Validity and reliability evidences for a Behavioral Avoidance in Oral Exams Scale in college students

Oral exams are interpersonal situations that can trigger unpleasant emotions associated to social exposure, especially before and during the examination. Students frequently use avoidance behaviors to cope with emotional distress. To resolve limitations in behavioral avoidance in oral exam situations, a specific inventory was developed and its psychometric properties were analyzed. For this purpose, the construct and its two dimensions were conceptually defined. Items congruent with this definition were created and reliability and validity evidence was documented. In this research, 251 students (81.3% women) from different careers participated, with predominance of psychology students (57.8%), and an average age of 25 years. Validity and reliability results showed that the dimensions of inhibition and postponement of behavioral avoidance in oral exams can be measured with fourteen items. Its structure, internal consistency and test criteria, according to different studies, was analyzed in relation to achievement and delay indicators, as well as gender and grade point average of groups.