Academic expectations as sources of stress in Asian students

Abstract

Education is highly valued in Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) countries such as China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea but the expectations of parents, teachers and students themselves to excel academically can also be a source of intense stress for many students. The Academic Expectations Stress Inventory (AESI), developed by Ang and Huan (Educ Psychol Meas 66: 522-539, 2006) to measure parent, teacher and self expectations as sources of academic stress in Asian adolescents, was administered to 176 Singaporean secondary and college students one month before their major examinations. Rasch analyses of the students' responses to the AESI showed the nine items in the inventory formed a robust unidimensional scale of academic stress, with two separate unidimensional subscales of Expectations of Parents and Teachers and Expectations of Self complementing the factor analysis conducted by Ang and Huan (Educ Psychol Meas 66: 522-539, 2006). The item thresholds showed the AESI measured the student trait range adequately, and affirmed the inventory as a brief yet valid measure of academic stress for Asian students from a CHC background. The AESI is a valuable tool for teachers and researchers, as it provides an understanding of the role of parents, teachers and self expectations as sources of academic stress among students from a CHC background.

The relationships among Taiwanese adolescents’ perceived classroom environment, academic coping, and burnout.

“…Findings of this study may help fill this gap and may be applicable to adolescent students in countries with similar educational and cultural experiences (e.g., China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea (Ang & Huan, 2006;Tan & Yates, 2011).…”

An Examination of Academic Coping Among Taiwanese Adolescents

“…Education is highly valued in countries such as China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea because academic achievement is viewed as the main way of moving up along the social ladder in these societies (Ang & Huan, 2006;Tan & Yates, 2011). As mentioned previously, academic pressures constitute a main source of stress during adolescence.…”

Children's rights: television programmes aired in Singapore

“…Recent studies have shown that in Singapore society, which has a strong inclination towards the Confucian ideals of filial piety, obedience, loyalty, and collectivism, students develop school-related anxieties. In many ways, these anxieties are due to the expectations and pressures placed on them by parents, who consider children's school success as a matter of pride for the family and country (Anderson & Mayes, 2010;Ang & Huan, 2006;Ang et al, 2009;Lowe & Ang, 2012;Tan & Yates, 2011). Parents in Singapore have high academic expectations and are concerned about their child's achievements, beginning at the preschool age (Ebbeck & Gokhale, 2004;Sharpe, 2000, p. 123).…”