Validation of Abbreviated Science Anxiety Scale in the Indian Context

Abstract

The abbreviated science anxiety scale1 was validated in the Indian context with 290 secondary school students of grade 8 as the sample subjects. Exploratory factor analysis revealed the original two factors explaining 54.778 % of total variance in science anxity construct. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the factor structure of the construct with excellent goodness of fit estimates like CMIN/DF = 1.830, CFI = 0.969, TLI = 0.957, RMSEA = 0.054 and SRMR = 0.0392, conducted using the estimator maximum likelihood (ML). The floor and ceiling effect estimation for content validity showed that both the effects are absent with estimates way lesser than the benchmark of 15 % at 6.55 % and 0 % respectively. The internal consistency reliability estimation using Cronbach’s alpha found that the five items of the first factor “Learning science anxiety” and four items of the second factor “Science evaluation anxiety” had this estimate at 0.803 and 0.678 respectively, both of which fairly indicate good measurement of reliability of the scale. The education implications of the study are discussed.