Examination Stress and Test Anxiety: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

This is a comparative study of the examination stress assessed either as test anxiety or in terms of its worry and emotionality components in 7,679 high school students (males and females) from four Asian (Indian, Jordanian, Chinese and Korean) and five Euro-American (Hungarian, Turkish, Indian, German and American) cultures. These comparisons have been made on the basis of data reported in the studies which used the English Test Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1980), or its psychometrically equivalent versions in languages of the other eight cultures. The major conclusions are: (a) There are differences with respect to the levels and patterns of test anxiety in terms of its worry and emotionality components not only within Asian or Euro-American but also among Asian and Euro-American cultures. As such, higher test anxiety is a phenomenon not peculiar to the western cultures. Such findings can be explained not only in terms of the differences in the socio-cultural premises, but also in terms of the differences in material conditions; (b) Females, across nine cultures, have higher test anxiety, worry and emotionality than their male counterparts. Greater role expectation conflict in females seems to be the major factor for such a consistent gender difference. Methodological issues relevant to such a research across cultures have also been discussed.