| Summary: | 博士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 教育心理與輔導學系 === 106 === This study investigates phenomena linked to examination stress among secondary school students. In study 1, we consider environmental factors in examination stress, such as different levels of achievement, sources of stress, and the amount of time devoted to study and cram schooling. The responses of 5,220 9th graders’ were collected using a questionnaire comprising Sung et al.’s (2013) Examination Stress Scale (ExamSS) and questions about sources of stress, time spent studying, and the number of days spent in cram school. In addition, student scores on the Basic Competence Test (BCTEST) were used as indices for their levels of achievement. Study 1 yields three main results: First, students between percentile rank (PR) 30 and PR79 on the BCTEST have higher levels of examination stress than both those PR80 or above and those below PR30. This replicates the phenomenon that students of medium achievement experience the greatest levels of examination stress (Sung, Chao & Tseng, 2016). Second, students of different levels of achievement cite different sources of examination stress. The lowest-achieving students gave the most reasons such as “No matter how hard I try, I don’t make progress” and “I don’t understand what the teacher is teaching”. Meanwhile, middle-achieving students cited “I won’t get into a national [high] school”, and high-achieving students cited “I do not reach my own standards”. Third, the amount of time devoted to study varies little between middle-achieving students and high-achieving students; however, the former spend more days in cram school than the latter. Overall, apart from different levels of examination stress, Taiwanese students may experience varying degrees of stress in relation to their academic achievement. It may be that examination stress is greater among middling students because they invest more time in study but still run the risk of not being admitted to a national school. In study 2, we explore whether examination stress among secondary students is related to their personal characteristics, specifically whether students subject to high levels of examination stress have a certain pattern of characteristics. The sample consists of 1,858 9th graders. ExamSS was used as a measure of examination stress, and a questionnaire compiled by the researcher and comprising 26 dichotomous questions was used to measure personal characteristics, including uncertainty, neuroticism, extroversion, low self-esteem, and locus of control. Latent class analysis was used to categorize students according to the relationship between examination stress and personal characteristics. The results show that the data best fit a four-classes model, classifying students into high-stress- medium-achievement (22%), medium-stress-high-achievement (26%), low-stress- medium-achievement (32%), and low-stress-low-achievement (20%). The profiles of these four classes show that, by comparison with low- and medium-high stress groups, the high-stress group has higher rates of uncertainty and neuroticism, lower extroversion and self-esteem, and greater tendency to externalize the locus of control. By contrast, the low-stress-low-achievement group is shown to have high external locus of control and low self-esteem. In study 3, we investigate the relationship between uncertainty and examination stress among secondary students. Data were collected from 1,967 9th graders using Sung et al.’s (2013) ExamSS as a measure of examination stress, and the Uncertainty Scale for Adolescents as a measure of uncertainty. Scores from the Comprehensive Assessment Program 2017 (CAP 2017), the largest standardized achievement test for junior high school students in Taiwan, were used as an index of academic achievement. The results of item analysis and factor analysis confirm the formal version of the Uncertainty Scale for Adolescents and show that the scale’s internal consistency has good reliability, while confirmatory factor analysis provides evidence of construct validity. A positive correlation is found between examination stress and uncertainty, with an overall correlation of .60. Multivariate analysis also shows that students with high examination stress measure higher on all subscales than students with low stress. Finally, path analysis was used to verify the uncertainty-of-stress model which Sung, et al. (2016) proposed. On the basis of these three sets of results, this study provides theory- and practice-based recommendations about examination stress among secondary school students in relation to environmental factors, personal characteristics, and uncertainty, hoping that educational policy can be used to change social atmosphere and provide counselling in schools where it is needed so as to effectively reduce examination stress among adolescents.
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