The major purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among mother's level of anxiety, child's level of test anxiety, and child's level of achievement in reading. Other relationships investigated involved the following variables: family's socioeconomic status (mother's educational level and family's income level), mother's age, and sibling structure (number of children in the family and birth order of the participating child). / Subjects were 131 first grade students in nine heterogeneously grouped classes and their mothers. Data were collected using the following instruments: a demographic information questionnaire (socioeconomic status, sibling structure, mother's age); the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (mother's anxiety); the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test (child's mental ability); the Test Anxiety for Children (child's test anxiety); the Metropolitan Achievement Test (child's reading achievement). Path analysis techniques were used to analyze the data. / Results indicated the following significant relationships: (1) The mother's socioeconomic status (education and income levels) had a direct and negative effect on the mother's level of anxiety. (2) The mother's level of anxiety had a direct and negative effect on child's mental ability and a direct and positive effect on child's level of test anxiety. In addition, indirect effects were found for mother's anxiety on child's test anxiety through a third variable, child's mental ability. (3) Child's mental ability had a direct and negative effect on child's level of test anxiety and a direct and positive effect on child's level of achievement in reading. In addition, an indirect effect for child's mental ability on the child's reading achievement was determined. This indirect effect involved a third variable, child's test anxiety. (4) Child's level of test anxiety had a direct and negative effect on child's level of achievement in reading. / The proposed causal model was revised to reflect the causal relationships defined in the analysis. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-01, Section: A, page: 0078. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75718 |
| Contributors | DORMINEY, JULIA J., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 199 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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