Assessment of anxiety and achievement in kindergarten and first- and second-grade children.

The psychometric properties of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) and relationships between STAIC T-Anxiety scores and standardized measures of achievement were determined for 948 kindergarten and first- and second-grade children. The T-anxiety scores of kindergarten children were lower than those of first- and second-graders. Internal consistency of the STAIC scales was higher in individual testing sessions than in small group administrations. Small but significant negative correlations were found between STAIC T-Anxiety scores and measures of school achievement. It was concluded that the STAIC is a potentially useful measure of state and trait anxiety in kindergarten through sixth-grade children, but it must be administered individually at the kindergarten and first-grade levels.

Psychometric characteristics and norms for disadvantaged third and fourth grade children on the state-trait anxiety inventory for children.

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.