving students from Canada, confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a two-factor oblique model provided the best fit to the data. The two-factor oblique model was also found to be invariant across sex. However, given that the means differed between males and females, the use of separate norms should be continued.