Measuring Reading Anxiety in College Students

The goal of the present study was to create a brief reliable scale for measuring reading anxiety in college students, a time when reading demands are particularly high. Results revealed individual differences in reading anxiety in a sample of 402 university students, showing reliable measurements from a 10-item scale and replicated in a sample of 198 undergraduates. Reading anxiety related to reading fluency, reading self-concept, self-perception of reading ability compared to others, reading enjoyment, and reading for pleasure frequency. Furthermore, higher reading anxiety was observed in students with a known learning disability compared to those without. How well each of the 10 items differentiated levels of reading anxiety were explored using a graded response model. We provide evidence for the reading-specific nature of reading anxiety by demonstrating a higher correlation between reading anxiety and reading fluency than math fluency and that reading anxiety exists separable from general and social anxiety.