The development of a manifest school anxiety scale for use with Iraqi school students

~173(u1593/X5 13.w + O.l1l Pcrgamon Press Ltd

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MANIFEST SCHOOL ANXIETY FOR USE WITH IRAQI SCHOOL STUDENTS D. FONTANA*

SCALE

and T. M. R. RAOOF+

*Department of Education, University College, Cardiff, U.K.; tuniversity of Mosul, Iraq Abstract - Although a number of authorities suggest that school is one of the most significant sources of state based anxiety in children of secondary school age, there is a shortage of valid and reliable measuring instruments designed to assess the incidence of this anxiety. This is particularly true for Arabic speaking countries such as Iraq. The present paper details the development of one such instrument (the Manifest School Anxiety Inventory) through pilot and try-out versions to the final form.

INTRODUCTION The concept of anxiety has frequently been considered as a central variable in personality theories and has generated a vast literature. Some years ago, however, Cattell emphasised that different authorities tend to use the concept in different ways, and that a clear distinction should be drawn between what he called trait and stare anxiety respectively (Cattell and Sheier, 1961). This viewpoint has been further developed by Spielberger (1972) who describes trait anxiety as stable, chronic and unrelated to specific environmental conditions (i.e. ‘free-floating’), while state anxiety is a transitory emotional condition differing in intensity over time in response to environmental conditions. Both Spielberger et al. (1970) and Cattell et al. (1974) propose that different measures should be developed to test trait and state anxiety respectively, with trait measures orientated towards the individual’s consistent subjective affective tone and state measures orientated towards the individual’s responses to specific stressful objective conditions. Although people suffering from high levels of trait anxiety may be more likely to suffer from state anxiety than the norm (while persistent experience of state anxiety may lead to the development of anxiety traits), the presence of state anxiety per se does not necessarily indicate the presence of high trait anxiety. Many

normally low anxiety people may experience anxiety states in specific instances, such as when called upon to speak in, public, to make financial decisions or to attend an interview with a business superior. Thus in spite of the obvious links between trait and state anxiety, they are not the same thing and there are good operational reasons for differentiating between the two. It must be stressed clearly that the present paper is concerned exclusively with state anxiety, and in particular with state anxiety within the school context. It is not concerned with anxiety-inducing factors which have their origins outside school (such as parental pressures and expectations, and temperamental variables), and which are the concern of explorations into trait based anxiety or non-school based state anxiety. From the point of view of the school (and one of the reasons for the distinction between state and trait based anxiety made by the psychologist), the important thing is that the generation of state based anxiety is to a significant degree under the control of the school, and can be lessened by modifications in teacher-child relationships, by a more supportive approach to the question of tests and examinations, and by a school philosophy which discourages peer rivalries and teasing and emphasises co-operation and mutual understanding. Trait based anxiety, on the 123

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and T. M. R. RAOOF

other hand, since its origins generally lie outside the school and since it operates at a deeper and more persistent level of personality, is much less amenable to direct intervention by the school, and necessitates ideally specialist counselling and family therapy, or in extreme cases the provision of a specific therapeutic environment. Within the school context, there is a variety of conditions which appear to prompt state based anxiety (or manifest school anxiety as it is usually termed by the psychologist). A search through the literature suggests that they can be divided into three broad inter-related areas, each one of which can be expressed in terms of the demands made upon the individual. These demands require him/her to: (1) conform to teacher standards (e.g. Wardle, 1972); (2) improve social and peer-related status in the classroom (e.g. Crichton et al., 1962); (3) achieve self-esteem and a reasonable freedom from anxiety over academic matters (e.g. Rosen er al., 1972).

