Investigation of Measurement Invariance of State Test Anxiety Scale

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to examine the measurement invariance of State Test Anxiety Scale and its sub-dimensions developed by Şahin (2019) in terms of different variables. For this purpose, data were collected from a total of 956 university students studying in different faculties. The measurement invariance of the scale was examined by multi-group confirmatory factor analysis in terms of gender, faculty and socioeconomic level variables. In the study, the measurement model was established for 22 items and three components of the state anxiety test scale (cognitive, psychosocial and physiological) and tested for configural, metric, scalar and strict equivalence by considering the hierarchical principle in terms of gender, faculty and socioeconomic level variables. The findings showed that Configural equivalence was provided for all dimensions except the cognitive and physiological subscales for the socioeconomic status variable. On the other hand, metric equivalence was achieved in cognitive, psychosocial and physiological dimensions for the gender variable. Metric equivalence was achieved in Cognitive dimension for faculty variable. And for the socioeconomic status variable, it was provided only for the scale as a whole. Scalar and strict equivalence conditions were not met by any of the variables examined in the study.