Cross-lagged analysis of children's test anxiety and defensiveness

The consistent negative relationship between the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (TASC) and the Lie Scale for Children (LSC) could be the spurious result of S response bias or of common construct measurement. Alternatively, the relationship could be causal. It was hypothesized that the relationship was nonspurious and that defensiveness (LSC) had a causal effect on test anxiety (TASC). A cross-lagged panel analysis of the relationship was applied to longitudinal data from a combined sample of 1,055 elementary school children. Defensiveness as measured by the LSC was more strongly related to later test anxiety than anxiety was to later defensiveness ( p