Difficulties in meeting these demands can lead equally in both sexes to affective problems (Dockray, 1971), and the importance of these problems for the individuals concerned must not be under-estimated (Simon and Ward, 1974; Eaton and Houghton, 1974; Wolff, 1977). This holds true not only for children from Western countries, but also for those from other cultures. In Iraq, Al-Zaubai and Alexander (1972) and Al-Alousy et al. (1978) offer findings that accord closely with those in Britain and the U.S.A., indicating that the three areas identified above are also of prime importance in Iraq, and that difficulties in these areas can prompt individuals to withdraw, suffer social embarrassment, and experience feelings of inadequacy and expectations of continuing academic failure. Further studies in the West show that manifest school anxiety appears to prompt hesitating behaviour (Ragsdale, 1976; Lesser, 1976), low self-esteem (Beatty and Beatty, 1976; Lauer and Handel, of sensation seeking 1977)) avoidance (Eysenck and Zuckerman, 1978), dependency and submission (Lader and Mathews, 1978; Marks, 1970; Dargel and Kirk, 1973), the inhibition of creative activity (Reid et al., 1959), social avoidance (Hall, 1963; Borkovec et al., 1973), the development of generally

maladjusted and negative behaviours (Brezina. 1974; Rose and Marshall. 1974). and low academic achievement (Cassis, 1976; Singleton, 1977; Milgram and Milgram, 1977). These clear links between manifest school anxiety and a range of affective and academic variables indicate urgent need for reliable measuring instruments specifically linked to those situations most likely to prompt this anxiety. The need is particularly pressing in non-Western countries, where research in this area is in its infancy. In Iraq, test construction has tended to focus upon more broadly social factors such as school-society adjustment and the development of social aggression and attitudes (e.g. Al-Anni, 1970; Raoof, 197-l: Al-Ajeely, 1976; Al-Jassany, 1976), and no attempt has yet been made to devise and refine measures of either trait or state anxiety in school children. In fact to date Iraq possesses no instruments for the measurement of anv affective school related variables, in spite of the current spread of educational counselling and guidance. The present study is therefore concerned with the development of an inventory designed to measure state anxiety in secondary school children in Iraq. The items of which it was initially composed were derived from existing Western measures of state based anxiety and from the psychological literature. These were then subjected to an extensive process of refinement and standardisation with Iraq school students in Iraq in order to ensure the reliability and the cultural validity of the inventory. This process is detailed at the relevant points below, but of particular importance within the context of cultural validity were the individual structured interviews conducted with 33 pupils randomly selected from the pilot sample in order to establish whether the inventory items were appropriate to their own experiences of manifest school anxiety. The items included in the inventory differ from the items contained in trait based scales in that they relate to specific school situations rather than to a wide range of general personal/ social conditions, and are designed to explore reactions to these situations rather than to establish the nature of the individual’s enduring affective life.

DEVELOPMENT

OF A MANIFEST

METHOD Definition and categorisation of manifest school anxiety The definition of manifest school anxiety derived from the literature and adopted for the purpose of constructing the Inventory was that anxiety of this kind is characterised by an overt manifestation of worry, tension and allied unpleasant subjective states prompted by school situations involving, respectively, relationships with teachers, relationships with peers, and performance on academic tasks. Examples of the variables influencing each of these situations, together with the authors associated with the findings concerned are: with teachers. Positive Re~atio~hips student-teacher relationships appear to be correlated with lower anxiety levels in children (Barker, 1970), with success across important areas of the curriculum (Christensen, 1960), with the utilization of child intelligence (Fox et al., 1964) and child creativity (Sears, 1963; Spaulding, 1963), and with student classroom participation (Edilson, 1976). Negative relationships appear to have the opposite effect (Dockray, 1971; Koon, 1971), as do high levels of anxiety within teachers themselves (Bernard, 1965). Such studies as exist in nonWestern countries (e.g. Passi and Malhota, 1975) suggest that the position in other cultures is very much the same. Relationships with peers. Good peer and peer group relationships appear to be associated with satisfactory self-esteem ratings and with academic progress (Donald, 1973; Briglio, 1975), while negative relationships appear to go with withdrawal behaviour (Kohn and Parnes, 1974), with elevated anxiety levels (Kagan and Messer, 1975) and with personality disturbance (Clements and Simpson, 1978). There are also suggestions that good inter-peer relationships may help the child to deal better with anxiety stemming from sources other than those within the school (Vasudevan and Verma, 1974). Performance orz academic task-s. Evidence that academic performance is influenced by, and in turn influences, school anxiety comes from a very wide range of sources. These studies show amongst other things that high

