A TEST ANXIETY SCALE FOR CHILDREN1

Abstract

(I, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, IO, II, 12, 13) on the effects and correlates of test anxiety. In those studies subjects were college students. For a variety of reasons it was decided to study this anxiety in school age children. Among the major reasons were (a) the unduly selected nature of a college population, limiting whatever generalizations one can make, (b) the practical difficulties one faces in securing the continual cooperation of such subjects, (c) the opinion that test anxiety was a reaction which long antedated entrance to college, (d) indications in the literature (8; 9, p. 168) that fear of school failure was one of the most common of worries or fears among children, and (e) the hope that the valid discernment of this anxiety would have more than a little practical and clinical value in the school setting. The present report concerns the initial findings of a long term project on the measurement and correlates of anxiety in children of school age. It is hoped that other research workers may find the test anxiety scale a helpful tool.