Achievement Motivation Stress and Coping in Chinese and European Fifth Form Students

Abstract

A field study covering four major New Zealand cities examined attitudes towards academic and occupational achievement of 105 Chinese and 203 matched European students at two points in their fifth form year and again at the beginning of the sixth form. The study also considered the types and levels of stress experienced, and the coping strategies used to deal with this stress, particularly in regard to the School Certificate examination. The research programme began with the psychometric evaluation of five measures which were to be used in the field study, using the responses of a further 90 fifth form students, who were administered the measures twice with a seven day interval. The subsequent field study showed clear confirmation of the replicable factor structures of the measures identified in the evaluation study. This confirmation extended both across the two ethnic groups and across the three administrations. A significant difference was found between the Chinese and Europeans on only one of the five measures of achievement motivation. No significant differences were found between the two groups on reported levels of education-related stress. Both groups also employed similar coping strategies to deal with their stress. The Chinese students did not report more psychiatric symptoms than their European counterparts, though the two groups did differ in their response to stress, with Chinese students reporting a higher level of severe depression, and the Europeans higher levels of general feelings of distress, general illness and sleep disturbance. The results showed that the two groups were similar in terms of expectation and achievement in the School Certificate examinations, with both performing well above the national average. Further examination suggested that major cultural influences were operating in one area. In comparison with the European students, Chinese students reported that their parents had significantly higher academic and career aspirations for them. Their own aspirations were also in line with those of their parents and were therefore also significantly higher than those reported by their European counterparts. However, although such pressures were apparently present, they appear simply to have motivated Chinese students to excel rather than to fall victim to stress related symptoms.