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ANXIETY

SCALE

125

anxiety appears to depress performance in reading and comprehension (Waid et al., 1978), cognitive functioning (Brown, 1976), rsst performance (Bond, 1977) and examination performance (Osterhouse, 1975). This effect appears to become more marked as task difficulty increases (Dubrey, 1976) and as the school’s expectations of pupil performance increases (Rose and Marshall, 1974). Assembling the inventor items The items for the first draft of the Inventory were based upon the work of the above authorities, upon the general psychological literature, the clinical literature, and upon a search through existing relevant questionnaire measures of anxiety.iThe procedure adopted was to draw up a list of relevant psychological states related to school circumstances, and then to classify these into homogeneous groups. Next the contents of each group was studied in order to elicit criteria which could be operationalised and used as the basis for Inventory items. Overlapping criteria were amalgamated and three relatively discrete areas then emerged which conformed to the three situational groups already identified, namely relationships with peers, relationships with teachers, and performance on academic tasks. The psychological states related to these three groups are summarised below (expressed in terms of subject descriptions). Peer re~ationshitx: (a) Prone to shyness symptoms when relating to peers and to the belief that thev ridicule or reiect him or withhofd respect and approval. * (b) Excessive &f-consciousness, embarrassment and self-criticism in relation to peers. (c) Jealousy of classmates and suspicions that they are thwarting his efforts. (d) Above average peer dependency. (e) Experiencing above average incidence of negative emotions when with peers (nervousness, tenseness, etc.) (f) Convictions of social unacceptability to peers, with consequent symptoms of withdrawal and general feelings of unpopularity and of being disliked. (g) Low self-esteem when with peers. (h) Feelings of insecurity when dealing with peers.

Teaeher relatio~hips: (a) Prone to shyness symptoms when reiating to teachers and to the belief that they ridicule or reject him or withhold respect and approval.

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(b) Feelings of being misunderstood by teachers. Feelings of being frequently scolded by teachers. 1: Above average teacher dependency. e Experiencing above average incidence of negative when with teachers emotions (nervousness, tenseness, etc.) Un-cooperative feelings towards teachers. Generally negative opinions of teachers.

Academic tasks: (a) Underachieving and feelings of general academic inadequacy. (b) Excessive fear of academic failure and of academic class tests. (c) Lacking a sense of self-sufficiency when faced with academic tasks. (d) Complaining of bad luck in academic achievements. (e) Despairing of own academic work and feeling embarrassed in academic achievement situations. (f) Working more impulsively and less accurately than the norm. (g) General feelings of dislike for school achievement and academic work. (h) Experiencing above average incidence of negative emotions when faced with academic work (nervousness, tenseness, etc.)

In translating these states into Inventory items the guidelines advanced by Gronlund (1976) and Anastasi (1976) were followed. Accordingly, each item was worded so as to (i) realistically reflect ihe kind of anxiety likely to be experienced by secondary school children in the situation(s) concerned, (ii) be easily administered and comprehensible to children of secondary school age, (iii) sample physiological responses as well as cognitive appraisals, (iv) be limited to a single idea, (v) be as brief and succinct as possible, (vi) be free from ambiguity. In addition, to reduce response set, items were worded so that there was an approximate equivalence of items keyed in ‘yes’ and ‘no’ directions respectively. Evaluating the Inventory items Item construction yielded 128 items, 48 related to peer relationship anxiety, 40 to teacher relationship anxiety, and 40 to academic task anxiety. These 128 items were then randomised and submitted to a panel of six university teachers (including a professor of educational psychology and two senior lecturers) who together provided expertise in educational psychology, special education and re-

