2004/09/01 by Douglas G. Wren, Jeri Benson · 4 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes #Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development #Early Childhood Education and Development
paper · doi:10.1080/10615800412331292606
openalex publication_date 2004/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Given the increased testing of school-aged children in the United States there is a need for a current and valid scale to measure the effects of test anxiety in children. The domain of children's test anxiety was theorized to be comprised of three dimensions: thoughts, autonomic reactions, and off-task behaviors. Four stages are described in the evolution of the Children's Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS): planning, construction, quantitative evaluation, and validation. A 50-item scale was administered to a development sample (N=230) of children in grades 3–6 to obtain item analysis and reliability estimates which resulted in a refined 30-item scale. The reduced scale was administered to a validation sample (N=261) to obtain construct validity evidence. A three-factor structure fit the data reasonably well. Recommendations for future research with the scale are described.