German Test Anxiety Inventory (PAF)

Product or Programme · All products and programmes
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 associational), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description

A 20-item self-report questionnaire measuring worry, interference, lack of confidence, and arousal facets of test anxiety in students.

Components

• German Test Anxiety Inventory (PAF) four-facet model of test anxiety: The PAF conceptualizes test anxiety as comprising three cognitive facets and one emotional facet. As the article states, "The PAF differentiates between worry, interference, and lack of confidence as cognitive facets and arousal as an emotional facet of test anxiety." Worry refers to concerns about a test and the consequences of failing; interference captures test-irrelevant thoughts experienced as distracting; lack of confidence refers to low confidence of performing well, similar to academic self-efficacy but specific to the test situation; arousal refers to bodily reactions such as a pounding heart. The 20-item questionnaire uses five items per subscale rated on a 4-point Likert scale. (Schillinger et al. (2021))

Claims

• Interference and lack of confidence, but not worry or arousal, explain unique variance in university students' standardized test performance [+M]
• Worry did not explain unique variance in students' test performance or mathematics grade, challenging the worry-based explanation of the test anxiety-performance link [+M]

Related Products and Programmes

-

Key Sources

• Schillinger, F. L., Mosbacher, J. A., Brunner, C., Vogel, S. E., & Grabner, R. H. (2021). Revisiting the Role of Worries in Explaining the Link Between Test Anxiety and Test Performance. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09601-0

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	product
id	german-test-anxiety-inventory-paf
title	German Test Anxiety Inventory (PAF)
description	A 20-item self-report questionnaire measuring worry, interference, lack of confidence, and arousal facets of test anxiety in students.
status	review
product_kind	assessment
generated	by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-19
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content

Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.