search methods. The panel was provided with information on the purpose of the Inventory and on the criteria used in each of the three areas covered by it, and was then asked to (i) rate the validity of each item on a 3 point scale (completely valid, partially valid, invalid), (ii) agree or disagree with the direction in which each item was keyed, (iii) pass judgement on whether each item was unambiguous and likely to be readily understood by secondary school children, (iv) offer any further comments or criticisms deemed appropriate. Each of the six judges was asked to deliver his ratings independently, and these ratings were then tabulated by assigning scores of 2, 1 and zero respectively to the 3 point scale (scored positively), which allowed a mean rating for each item to be obtained. The original intention at this stage of the Inventory’s construction was to discard all items with a mean rating of 1 or below, but in order to retain an approximate balance between the three areas of the Inventory this was raised to 1.17, leaving a total of 74 items. These items were then translated into Arabic by one of the authors who is a native Arabic speaker (TMRR), and the translated version presented to a panel of three native Arabic speaking academics who all hold PhDs in Education from a British university. Their task was to comment upon the accuracy of the translation and upon the s&ability of the wording (including the wording of the instructions which prefaced the Inventory). As a result of their comments, small alterations were made to the wording of 24 items, all of which were then approved by the panel. Concurrently with these procedures, 11 test items representing common school situations in which anxiety is normally experienced were constructed after a search of the literature and of the existing anxiety inventories detailed above, and these were submitted for evaluation by both panels of judges in the same way. These items were intended as the Lie Scale, and after approval by the judges these were added to the 74 manifest anxiety items to yield 85 items in all. The purpose of the Lie Scale is to help identify those respondents who attempt to fake their responses in a socially acceptable direction (‘faking good’), and it was chosen for

DEVELOPMENT

OF A MANIFEST SCHOOL ANXIETY SCALE

inclusion in the Inventory in preference to other controls against faking good such as buffer items and response bias adjustment scales in view of its apparent effectiveness and its capacity to provide useful data in its own right (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1964). Scoring

the Inventory

Existing inventories adopt a variety of scoring methods ranging from factor scoring to Likert-type scales to summation of keyed responses. The last-named is the most widely used method, and was the one adopted in the present instance. Each item invited a response on a 3 point scale (‘yes’, ‘uncertain’, ‘no’), and two marks were awarded for the keyed response, one mark for the uncertain response, and zero marks for the unkeyed response. Samples

As detailed at the appropriate points below, the samples for the pilot, try-out and standardisation studies respectively were all drawn from schools in the Baghdad area. The reason for choosing the Baghdad area was that in developing an inventory such as the present one it is important to obtain a good socioeconomic cross-section of subjects. In all, over 1200 pupils and 20 schools were used, and in a country such as Iraq it is not possible to obtain a sample of this size outside a major urban area without introducing socio-economic imbalance or contaminating sub-cultural variables. Further research will be needed to establish whether modifications to the Inventory are necessary to ensure equal validity in rural areas of Iraq and possibly in other Arabic speaking countries. The pilot study

The first draft of the Inventory in its Arabic form was then submitted to a pilot study with the intention of identifying weaknesses (such as vagueness and ambiguity) in the item structure or in the directions prefacing the Inventory, and of collecting data for item and factor analysis and for studying score distribution. The pilot sample consisted of 150 students (mean age 15.0 years) selected by the random number method from six Baghdad secondary schools (3 male and 3 female), which together represented a cross-section of socio-economic groupings. Test administration was carried out under examination conditions in timetabled

