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Test-Induced Anxiety With Children Charles S. Newmark , Dave Wheeler , Linda Newmark & Brian Stabler Published online: 10 Jun 2010.

To cite this article: Charles S. Newmark , Dave Wheeler , Linda Newmark & Brian Stabler (1975) Test-Induced Anxiety With Children, Journal of Personality Assessment, 39:4, 409-413, DOI: 10.1207/ s15327752jpa3904_15 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa3904_15

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Journal of Personality Assessment, 1975,39, 4

Test-Induced Anxiety With Children CHARLES S. NEWMARK, DAVE WHEELER, LINDA NEWMARK, and BRIAN STABLER University of North Carolina Medical School

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Summary: Thirty-five elementary school childxen received the WISC, ]Rorschach, CAT, and Sentence Completion Test in counterbalanced order with a test-test interval of approximately 24 hours. State and trait anxiety measures were assessed immediately prior to and immediately following each test administration. Results indicated that state anxiety measures increased significantly following administration of the more ambigious and school related assessment tests, namely the Rorschach and WISC. In contrast, the more structured, less amorphous CAT and Sentence Completion Test, did not induce any significant changes in state anxiety. In all cases, trait anxiety measures remained relatively stable. Implications for assessment techniques with children were discussed.

A plethora of investigations exist assessing the effects of anxiety on the performances of various groups of children and adults receiving administrations of various psychological tests. The equivocal, inconclusive, and often contradictory findings from these studies did not seem to be due to systematic variations in the subject population, type of test, experimenter prestige, or anxiety scales, but were partially attributable to failure to consider the effects of both situational and chronic anxiety (Newmark & Dinoff, 1972). While two recent investigations, one with normal adults (Newmark, Hetzel, & Frerking, 1974) and the other with adult psychiatric patients (Newmark, Ray, Frerking, & Paine, 1974), have focused attention on anxiety produced as a function of the particular psychological test being administered, scant research has focused on this area with children. The primary goal of the present study was to assess the effects of stress associated with the administration of four commonly used psychological tests of personality and intellectual assessment on measures of state and trait anxiety as these concepts are defined by Spielberger (1966, 1972). State anxiety (A-State) is conceptualized as a transitory, emotional state characterized by subjective, consciously perceived feelings of tension and apprehension accompanied by or associated with heightened autonomic nervous system activity which may vary in intensity and fluctuate over time. In contrast,

trait anxiety (A-Trait) refers to relatively stable individual differences in anxiety proneness which is not influenced by situational stress. Method Subjects Subjects were 20 white males and 20 white females between the ages of 9 and 10 years (M = 9.6) who were in the fourth grade at an urban elementary school and had no known history of personal emotional (disturbance. Subjects volunteered for the experiment, without having prior knowledge of the procedure, in order to obtain minimal monetary rewards. Two male subjects and three females subjects were absent from school on at least one of their testing days and consequently were excluded from this study. State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) (Spielberger, Edwards, Lushene, Montuori, & Platzek, 1972) is a test designed to measure situational and chronic anxiety states in children that is similar in conception and structure to the more prominent State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Individual STAIC items are similar in content to that included in the ST&, but the format for responding has been simplified. The STAIC is a self-administered test comprised of two separate scales, each containing 20 items, to which the subject responds on a

Test-Induced Anxiety with Children Table 1 Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations of Pre- and Post-Test STAIC Scores Across Experimental Conditions

Test

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WISC PrePostRorschach PrePostCAT PrePostSentence Completion Pre- , Post-

3-point scale as to the degree to which Sentence Completion Test) in counterthe statement applies to him. Instructions balanced order over a 4-day period with a on the A-Trait scale required the subject test-test interval of approximately 20-24 to describe how he generally felt, while hours. Immediately prior to and immedion the A-State scale the subject was ately following administration of each instructed to describe how he felt at that psychological test, the subject received particular moment in time. The examiner the STAIC. The Rorschach, CAT, and always read the directions to the child WISC were administered ,by either a male and questions were permitted. Detailed clinical psychologist or a male clinical instructions regarding the development, psychology intern using routine standard norms, administration, and scoring of the procedures proposed by tlie respective STAIC as well as evidence bearing on the authors. The Sentence Completion Test validity, reliability, degree of internal was self-administered. A male experimenter was present durconsistency, and correlation with other personality tests are available elsewhere ing the administration of the Sentence Completion Test so that his presence was (Speilberger et al., 1972). constant across experimental conditions. Procedure In order to hold testing time constant and Each subject received individual ad- to reduce the effects of boredom and ministrations of four psychological tests fatigue, each session was limited to 30 (Rorschach, CAT, WISC Information, minutes duration, not including STAIC Vocabulary, Block Design, and a 45-item administration time.

