Examining the Psychometric Properties of the Academic Anxiety Scale in University Students

The Academic Anxiety Scale is a self-report instrument designed to assess the extent to which students view educational activities and settings as sources of academic stress. Prior work has provided preliminary psychometric evidence supporting the use of the instrument within university and K–12 settings. Thus, the current study was designed to investigate the latent structure, criterion-related validity evidence, and differential item functioning of the instrument in a sample of United States university students. University students ( N = 557) completed the Academic Anxiety Scale, FRIEDBEN Test Anxiety Scale, and College Persistence Questionnaire Version 3–Short Form. Exploratory graph analysis techniques provided evidence supporting a unidimensional latent structure. Correlational analyses revealed theoretically consistent relationships with estimates of collegiate stress, tenseness, cognitive obstruction, social derogation, academic efficacy, academic motivation, and degree commitment. Finally, differential item functioning analyses suggested that Academic Anxiety Scale items functioned equivalently across gender and first-generation student status.