The Bulgarian and Greek versions of Cognitive Test Anxiety Scale among university students: In search of a factor structure?

Abstract

University students face text anxiety regardless of their country of origin, therefore it is an urgent need to use psychometric measures during evaluation that we have identified their factor structure. The Cognitive Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS) has been used in different countries for the measurement of the cognitive aspect of test anxiety. Although CTAS has been used widely, so far its factor structure is a topic of debate. In this study, we focused on concurrent data collection in two nearby countries (Bulgaria and Greece) with two aims: a) to establish for the first time the factor structure for the Bulgarian and Greek versions of CTAS and b) to investigate any cross-cultural differences in two large samples of university student populations. Results from Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) (N = 824) support the two-factor model of the factors “cognitive test anxiety†and “test confidence†with all 27 items included for the Greek adaptation of CTAS. For the Bulgarian sample (N = 735), EFA showed the same internal structure of two factors but for 14 items, thus differing from the established Greek version of the CTAS. In addition to that, no gender-based or cross-cultural differences regarding the CTAS total score were found for the two countries. Future research should take into consideration that university students' test anxiety should be examined with caution and a special emphasis should be given to the cultural settings and educational systems.