127

hours by one of the authors (TMRR) and pupils were assured of anonymity and confidentiality. The Inventory was administered untimed but a record was kept of how long each pupil took to complete it (mean time in minutes = 32.4, S.D. = 9.0). Thirty-three pupils (representing 20% of the sample plus an additional 3 individuals as a safeguard against drop-outs) were then randomly selected and seen individually by TMRR in a structured interview to gather additional data on the clarity and suitability of the items and the test directions. Individual scores for the whole pilot sample were then obtained by summation, and the range of scores was found to lie between 19 and 110 out of a possible range of zero to 148. A frequency polygon was constructed to represent the distribution of marks, and this was found to approximate closely to the normal curve, though with a slight negative tail. Since it is a reasonable assumption that manifest school anxiety is normally distributed this was held to be a reassuring finding. Factor analysis of pilot study results

Factor analysis of Inventory results is recommended by a number of authorities as a means of obtaining an accurate indication of dimensionality and as an aid towards the parsimonious delineation of the areas measured (e.g. Henrysson, 1971). In the present instance the hypothesis, based upon the descriptions and definitions of manifest anxiety advanced by the authorities quoted above (e.g. Spielberger, 1972), was that taken within the school context such anxiety is unlikely to break down into strong discrete factors due to the complex nature of many of the situations in which anxiety is likely to be experienced. Thus the most parsimonious interpretation of manifest school anxiety would be that it is essentially a unitary concept, possessing highly inter-related subscales. In the event factor analysis supported this hypothesis, yielding after varimax rotation (Lie Scale items not included) 27 weak factors which together accounted for 72.2% of the variance. Item analysis of pilot study results

Item analysis was carried out by compiling an item discrimination index using the upper-

128

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lower 27% method which, constructed against the internal criterion of test total score, yields a good measure of internal consistency equivalent to the biserial correlation (Lemke and Wiersman, 1976). The 1.50 individual scores were arranged in descending order from 110 to 19, and then dichotomized by abstracting the scores falling within the upper and lower 27% respectively of the distribution. The upper 27% contained 41 subjects with criterion scores of 110-77 and the lower 27% of 41 subjects with criterion scores of 19-60. The keyed, unkeyed and uncertain responses of these two groups were then tabulated separately, and the discrimination index for each item constructed using Flanagan’s Table. The resulting range of item discrimination indices ran from -0.15 to 0.67, with 7 items discriminating negatively between subjects and 25 items discriminating at values below 0.29. Guilford (1954) suggests that a criterion of 0.25 is a signi~cant level of disc~mination, while Ebel (1972) prefers 0.30 and recommends that items below this level should be revised or discarded. Accordingly the 42 items with indices of 0.3 or above were retained unchanged, while the 7 negatively discriminating items were rejected and *he 25 items with positive values below 0.30 earmarked for revision. Further evidence of the possible weakness of these items was provided when a separate analysis of items attracting an ‘uncertain’ response of 20% or above was carried out and it was discovered that all 25 of them fell into this category. Changes in the wording of these items were then carried out on the strength of the observations provided by subjects during the structured interviews, and the items were then retained to determine whether they would attain an acceptable level of discrimination at the next application of the Inventory (the try-out study). The Lie Scale items were then subjected to item analysis using the same upper-lower 27% method and were found to have indices ranging from 0.49 to 0.79. All 11 Lie Scale items were therefore retained. As a result of the refinements carried out consequent upon the pilot study the Inventory now contained 27 peer reaction anxiety items,

22 teacher reaction anxiety items. and achievement oriented anxiety items.

18

The try-out study

The revised Inventory was then subjected to a major try-out study designed to measure the discrimination index of each item on a larger sample, and to obtain information on the statistical characteristics of Inventory scores. Following guidelines proposed by Henrysson (1971) and Nunnally (1970) the sample consisted of 400 pupils split equally between the sexes (mean age 15.87 years, SD. 2.05 years) drawn randomly from 8 Baghdad secondary schools none of which was represented in the pilot study and which together spanned a representative cross-section of socio-economic groups. The administration of the Inventory followed identical procedures to that used for the pilot study, and the frequency distribution of the resulting scores again approximated closely to the normal curve. An inspection was then made of ‘uncertain’ responses to check whether or not they indicated positive response reluctance (i.e. fakin.g ambivalent) on the part of subjects, and the modal response was found to lie within the 8-15 interval, with 67% of the sample producing responses within the O-15 range and only 1.5% of the sample producing above 32 responses. This appeared highly satisfactory, but to check whether the few high scores were the result of faking or of a genuine ambivalence a Pearson product moment correlation was plotted between ‘uncertain’ responses and Lie Scale scores and found to be insignificant (r = 0.16), which offered strong support for the latter explanation. The Lie Scale

