Cognitive and emotional facets of test anxiety in African American school children

Carter, Rona; Williams, Sandra; Silverman, Wendy K.

doi:10.1080/02699930801886722

Cited by 21 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Test anxiety often includes worries and irrelevant thoughts which might affect the possibility to concentrate and the level of understanding and retrieval when undertaking a test (Carter et al 2008). Consequently, high levels of test anxiety might interfere with optimal test performance (Hembree 1988;Seipp 1991).…”

Section: Test Motivation and Anxietymentioning

confidence: 99%

The successful test taker: exploring test-taking behavior profiles through cluster analysis

2017

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To be successful in a high-stakes testing situation is desirable for any test taker. It has been found that, beside content knowledge, test-taking behavior, such as risktaking strategies, motivation, and test anxiety, is important for test performance. The purposes of the present study were to identify and group test takers with similar patterns of test-taking behavior and to explore how these groups differ in terms of background characteristics and test performance in a high-stakes achievement test context. A sample of the Swedish Scholastic Assessment Test test takers (N = 1891) completed a questionnaire measuring their motivation, test anxiety, and risk-taking behavior during the test, as well as background characteristics. A two-step cluster analysis revealed three clusters of test takers with significantly different test-taking behavior profiles: a moderate (n = 741), a calm risk taker (n = 637), and a test anxious risk averse (n = 513) profile. Group difference analyses showed that the calm risk taker profile (i.e., a high degree of risktaking together with relatively low levels of test anxiety and motivation during the test) was the most successful profile from a test performance perspective, while the test anxious risk averse profile (i.e., a low degree of risk-taking together with high levels of test anxiety and motivation) was the least successful. Informing prospective test takers about these insights can potentially lead to more valid interpretations and inferences based on the test scores. Eur J Psychol Educ (2018) shown that for a test taker to be successful when taking a test, it is important to be able to reduce anxiety and sustain motivation (Dodeen et al. 2014;Naylor 1997;Sternberg 1998), as well as using effective test-taking strategies, such as willingness to take risks (Bicak 2013;Bond and Harman 1994;Dodeen 2008). Studies in this area often compare groups of test takers and have for example found that high achievers tend to report using more effective testtaking strategies when compared to low achievers (Stenlund et al. 2017;Ellis and Ryan 2003;Hong et al. 2006;Kim and Goetz 1993), that males are more prone to taking risks when answering test items (see, e.g., Baldiga 2014), and that females and low achievers seem to experience higher levels of test anxiety than males and high achievers (Stenlund et al. 2017;Cassady and Johnson 2002;Naylor 1997). Findings like these can help understand and to some extent possibly explain performance differences that are often observed between manifest groups in achievement tests. Still, considering the consequences of successful test-taking behavior in high-stakes test situations, and assuming that test takers adopt different test-taking behavior, exploring differences across groups, in terms of profiles, and identifying patterns that seem associated with sucessful and less successful test-taking, respectively, might add important knowledge to this area. With this study, we therefore aim at identifying subgroups of test takers with similar patter...

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Section: Test Motivation and Anxietymentioning

confidence: 99%

The successful test taker: exploring test-taking behavior profiles through cluster analysis

2017

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“…Individuals with high levels of TA represent a group at particular risk of negative outcomes associated with TA (Carter et al, 2008). In the long-term, childhood anxiety is also a risk factor that seems to predispose adult mental-health problems.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most common pattern of problems arising from TA includes unwarranted rates of fear, worry and apprehension in pre-, intra-, and post-test situations, accompanied by physiological reactions and concern regarding (the consequences of) poor performance (Carter, Williams,& Silverman, 2008). Within this context, a sensory experience induces an emotion (e.g., fear) which ultimately is perceived as a feeling (e.g., TA) that varies from pupil to pupil; the explicit meaning of a stimulus (i.e., higher-order cognition) in conjunction with the implicit emotional processing result in an individual (stress) response (Purves et al, 2012).…”

Section: Phenomenonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…TA is predominantly considered to induce physiological (producing sustained hyper-arousal), emotional (including bodily symptoms and tension) and behavioural (referring to auto-manipulative-, object-manipulative-, and inattentive-off-task behaviours) responses, as well as stimulating cognitive systems (e.g., worry and irrelevant thinking regarding a pending exam or evaluation) (Carter et al, 2008). Various theories of anxiety disorders in childhood relate cognitive distortions to the development and maintenance of anxiety (Muris & Field, 2008).…”

Section: Constructmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Besides poor academic outcomes, association studies have shown a significant relation between TA and several mental and physical states as formally diagnosable disorders (e.g., depression, sleep-disturbance, SAD, GAD) (Carter et al, 2008;Owens, Stevenson, Hadwin, & Norgate, 2012). As an actual, critical and for some chronic condition, pervasive TA in the most severe cases meets the general DSM diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder (Bögels et al, 2010).…”

Section: Correlatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Special Education a Provision and an Adjacent System – Exemplified Through Test Anxiety

Nyroos¹

2015

JPBS

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In the context of the recently released DSM-5, here is discussed a common emotional experience among pupils and students, test anxiety, and demonstrated its multifaceted character, which terminates eligibility for both special educational and medical services. Severe test anxiety is associated with a huge range of deleterious life trajectories. However, it is also a biological reality; normative in its origin and in essence benign. Present paper merges the latest knowledge from different disciplines, and presents measures for theory and practice. Because intense and excessive test anxiety seems to be highly prevalent and the pathological symptoms are similar to those of other childhood anxiety disorders childhood test anxiety warrants attention.

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Test Anxiety

Zeidner

2014

The Wiley Handbook of Anxiety Disorders

118

136

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Cognitive and emotional facets of test anxiety in African American school children

Cited by 21 publications

References 22 publications

The successful test taker: exploring test-taking behavior profiles through cluster analysis

The successful test taker: exploring test-taking behavior profiles through cluster analysis

Special Education a Provision and an Adjacent System – Exemplified Through Test Anxiety

Test Anxiety

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