The Test Anxiety Inventory for Children and Adolescents (TAICA) is a new multidimensional measure used to assess test anxiety in elementary and secondary school students. The TAICA is a 45-item self-report measure consisting of a Total Test Anxiety scale, four debilitating test anxiety subscales (Cognitive Obstruction/Inattention, Physiological Hyperarousal, Social Humiliation, and Worry), a facilitating test anxiety scale (Performance Enhancement/ Facilitation Anxiety), and a Lie scale. In the present study, the psychometric properties of the TAICA scores are examined with a volunteer sample of 206 children and adolescents. Results of the study indicate that the TAICA scores have strong to very strong internal consistency reliability and temporal stability (1- to 3-week test-retest interval). Evidence supporting the construct validity of the TAICA scores was found.

The psychometric properties of the Test Anxiety Scale for Elementary Students (TAS-E) scores were examined. In Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed on the responses of 997 students in Grades 2 to 6 on the TAS-E. The results of the EFA produced a four-factor solution: Physiological Hyperarousal, Social Concerns, Task Irrelevant Behavior, and Worry. Gender differences were also found on each factor, except the Social Concerns factor. In Study 2, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed on the TAS-E scores with a sample of 421 elementary students. The CFA results provided support for the four-factor solution in Study 1. The results also indicated that the TAS-E scores had adequate internal consistency reliability and test score stability. Evidence for convergent and discriminant validity of the TAS-E scores was found.

Managing existential concerns is theorized to be a key function of religion. We posit that priming religion should be related to greater existential security for those high in intrinsic religiosity. In Experiment 1, priming religion increased intercultural tolerance among individuals who were highly intrinsically religious but decreased it for those low in intrinsic religiousness. In Experiment 2, intrinsic religiousness again moderated the effects of the prime, suggesting that priming religion resulted in attenuated afterlife anxiety for intrinsically religious individuals but greater anxiety for individuals low in intrinsic religiousness. Religious reminders appeared to provide existential security—evidenced by tolerance and reduced death anxiety—only to those high in intrinsic religiousness and can be threatening to those low in intrinsic religiousness. Existential outcomes are a specific case in which intrinsic religiousness can moderate the effects of religious primes, suggesting that religion plays a different existential role for different people.

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Improvements in descriptive information have implications for interpretation, replication, and generalizability of research findings.