Prior to this, particular attention was paid to the Lie Scale itself to test whether scores on each item were indeed indicative of faking or were due to sampling error or item invalidity. Three random groups of 50 pupils each were drawn from additional representative Baghdad schools and asked to complete a shortened version of the Inventory consisting of the 11 Lie Scale items plus 11 randomly selected buffer items from the anxiety scales. The instructions accompanying the test were varied

DEVELOPMENT

OF A MANIFEST

so that the first group was given directions placing particular emphasis upon the honesty of responses (the ‘honest’ group), the second group was given instructions which laid stress upon the social desirability of responses (the ‘faking’ group) while the third group was given the correct instructions (the control group). The proportions of subjects giving keyed, unkeyed and uncertain responses respectively on the Lie Scale items were then compared using Z-scores, and results showed that significant differences existed between the ‘honest’ and the ‘faking’ groups on 9 out of the 11 items. These 9 items therefore appeared to provide valid discrimination between honest and faking responses and were retained, while the two doubtful items were discarded. Chisquare values were then computed between the try-out sample and each of the three groups for frequency of L-scores on the 9 retained items, and while there was no significant difference between this sample and either the ‘honest’ or the control group, a difference significant at the 0.01 level emerged between the sample and the ‘faking group’, with positive scores biased in the latter direction. Item analysis of try-out study results An item analysis of the 67 anxiety related

items was then carried out using the same procedure as for the pilot study, and a criterion cut-off point applied at the 0.30 discrimination level. The 22 items found to be suspect in the pilot study still fell b$low this level and accordingly were rejected (following Ebel, 1972)) leaving 42 acceptable items. Item analysis was also carried out for the 9 retained Lie Scale items, and the one item found to fall below the criterion cut-off point was rejected. The final version of the Inventory therefore comprised 50 items in all, consisting of 16 peer-related anxiety, 14 teacher related anxiety, 12 achievement oriented anxiety, and 8 Lie Scale (see Appendix). Standardisation

The final stage in the construction of the Inventory was to carry out standardisation, and this was done with a sample of 504 children (252 girls and 252 boys) drawn randomly from 13 representative secondary schools in Baghdad none of which had been involved in the

SCHOOL

ANXIETY

129

SCALE

pilot or the try-out study. The mean age of the sample was 14.83 years (S.D. 2.40 years). The Inventory was administered to the sample using identical procedures to those used in the pilot and try-out studies, and the mean time taken for completion by sample members was 18.7 minutes (SD. 5.92 minutes). Distribution of the scores approached normality (see Table 1). Since no significant differences emerged between male and female subjects, the sexes are treated homogeneously in this instance. Table 1. Frequency distribution, mean and SD for normative study (N = 504)

Scores interval

F

7674 65-69

1 4 16 32 59 74 81 72 79

55-59 50-54 45-49 35-39 $z 2&24 15-19 l&14

;z 12 2

No. of Cases Mean SD

504 36.58 9.69

Lie Scale items were then studied to establish the cut-off point above which ‘faking good’ would be assumed. Opinions vary amongst authorities as to where this point should be. Hathaway and McKinley in the MMPI adopted a cut-off point which eliminates the top 3% of Lie Scale scorers, while Eysenck and Eysenck (1964) favour the 5% level, and the latter more rigorous criterion was adopted in the present study. Conversion of the Lie Scale scores into Z-scores indicated the probability that a score of 14 would dichotomise the top 5% of subjects, and accordingly the criterion cut-off point was set at this level, resulting in the

130.

