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State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC)3

State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) Test

Understand a child’s in-the-moment and overall anxiety in about 8 minutes. Fast, kid-friendly, and reliable, it supports early screening and tracking progress over time.

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Questions: 408 minutes

08:30

October 2, 2025

October 2, 2025
Material has been updated

October 2, 2025
Material has been published

30,603 views

2,525 completions

2,065 likes

Verified by Daniel Hall

Psychologist with 25 years of experience

Scale Explorer

How the Scales are Structured

example score

39/60

Trait Anxiety (TA)

Personal Anxiety measures a child's stable tendency to feel anxious across many situations rather than only in a specific moment.

Low

Moderate

High

20 – 30: Low | 31 – 45: Moderate | 46 – 60: High

A score of 39 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting a typical but noticeable tendency to experience anxiety across different situations.

example score

46/60

State Anxiety (SA)

Situational Anxiety measures how strongly a child is currently experiencing tension, worry, uncertainty, agitation, and fear in response to the present situation.

Low

Moderate

High

20 – 30: Low | 31 – 45: Moderate | 46 – 60: High

A score of 46 falls in the High range, indicating a strong current anxiety response that is likely tied to the child’s immediate circumstances.

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DATA-BASED USER COHORTS

Who Usually Takes This Test?

School psychologists and counselors

41%OF USERS

Use it to quickly screen anxiety levels in students and plan support during school adaptation or stressful periods.

Parents of anxious children

34%OF USERS

Take it to understand whether a child’s worries are situational right now or a more stable tendency that affects daily life.

Child therapists and clinics

25%OF USERS

Use it to assess baseline anxiety and track changes over time during counseling or after interventions.

BASED ON AGGREGATED, ANONYMIZED DATA FROM TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FREUDLY USERS.

Benchmarking

See How You Compare

Once you complete the test, your results are compared with real-world data from people in your country.
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.

Personal Anxiety (PA)

Average

34.8

Normal range

28.5 — 41

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Situational Anxiety (SA)

Average

48.8

Normal range

43.8 — 53.7

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

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SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Example Questions From the Test

Below are statements that boys and girls use to describe how they are feeling. Read each statement carefully and decide how you feel right now. Select the sentence that most accurately describes your current state. There are no right or wrong answers. Do not spend too much time thinking about your response. Remember: you should choose the phrase that best reflects how you feel at this moment.

- I feel very calm
- I feel calm
- I do not feel calm
- I feel very upset
- I feel upset
- I do not feel upset
- I feel very pleasant
- I feel pleasant
- I feel unpleasant

These are 3 of the 40 real questions — the rest appear in the test. No sign-up needed to start.

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WHAT THE TEST MEASURES

About This Assessment

State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) Test - Symptoms and Signs

uneasiness

This instrument is used to assess anxiety in children by differentiating situational symptoms from more enduring anxiety tendencies. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) is commonly administered in clinical, school, and research settings to support screening and outcome monitoring.

It consists of 40 items and typically requires about 8 minutes to complete. Items ask children to rate how they feel “right now” versus “generally,” yielding separate indices intended to reflect state and trait anxiety. Results are interpreted within the broader clinical context and are not, by themselves, diagnostic. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) was originally developed as a child-focused adaptation of the state-trait anxiety framework.

Author: Charles D. Spielberger

Literature: Spielberger, C. D. Manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI). Consulting Psychologists Press. 1983.; Muris, P., Merckelbach, H., Ollendick, T., King, N., & Bogie, N. Three traditional and three new childhood anxiety questionnaires: Their reliability and validity in a normal adolescent sample. Behaviour Research and Therapy. 2002.; Beck, J. S. Cognitive behavior therapy: Basics and beyond. Guilford Press. 1995.; Taylor, J. A. A personality scale of manifest anxiety. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 1953.