ABSTRACT
This study reports cross-cultural research that compares the test anxiety levels of adolescents from eight cultures: Argentina, Czech Republic, Ireland, Israel, Israeli Arabs, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States. The Pictorial Evaluation of TEstReactions-Trait Questionnaire (PETER-TQ), a self-report questionnaire developed by the author to evaluate test anxiety in students of different ages, and Spielberger's Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) were administered to 1,510 students (737females, 773 males), ages 14–17. Participants first responded to the TAI and then completed the PETER-TQ. The PETER-TQ scores of students in all eight cultures were quite similar, with high internal consistency in all cultures (alpha coefficients of .84 or higher). Although the scores of females were higher than those of males, these gender differences were significant in only two cultures. Correlations of the PETER-TQ with the TAI were moderately high, ranging from .45 to.70; the overall correlation between the two measures was .61. The findings of the present study provide evidence that pictorial measures can be successfully employed to assess individual differences in test anxiety in different cultures.
