Inventário de Ansiedade Frente a Provas (IAP): Validade e invariância de uma versão reduzida.

Evaluative contexts tend to be anxiogenic for most people. Thus, understanding levels of anxiety in the face of tests is a possibility to help individual students, as well as to understand broader educational processes. This study aimed to evaluate evidence of internal structure validity, accuracy and invariance in the short version of the Test Anxiety Inventory (IAP). The study was carried out with 1137 students aged between 18 and 63 years (M = 25.94; SD = 7.37) in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The results indicated a structure formed by four factors: concern, lack of confidence, distraction and emotion. Good precision estimates were also evidenced, with alphas ranging from 0.86 to 0.93. Evidences of gender invariance were presented for the IAP, with women presenting higher levels of anxiety, and focal actions can be considered, mainly in the female public. The short version of the inventory is a good resource for assessments in the educational context and helps to understand anxiety in these situations. New studies are suggested to look for evidence of criterion validity and control of response biases in the IAP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]