Mathematics Anxiety and Test Anxiety: Separate Constructs?

The authors used correlational and confirmatory factor analytic techniques to examine the relationship between measures of the constructs of mathematics anxiety and test anxiety. The correlations found between measures of the 2 constructs were nearly as high as those found within measures of the 2 constructs, bringing into question the separateness of the constructs. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis provided some support for a distinction between the constructs; the correlation between the 2 factors, however, was relatively high. Those findings suggest that mathematics anxiety and test anxiety may be separate phenomena; the conceptual uniqueness of mathematics anxiety, however, needs to be further delineated and its measurement improved.