Significant Predictors of Test Anxiety Among Students With and Without Learning Disabilities

• Published in: Journal of learning disabilities Vol. 40; no. 4; pp. 360 - 376
• Main Authors: Whitaker Sena, Jolyn D., Lowe, Patricia A., Lee, Steven W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-07-2007; PRO-ED, Inc; Sage; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Adolescents; Anatomical systems; Anxiety; Anxiety - epidemiology; Anxiety - psychology; Attention deficits; Attention Span; Behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child clinical studies; Children; Cognitive Processes; College students; Comparative Analysis; Congruence; Correlation; Developmental disorders; Educational Measurement; Elementary education; Elementary School Students; Facilitation; Factor Structure; Factor structures; Female; Humans; Humiliation; Hyperarousal; Learning Disabilities; Learning disabled students; Learning disorders; Learning Disorders - epidemiology; Learning Disorders - psychology; Male; Medical sciences; Multiple Regression Analysis; Obstruction; Predictor Variables; Psychological Patterns; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Scores; Secondary School Students; Secondary schools; Social anxiety; Special education; Students; Students - psychology; Students - statistics & numerical data; Students with disabilities; Test anxiety; Test scores; Worry; New York; United States > US; Kansas; Human; School age; Learning disability; Test anxiety; Adolescent; Student; Predictive factor; Child; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0022-2194; 1538-4780
• DOI: 10.1177/00222194070400040601

In the present study, the relationship between students with and without learning disabilities (LD) and different aspects of test anxiety was examined on a new multidimensional measure of test anxiety. A sample of 774 elementary and secondary school students—195 students with LD and 579 students not identified with LD—completed the Test Anxiety Inventory for Children and Adolescents (TAICA), a new multidimensional measure of test anxiety for elementary and secondary school students in Grades 4 through 12. Examination of the factor structure of the TAICA scores across LD status to determine whether accurate test score interpretation was possible revealed that the majority of the coefficient of congruence values between each pair of six corresponding factors of the TAICA (Cognitive Obstruction/ Inattention, Performance Enhancement/Facilitation Anxiety, Physiological Hyperarousal, Social Humiliation, Worry, and Lie) and the Total Test Anxiety factor were above .90, and the salient variable similarity index values were statistically significant, suggesting that the factor structure of the TAICA was similar across groups. The results of seven multiple regression analyses revealed that LD predicted higher Cognitive Obstruction/Inattention and Worry scores and lower Performance Enhancement/Facilitation Anxiety and Lie scores. Implications of the findings for school personnel who work with students with LD are discussed.