Psychometric characteristics and norms for disadvantaged third and fourth grade children on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children

Abstract

The STAIC was administered to 1,522 third and fourth grade Black disadvantaged children from a large metropolitan school district. Although A-State scores were equivalent to the original normative sample. A-Trait levels for boys and girls were found to be higher. Similar alpha coefficients were observed for the A-State scale; the A-Trait scale yielded slightly lower alpha coefficients than the original sample. Norms for the STAIC scales were extended to the third grade level. The small differences between the present study and the original normative study were attributed to differences in population. The STAIC provides a valid and reliable means to measure trait and state anxiety in children of elementary school age.

Children's pre-operative tonsillectomy pain education: Clinical outcomes

“…Construct validity was demonstrated by the scale's ability to significantly discriminate between pre-and post-examination or testing situations. Later studies [27,28] supported the reliability and validity for use with children from kindergarten to sixth grade. Each of the 20 scale items receives a score between 1 and 3.…”

A culturally-sensitive model of the development of child anxiety.

“…Indeed, mean self-reported anxiety for both boys and girls in the current sample was comparable to existing norms based on predominantly non-Hispanic White samples (Spielberger, 1973). Interestingly, male and female children in the current sample endorsed less anxiety when compared to normative data from non-clinical samples of African American youth (Papay & Hedl, 1978). Such findings are particularly notable when considered within the context of existing literature, which has generally emphasized factors that predispose African Americans to adverse emotional outcomes as well as the heightened risk for anxiety and other internalizing symptoms in this population.…”

“….98) and girls (M=40.26, SD= 4.94; Papay & Hedl, 1978), which have been referenced in other studies using the STAIC with African American youth (Mandara, Gaylord-Harden, Richards, & Ragsdale, 2009;Wasserberg, 2014). Though previous research has found boys to endorse less anxiety than girls (Lewinsohn et al, 1998) (Harter, 1985).…”

“…Questions on the survey were designed in order to obtain information pertaining to child gender and age as well as parent gender, age, marital status, education level, number of children in household, and annual household income. Open-ended questions were used to obtain participants' age and number of children, and closed-ended format was used to assess African American children (Hedl & Papay, 1978;Hedl & Papay, 1982;Mandara et al, 2009;Treadwell, Flannery-Schroeder, & Kendall, 1995;Wasserberg, 2014). In the current sample, internal consistency for the STAIC-T was acceptable, with an alpha coefficient of .86.…”

Stereotype Threat and the Standardized Testing Experiences of African American Children at an Urban Elementary School

“…Overall and itemspecific scores increase when compared to baseline reports when children are asked to complete the survey just before a final exam (Spielberger et al, 1973), or in other anxiety provoking conditions (Roberts, Vargo, & Ferguson, 1989). Previous examinations of internal consistency measures of the STAIC-State subscale revealed alpha coefficients ranging from .71 to .82 (Papay & Hedl, 1978;Papay & Spielberger, 1986), and included younger students in the analyses. The measure is easy to read and can be administered verbally to younger children, or those with below-average reading abilities.…”