Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Largo do Paço, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal.
ICVS/3B's, PT Government Associate Laboratory, Largo do Paço, 4700-000, Braga, Portugal.
BMC Psychol. 2021 Oct 27;9(1):166. doi: 10.1186/s40359-021-00656-w.
Test anxiety is a crucial factor in determining academic outcomes, and it may lead to poor cognitive performance, academic underachievement, and psychological distress, interfering specifically with their ability to think and perform during tests. The main objective of this study was to explore the applicability and psychometric properties of a Portuguese version of the Reactions to Tests scale (RTT) in a sample of medical students.
A sample of 672 medical students completed the RTT. The sample was randomly split in half to allow for independent Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and to test the best fit model-Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). CFA was used to test both the first-order factor structure (four subscales) and second-order factor structure, in which the four subscales relate to a general factor, Test Anxiety. The internal consistency of the RTT was assessed through Cronbach's alpha, Composite reliability (CR) and Average Variance Extracted (AVE) for the total scale and each of the four subscales. Convergent validity was evaluated through the correlation between RTT and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y).To explore the comparability of measured attributes across subgroups of respondents, measurement invariance was also studied.
Results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed acceptable fits for the Portuguese RTT version. Concerning internal consistency, results indicate that RTT was found to be reliable to measure test anxiety in this sample. Convergent validity of the RTT with both state and trait anxiety STAI-Y's subscales was also shown. Moreover, multigroup analyses showed metric invariance across gender and curriculum phase.
Our results suggest that the RTT scale is a valid and reliable instrument for the measurement of test anxiety among Portuguese Medical Students.
考试焦虑是决定学业成绩的一个关键因素，它可能导致认知表现不佳、学业成绩不佳和心理困扰，特别是干扰他们在考试期间思考和表现的能力。本研究的主要目的是探索葡萄牙版反应测试量表（RTT）在医学生样本中的适用性和心理测量特性。
一个由 672 名医学生组成的样本完成了 RTT。该样本被随机分为两半，以便进行独立的探索性因素分析（EFA）和测试最佳拟合模型-验证性因素分析（CFA）。CFA 用于测试一阶因子结构（四个分量表）和二阶因子结构，其中四个分量表与一个一般因子，考试焦虑有关。RTT 的内部一致性通过 Cronbach 的 alpha、综合可靠性（CR）和平均方差提取（AVE）进行评估，用于整个量表和四个分量表中的每一个。通过 RTT 与状态-特质焦虑量表（STAI-Y）之间的相关性评估收敛效度。为了评估测量属性在受访者亚组之间的可比性，还研究了测量不变性。
探索性和验证性因素分析的结果表明，葡萄牙语 RTT 版本具有可接受的拟合度。关于内部一致性，结果表明 RTT 在该样本中被发现是可靠的测试焦虑测量工具。RTT 与 STAI-Y 的状态和特质焦虑分量表的收敛效度也得到了证明。此外，多组分析表明，在性别和课程阶段，度量不变性。
我们的研究结果表明，RTT 量表是一种用于测量葡萄牙医学生考试焦虑的有效且可靠的工具。
