Quantifying fear of failure in STEM: modifying and evaluating the Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory (PFAI) for use with STEM undergraduates

Henry, Meredith A.; Shorter, Shayla; Charkoudian, Louise K.; Heemstra, Jennifer M.; Le, Benjamin; Corwin, Lisa A.

doi:10.1186/s40594-021-00300-4

International Journal of STEM Education

Table 6 Factor loadings for four-factor model of PFAI

From: Quantifying fear of failure in STEM: modifying and evaluating the Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory (PFAI) for use with STEM undergraduates

	Factor loadings ^a				R²	Estimated residual variance
Item	FUF	FIOLI	FUIO	FSE
When I am failing, my future seems uncertain.	.795	.393	.313	.468	0.74	0.380
When I am failing, I blame my lack of talent. ^b	.714	.424	.307	*.502*	0.57	0.533
When I am failing, I believe that my future plans will change.	.814	.366	.343	.417	0.77	0.298
When I am failing, it upsets my “plan” for the future.	.804	.368	.409	.486	0.76	0.320
When I am not successful, people are less interested in me.	.413	.807	.461	.489	0.72	0.322
When I am not successful, people seem to want to help me less.	.301	.733	.406	.292	0.70	0.493
When I am not successful, people tend to leave me alone.	.323	.736	.411	.365	0.71	0.461
When I am not successful, some people are not interested in me anymore.	.361	.846	.492	.424	0.84	0.268
When I am not successful, my value decreases for some people.	.411	.826	.462	.476	0.74	0.303
When I am failing, it upsets important others.	.280	.276	.689	.260	0.81	0.563
When I am failing, important others are not happy.	.273	.471	.820	.329	0.92	0.332
When I am failing, important others are disappointed.	.304	*.515*	.875	.413	0.78	0.203
When I am failing, it is embarrassing if others are there to see it.	.446	.412	.439	.778	0.75	0.364
When I am failing, I worry what others think about me.	.489	.446	.378	.855	0.84	0.242
When I am failing, I worry that others may think I am not trying.	.417	.348	.379	.698	0.50	0.514
*Dropped items*^c
When I am failing, it is often because I am not smart enough to perform successfully.	.510	.263	.206	.293
When I am failing, I expect to be criticized by important others.	.416	.450	.618	.498
When I am failing, I am afraid that I might not have enough talent.	.752	.386	.265	.588
When I am failing, I lose the trust of people who are important to me.	.380	.655	.521	.227
When I am not successful, I am less valuable than when I succeed.	.554	.632	.413	.550
When I am failing, I am not worried about it affecting my future plans. ^d	− .254	.178	− .029	− .149
When I am not successful, I get down on myself easily.	.598	.291	.290	.691
When I am failing, I hate the fact that I am not in control of the outcome.	.512	.291	− .233	.599
When I am failing, I believe that everybody knows I am failing.	.470	.533	.403	.720
When I am failing, I believe that my doubters feel they were right about me.	.462	.622	.411	.675
Cronbach’s alpha	.832	.854	.818	.730
R squared	.482	.606	.481	.625

^aFactor loadings over .50 appear in bold. Factor loadings below .30 appear in lighter gray font
^b This item original loaded on the FDSE subscale; all other items load onto their original subscale
^cItems were dropped from the scale for one of two reasons: (1) no factor loadings were above .40 or (2) the difference among factor loadings above .40 was less than .2, indicating too high a degree of cross-loading
^dThis item is reverse scored (i.e., higher scores actually indicate lower FF, contrary to all other items on the scale)

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