C. S. NEWMARK, D. WHEELER, L. NEWMARK,, and B. STABLER

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In order to best simulate an actual testing situation, subjects were informed that they would receive feedback regarding their personality and intellectual characteristics as assessed by the test battery. Feedback was based primarily on information obtained from teachers with the "Barnum Effect" utilized. Results Since no significant differences were found as a function of sex, the data from both male and female groups were analyzed together. Table l presents means, :standard deviations, and Pearson productmoment correlations of pre- and post-test state and trait anxiety scores. The means of the anxiety scores across experimental conditions were compared by t tests for irelated measures. A-State scores were noted to increase significantly following administrations of both the Rorschach (t = 5.93, p < .001) and the WISC (t = 8.22, p < .001). More specifically, 29 subjects and 32 subjects showed increases in A-State scores as a function of the administration of the ]Rorschach and WISC, respectively. ATrait scores, however, were noted to remain relatively stable as a function of 1,hese experimental procedures. In contrast, no significant changes occurred on either A-State or A-Trait measures as a function of the administralion of the CAT or Sentence Completion Test. In both cases, approximately 40% of the subjects showed slight decreases in A-State scores following the test administration. The results obtained using the Rorschach and Sentence Completion Test are markedly sjmilar to those found using normal adult subjects (Newmark, et al., 1974a). Additionally, while the test protocols were generally within normal limits for nine- and ten-year-olds, four subjects' responses were highly suggestive of emotional disturbance. In order to evaluate the potential effects of threat induced by psychological tests on changes in A-State scores for children who differed in A-Trait scores, the median A-Trait score was determined

41 1

for each~ test administration. Subjects then were divided into high and low A-Trait groups according to whether their average #-Trait score was above or below the median. The A-State data were evaluated in a 2 x 2 analysis of variance mixed design (Winer, 1962), in which level of A-Trait was the between-subjects factor and pretest-posttest was the within-subjects factor. The results of this analysis revealed highly significant main effects of A-Trait (:F (1,68) =: 4.38, p < .05; F (1,68) = 5.20, p < .05; F (1,68) = 9.84, p < .005; F (l,68) = 13.75, p < ,001) as a function of the administration of the CAT, Sentence Completion Test, Rorschach, and WISC, respectively. Pretestposttest effect was nonsignificant for the CAT and Sentence Completion Test, but significant (F (1,68) = 39.28, p < .001; F (1,68) = 31.75, p < .001) for the WISC and Rorschach, respectively. No interaction resulted. These findings indicate that high A-Trait subjects were higher in A-State than low A-Trait subjects both before and after administration of each psychological test, but that A-State scores remained relatively stable following administration of the CAT and Sentence Completion Test while increasing significantly following administration of the WISC and Rorschach. The amount of increase in A-State was not differentially affected by level of A-Trait. A-State-A-Trait correlations ranged from .59 to .56 to .43 to .41 following administrations of the WISC, Rorschach, Sentence Completion Test, and the CAT, respectively. All correlations are significantly different from zero ( p < .001). Discussion The results suggest that the administration of certain psychological tests produce an increase in A-State scores in children which is only temporary and abates within 24 hours. If one views the Rorschach and WISC as potentially egothreatening, stress-provoking stimuli due to the former's amorphousness and ambiguity and the latter's relationship to school tests and evaluation of personal adequacy, then these findings are highly

