Generalizability of self-related cognitions in test anxiety

A 60-item multifacet inventory was designed to examine the generalizability of self-related cognitions in test anxiety. The inventory, founded on a three-facet measurement domain definition of failure outcome expectancies, consisted of items nested within combinations of two facets; self-related cognitions and evaluative concerns. The inventory was administered to a sample of 766 ninth graders (457 boys and 309 girls) 14–15 years of age from an urban population of the Southern part of the Czech Republic. Univariate and multivariate generalizability analyses supported a general component that was substantially more dominated by other-referenced compared to self-referenced failure outcome expectancies. The present findings supported the notion of test anxious students as viewing themselves in a broader social evaluative academic context including both self- and other-referenced self-related cognitions. The emphasis on self-referencing in current measures of test anxiety may be viewed as representing a part of a more comprehensive evaluative concern. To measure the focal parameter of interest, the general component, a follow-up analysis suggested a 16-item inventory organized in terms of two facets; self-related cognitions combined with evaluative concerns. The present findings encourage further studies to include other conceptually relevant facets to pursue the study of generalizability of test anxiety.