Multi-Informant Test Anxiety Assessment of Adolescents

Abstract

A total of 263 junior and senior high school students (grades 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; ages 12 to 19) with relatively more informants identifying as females (57.4%) than males (42.6%) and more junior high school students (68.3%) than high school students (31.7%), along with 267 parents and 167 teachers responded to a student, parent, and teacher version of the German Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI-G) (Hoddapp & Benson, 1997). All reliabilities for all TAI-G scales for all three samples were above .70. The resulting data were fitted to two, three, and four factor models of test anxiety based on theoretical and empirical evidence. The four factor model (worry, emotion, distraction, lack of confidence) of the reduced (17 item) version of the TAI-G (Hoddapp & Benson, 1997) yielded the best fitting model for students (comparative fit index = .97; residual mean square = .042), parents (comparative fit index = .95; residual mean square = .073), and teachers (comparative fit index = .96; residual mean square = .080), thus providing very strong support for the proposed model. Sex, age, grade, and informant differences are presented and discussed. In conclusion, this study supports further research and use of a multi-informant assessment system of test anxiety.