CHAPTER 1-  GENDER DIFFERENCES AND MEASUREMENT INVARIANCE IN TEST ANXIETY ACROSS THE WORLD: EVIDENCE FROM PISA 2015                                                                                                                                                     13                                                                                                                                                 

Dr. Mahmut Sami YIGITER 
Erdem BODUROGLU   

                                                                                                    
Cite this chapter
APA

Yiğiter, M. S., Boduroğlu, E. (2023). Chapter 1 Gender Differences and Measurement Invariance in Test Anxiety Across the World: Evidence from Pisa 2015. In R. A. H. Chirinos de Jesus (Ed.), International Academic Research & Reviews in Educational Sciences-II- (pp. 13-39). Ankara, Türkiye: Global Academy Publishing House. https://dx.doi.org/10.59740/academy.29


Showing a limited preview of this publication:
Introduction 

Recently, students have become more anxious in their education process due to increasing competitive conditions and rising academic expectations. The pressure from the environment, family, or school stakeholders to get high grades increases the stress on the student with the fear of failure. Test anxiety refers to the feelings of fear, worry, and tension that students may experience in relation to their academic performance, school loads, and expectations from students (Chamberlain, Daly, and Spalding, 2011; Putwain and Daly, 2014). In other words, test anxiety describes the change in students' stress and anxiety levels due to the exams or studies they perform at school. The main triggers of test anxiety can be factors such as fear of failure, pressure from high demands, competition with peers, or lack of self-confidence (Ringeisen & Raufelder, 2015; Tan & Pang, 2023). There is a broad consensus in the literature that test anxiety is related to academic achievement (Ali & Mohsin, 2013; Crişan & Copaci, 2015; von der Embse, Jester, Roy, & Post, 2018). von der Embse et al. (2018) reported that test anxiety has a negative effect on many educational performance indicators in their meta-analysis of 238 studies on test anxiety since 1988. In addition, there are studies showing that test anxiety is closely related to many psychological symptoms such as depressive symptoms, stress, and emotional balance disorders (Augner, 2015; von der Embse, Barterian, & Segool, 2013). Test anxiety can also lead to different physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, rapid pulse, rapid breathing, sweating, headache, abdominal pain or nausea, sleep problems, and fatigue (Mashayekh & Hashemi, 2011; Chishti & Rana, 2021). In addition, it is also stated in the literature that test anxiety can have future-oriented effects such as skipping classes, delaying or giving up academic goals (Pekrun, 2006; Lowe et al., 2008). Therefore, it can be said that test anxiety will have negative effects on students' academic performance, mental health and overall quality of life if it is not given due importance.