This study compared the relation of trait anxiety as measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children and self-esteem as measured by Coopersmith's Self-esteem Inventory in independent samples of children in Grades 4, 5, and 6. Pearson correlations were, respectively, -.51, -.62, and -.71. The differences in correlations between the highest and lowest grades were statistically significant. While trait anxiety and self-esteem summed scores covary robustly, factor analytic studies showed that the two dimensions are largely independent.
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