Factor Analysis of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children with a Sample of Seventh- and Eighth-Grade Students

Abstract

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC; Spielberger, 1973) was administered to 541 seventh- and eighth-grade students in regular classes in urban and suburban schools in a mid-western state. The STAIC was administered to the children prior to their completing a novel nonverbal task. The items were scored according to the directions in the manual and subjected to a principal components factor analysis with oblique and varimax rotation. Using the scree test, the oblique rotation produced the best simple structure of three factors, and there were no significant differences in factor structure by sex. The results were consistent with prior research and indicated a stable trait factor that closely matched the original A-Trait scale and two state factors. These factors were identified as “state unhappiness” and “state distress” and were compared to previous research that labeled the two factors as “anxiety-present” and “anxiety-absent.” There was a nonlinear relationship between these two factors, indicating that once state happiness increases beyond the minimum scores, state distress increases at a more rapid rate than the simple correlation (r = .52) would suggest. The authors concluded that the dichotomy of “anxiety-present” or “anxiety-absent” may not reflect completely the relationship between the two derived factors.