Anxiety during tests and regulatory dimension of anxiety: A five-factor French version of the Revised Test Anxiety scale

• Mascret Nicolas
• Danthony Sarah
• Cury François

• Achievement goals
• Self-esteem
• Anxiety
• Perceived control
• Stress

Test anxiety is considered a performance-debilitating form of anxiety. Worry, test-irrelevant thinking, tension, and bodily symptoms are the four components of test anxiety which are measured through the Revised Test Anxiety (RTA) scale. All these components represent negative dimensions of test anxiety. The aim of the study is twofold: (1) to test the factorial, convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of a French version of the four-factor initial RTA scale, and (2) to expand it with an original fifth subscale representing the regulatory dimension of anxiety (namely perceived control), underlying its adaptive potential. 403 students (201 girls) from French collèges (ages 13-15) and lycées (ages 15-18) completed a series of questionnaires. The results indicate that the five-factor model of the French Revised Test Anxiety + Regulatory scale (FRTA+R) is supported by a Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Convergent validity and discriminant validity of the scale are also attested. Achievement goals and general school self-esteem are found to be significant predictors of the five factors of test anxiety. This upgraded scale now provides additional information to better understand test anxiety in an educational context, especially in the French context in which students often experience high levels of test anxiety.