D. FONTANA

and T. M. R. RAOOF

elimination of 34 subjects out of the present sample (13 females and 21 males).

Table 3. Test re-test reliability indices and standard errors

Reliability

Split half and test re-test methods of establishing reliability were both used. Split half reliability (odd-even items) was computed after ascertaining that differences between the halves were insignificant and using the formula to correct for Spearman-Brown length. Pearson product moment correlations yielded a reliability figure of 0.82 (with a standard error of 4.71) for the anxiety items (see Table 2) and of 0.47 (with a standard error of 2.41) for the Lie Scale. These values appeared highly satisfactory, with the lower figure for the Lie Scale probably due to the reduction in variance consequent upon splitting a scale of only 8 items. Table 2. Split half reliability indices and standard errors

Variable

N

r

Variable All Inventory Females Males Peer reaction anxiety area Student-teacher reaction anxiety area Achievement-oriented anxiety area

r

SE

200 100 100 200

0.85 0.82 0.87 0.83

-1.31 3.43 4.07 1.89

200

0.79

2.17

200

0.82

1.95

equivalents for each raw score were then devised, and results show that scores were neatly scattered along convergent ranges. These percentile norms are shown in summary for all anxiety related items in Table 4 and for the Lie Scale in Table 5. The exercise was then repeated with the sample divided into three separate age groups, but differences between the groups were found to be small.

SE

SUMMARY All Inventory Peer reaction anxiety area Student-teacher reaction anxiety area Achievement oriented anxiety area

N

200 200

0.82 0.50

4.71 3.28

200

0.56

3.11

200

0.56

3.07

Test re-test reliability was established by re-testing after an interval of three weeks 200 pupils chosen randomly (except for numerical equality between the sexes) from the original sample less those individuals rejected for faking good. A Pearson product moment correlation yielded an overall reliability value of 0.85, which was again highly satisfactory (see Table 3). Normalkation

Norms for the Inventory were established using the graphic percentile ranks method at five score intervals. The cumulative percentages for the three sub-scores and for the Lie Scale were plotted against the upper limit of each score interval and smoothed ogives were drawn to fit these points. Percentile norm

AND CONCLUSIONS

Results indicate that the Inventory has a high measure of reliability, and appears to distribute representative samples of secondary school pupils normatively. Item validity is based upon evaluation by a panel of experts, and structured interviews with a random subsample of pupils after the pilot study suggests that these evaluations receive generalised support from the subjects for whom the Inventory is intended. The inclusion of 8 Lie Scale items in the Inventory appears to provide adequate safeguard against faking good. The Inventory is designed to assess state related anxiety in the three main areas in which such anxiety is likely to manifest itself within the school context. Future research will indicate the extent to which this anxiety is related to school achievement, to teacher and peer ratings, and to the introduction of stress reducing : strategies. Current normalisation data have been obtained using samples of Iraqi secondary school pupils, and the Inventory will be put to further extended use in Arabic speaking and in developing countries.

DEVELOPMENT

OF A MANIFEST

SCHOOL

ANXIETY

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131

Table 4. Percentile ranks for males and females in the normative sample (anxiety related items)

Raw score 71 69 66 65 64 63 62 61 60 59 58 57 56 55 54 53 52 51 50

Percentile M F 100 100 9999 98 97 96 96 95 95 94 92 :

loo 99 99 98 -

89 85 84

98 95 95 94 93 88 86 82 81 77 76

Raw score

Percentile M F

49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37

82 79 77 76 72 70 67 65 !

