Assessing psychological flexibility in test situations: The Test Anxiety Acceptance and Action Questionnaire for Adolescents

• Autor(a) principal: Pires, Cláudia P.
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Putwain, David W., Hofmann, Stefan G., Martins, Dinis S., MacKenzie, Meagan B., Kocovski, Nancy L., Salvador, Maria do Céu
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/106671; https://doi.org/10.5944/rppc.29014
• topic: test anxiety; acceptance; psychological flexibility; acceptance and commitment therapy; assessment; adolescents; ansiedad ante los exámenes; aceptación; flexibilidad psicológica; terapia de aceptación y compromiso; evaluación; adolescentes

Acceptance-based interventions such as acceptance and commitment therapy motivated the development of measures of psychological flexibility. As an anxiety-based condition, test anxiety can be conceptualized as an experiential avoidance condition. Given the need to evaluate acceptance and action processes in test anxiety and the lack of such an instrument, the present study aimed to explore the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Test Anxiety–Acceptance and Action Questionnaire for Adolescents (TA-AAQ-A), adapted from the Social Anxiety–Acceptance and Action Questionnaire. The sample comprised 827 adolescents (12-18 years old) from 10 Portuguese schools. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a welladjusted 12-item single-factor measure, invariant across genders. Results also showed high internal consistency and temporal stability, and good convergent validity. Findings suggest the TA-AAQ-A is a reliable and valid measure for the assessment of adolescents’ psychological flexibility in test situations.