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412 consistent with numerous investigations reviewed by Spielberger et al. (1972). In contrast, no increases in A-State scores were induced by the CAT and Sentence Completion Test. While both of these tests are generally classified as projective techniques, the CAT and Sentence Completion Test are considerably more structured and less amorphous than the Rorschach and should be classified in an intermediate position on a dimension of structured-unstructured (Daston, 1968). Additionally, the CAT uses animal subjects which were chosen on the basis of expectations derived from clinical work that children would identify with and be less threatened with animal figures than with human figures (Bills, 1950) and that animal figures would more easily elicit idiographic material (Bellak, 1954). A-State-A-Trait correlations were generally larger under those conditions posing a threat to self-esteem or when personal adequacy was evaluated. These findings are consistent with previously published results (Spielberger et al., 1972). In contrast to the fluctuations of A-State scores across experimental conditions, A-Trait scores did not change in response to situational stresses. Thus, the results of the present study provide additional evidence of the construct validity of the STMC A-State and A-Trait scales measuring anxiety as a transitory emotional state and as a relatively stable personality trait. The results are in general agreement with an investigation conducted by Newmark, Hetzel, and Frerking (1974) using college student volunteers in a similar procedure who received the MMPI, Rorschach, TAT, and Sentence Completion Test. Results indicated that A-State measures increased significantly following administration of the more ambiguous, unstructured test stimuli, namely the Rorschach and TAT. In contrast, the more structured, direct assessment methods, namely the MMPI and Sentence Completion Test, did not induce any significant changes in A-State measures. In all cases, A-Trait measures remained

Test-InducedAnxiety with Children

relatively stable. It appears that certain personality and intellectual assessment techniques are quite threatening and anxiety-inducing with preadolescent children. The performance and productivity of children on a complex task are adversely affected by high situational anxiety (Montouri, 1971), since at high A-State levels, nontask-oriented behaviors and anxiety reducing responses occur, which are incompatible with efficient task performance. Therefore, one may conclude that for optimal performance and productivity certain anxiety-eliciting assessment tests should not always be used. Instead, more structured, less ambiguous, and nonacademic-related test instruments should be used. These conclusions are congruent with Allport's (1965) observation that the structured personality assessment methods elicit more personality data than projective methods in normal subjects. Murstein (1959), after a review of the work on stimulus ambiguity, also concluded that stimulus structuring is desirable for maximum personality exploration. Future research should focus on evaluating the anxiety inducing properties of numerous other intelligence and personality tests so that a nonstressful test battery can be found. References Allport, G. W. The trend in motivation theory. In B. I. Murstein (Ed.), Handbook of projective techniques. New York: Basic Books, 1965. Bellak, L. The TAT and CAT in clinical use. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1954. Bills, R. Animal pictures for obtaining children's projections. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1950,6, 291-293. Daston, P. G. Word associations and sentence completion techniques. In A. I. Rabin (Ed.), Projective techniques in personality assessment. New York: Spring, 1968. Montuori, J. J. The effects of stress and anxiety on verbal conditioning in children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Florida State University, 1971. Murstein, B. I. A conceptual model of projective techniques applied to stimulus variations with thematic techniques. Journal o f Consulting Psychology, 1959,23, 3-13. Newmark, C. S., & Dinoff, M. Noncontent verbal conditioning as a function of state

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and trait anxiety. Journal o f Personality, 1972,40, 620-639. Newmark, C. S., Hetzel, W., & Frerking, R. The effects of personality tests on state and trait anxiety. Journal of Personality Assessment, 1974,38, 17-20. Newmark, C. S., Ray, J., Frerking, R., & Paine, R. D. Test-induced anxiety as a function of psychopathology. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1974,34, 26 1-264. Spielberger, C. D. Anxiety and behavior. New York: Academic Press, 1966. Spielberger, C. D. Anxiety as an emotional state. In C. D. Spielberger (Ed.), Anxiety: Current trends in theory and research. New York: Academic Press, 1972.

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Spielberger, C. D.,Edwards, C. S., Lushene, R., Montuori, J., & Platzek, D. Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children. (How I feel Questionnaire). Palo Alto, California: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1972. Winer, B. J. Statistical principles in experimental design. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962. Charles E. Newmark, PhD Department of Psychiatry The University of North Carolina Med. School Chapel Hill, North Carolina 275 14 Received: May 15,1974 Revised: June 25,1974

Test-induced anxiety with children.

Thirty-five elementary school children received the WISC, Rorschach, CAT, and Sentence Completion Test in counterbalanced order with a test-test inter...
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