A Cross-Cultural Study of Test Anxiety

Abstract

This study compared seventh- and eighth-grade students' test anxiety across three independent variables: culture, socioeconomic level, and gender. A self-report mea-sure of test anxiety-the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (TASC)-was given to four samples of students: 91 seventh-grade Chicago, Illinois, inner-city students; 103 eighth-graders from an upper-class section of Weston, Massachusetts; 352 seventh-and eighth-graders from a middle-class section of Holliston, Massachusetts; and 1,144 eighth-graders from Santiago, Chile (who completed a translated version of the TASC). Results showed that high-SES students from both cultures were significantly lower on test anxiety than low-SES students. South American students demonstrated generally higher levels of test anxiety than did North American students. Low-SES females across both cultures scored higher in test anxiety than did low-SES males, but high-SES females and males were not significantly different in test anxiety.