The Test Anxiety Assessment Inventory-Parallel Form/IAT-III: Normative Data

Abstract

Examination stress and test anxiety are pervasive problems in the modern society. Test anxiety generally leads to a gradual decrease of cognitive performance and undermines academic achievement of students of all ages. Therefore, the early identification of test anxiety is important because it can result in a better prognosis to prevent recurrent difficulties. This paper summarizes the main results of a psychometric study aimed to develop norms for the Test Anxiety Asssessment Inventory-Parallel Form/IAT-III (Robu, 2009b) in a sample of Romanian middle school students. Participants were 291 students from 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. A hypothetical metric model of the IAT-III was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. In addition, internal consistency was computed. Descriptive characteristics that justify the chosen norming system were also presented in the paper. Finally, normative data that can be useful to assess test anxiety among middle school students were reported.