Raw score

Percentile M F

30 29 28 27 ;;

54 51 48

76 68 65 60 58 53 52 48 44 39 36 35 31

31 37

:: 23 25

17 16 14 15

2

::

::

26 30

20 15

”

-

24 23 22 21 20 19 18

23 18 16 13 10 8 7 4 4 3 2 2

15 13 12 10 8 7 6 5 4 4 2 1

:

-

Yl

Table 5. Percentile ranks for the males and females in the normative sample (Lie Scale items)

Raw score

Percentile Females Males

Raw score

Percentile Females males

16

100

150

8

50

48

14 15 13 12 11 10 9

98 99 95 87 80 71 56

99 97 92 ;

: 5 :

27 35 18 z

:: 23 17 9 6 1

NOTE 1. Amongst these measures were the School Anxiety Questionnaire (Dunn, 1%8), the Children’s School Questionnaire (Phillips, 1968). the Test Anxiety Questionnaire (Mandler and Sarason, 1952), the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (Sarason er al., 1960) the Achievement Anxiety Test (Alpert and Haber, 1960), the Anxiety Differential (Alexander and Husek, 1%2), the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (Taylor, 1953). the General Anxiety Scale for Children (Sarason er al., 1960). the State-Trait Anxiety

2 1

Inventory (Spielberger, er al., 1970), the Children’s Version of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (Castenada et al., 1956) and the Illinois Psychological Attitudes Test (Cattell and Scheier, l%l).

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SCHOOL

ANXIETY

SCALE

133

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134

D. FONTANA

and T. M. R. RAOOF

APPENDIX The final form 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50.

of the Manifest School Anxiety

Inventory

It worries me that I expect to fail in academic achievement I seldom worry if I make a mistake in front of my school friends I am worried about not being able to have a good relationship with my classmates I am bothered at being neglected by school peers It never upsets me when teachers are scornful of me It never embarrasses me if my teacher looks over my shoulder while I am writing during an examination I like all the subjects I study I am always calm and tranquil while going to examinations Sometimes when shy I blush in front of my school peers, which disturbs me greatly I never think of cheating in examinations I feel that school teachers respect me I am often embarrassed when teachers ask me sudden questions School examinations never frighten me I have never been scolded by my parents (father or mother) I frequently find myself worrying about being disliked by teachers I worry about what my school friends think of me The depth of my anxiety prevents me from doing school work accurately I get nervous when teachers show too little consideration for students I often get anxious at being less lucky than other students at school I sometimes put off until tomorrow what I ought to do today I frequently envy my classmates for their success in school I dislike some people I feel upset that teachers are aloof with me I feel miserable that other students at school are not friendly with me I feel self-conscious when I am with a group of schoolmates My feelings get hurt easily when I am scolded by teachers I never worry about what other people think of me I am reluctant to join in class discussions because I am afraid of failure I feel I am more afraid of teachers than are other students I feel I am happy at all times I often unconsciously bite my fingernails when school examinations are held I feel I do very well in most school subjects I feel that I am popular with fellow students I hesitate to discuss anything with teachers I make mistakes more frequently when working with others than when alone I always do better if working alone than with teachers I am very bothered by criticism from teachers It is very easy for me to win the liking of my classmates I feel that teachers at school understand me very well I am anxious about being made fun of by my friends at school I feel that my school peers like to help me I find that my school friends listen to my opinions I can easily recall the knowledge I nZed for any school examinations I never get angry My expectations of failure prevent me from achieving high scores I get upset that I cannot concentrate on school subjects My heart begins to beat faster when teachers ask me questions in the classroom It never worries me if my classmates are doing better than me in school subjects I become upset when I cannot understand my school peers very well It is easy for me to express my feelings in front of fellow students

yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yeduncertainino yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no yes/uncertain/no

DEVELOPMENT

OF A MANIFEST

SCHOOL

ANXIETY

Student-teacher reaction anxiety items: 5,6,11,12,15,18,23,26,29,34,36,37,39,47. Achievement oriented anxiety items: 1,8,13,17,21,28,31,32,35,43,45,46. Student-peer

reaction anxiety items: 2,3,4,9,16,19,24,25,33,38,40,41,42,48,49,50.

Lie Scale items: 7,10,14,20,22,27,30,44.

SCALE

135