Adaptation of the Children’s Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS) for its use in Argentine adolescents

The Children’s Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS; Wren & Benson, 2004) was adapted to Spanish for its use in adolescents (12 - 17 years old) from Argentina. CTAS is a self report with 30 items grouped in 3 factors named: task off be-haviours, thoughts and autonomic reactions. The items were directly...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rivera-Flores, Natalia Belén, Furlan, Luis Alberto, Gnavi, Gerardo Aníbal
Format: Online
Language:spa
Published: Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas (IIPSI, Conicet-UNC) 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/revaluar/article/view/25085
Description
Summary:The Children’s Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS; Wren & Benson, 2004) was adapted to Spanish for its use in adolescents (12 - 17 years old) from Argentina. CTAS is a self report with 30 items grouped in 3 factors named: task off be-haviours, thoughts and autonomic reactions. The items were directly translated into Spanish, and an equivalence analysis in bilingual sample was done. Two alternative solutions to internal structure of the CTAS were obtained through ex-ploratory factor analysis (N = 360 students, of both sexes, public and private schools, aged 11 to 13 years, M =12.77, SD = .72), one with three original dimensions and another with four factors, distinguishing worry and self - criticism thoughts. Both models fit was assessed through confirmato-ry factor analysis (N = 501 students, of both sexes, public and private schools, aged 12 to 17 years, M =13.98 SD = .87), having the four dimension model the most acceptable index (χ2/df = 1.92, CFI = .90, TLI = .09, RMSEA = 0.043, AIC = 410, BIC = 414), although two items were eliminated as they were considered problematic. Internal consistency of the scales was adequate (α= .68 - .79). Gender differences and correlations with academic performance were corroborated in line with other test anxiety measures. It is recom-mended to use the adapted version with some precaution.