School Psychology International 2008 Huijun Li 89 104

Fears and Related Anxieties in Chinese High School Students

HUIJUN LI and FRANCES PREVATTDepartment of Education Psychology and Learning Systems,

Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

ABSTRACT Chinese students from different high school settings faceunique academic and emotional challenges. They are in a very vulner-able position due to high parent and teacher expectations and pressureto succeed in college entrance examinations and honour the family andthe school. They are also vulnerable due to possible inappropriate parenting practices. This study examined whether there were signifi-cant differences in the number and type of reported fears and relatedanxieties in students from different high schools by grade level andgender, controlling for perceptions of family atmosphere. This studyalso investigated whether, in general, the fears and anxieties self-reported by the Chinese sample differed from the normative sample.Finally it examined whether the standardized measure of fears wasable to capture the unique fears of Chinese students. The findings indicate that the level of fears and related anxieties did not differ basedon school and grade. Gender differences were evident. Positive familyatmosphere was related to decreased level of anxiety. Chinese highschool students were found to report higher levels of fears and relatedanxieties than their Western counterparts.

KEY WORDS: anxieties; Chinese; family atmosphere; fears; key; ordinary high schools; private

Studies of fears and related anxieties in children and adolescents havehad a long history in the Western psychological literature. Only sincethe last decade, however, have empirical research studies been con-ducted on fears and related anxieties in school age children andadolescents in countries like China (e.g. Dong et al., 1994; Ollendick etal., 1996). Researchers have proposed that culturally loaded factors,such as beliefs and values associated with parenting practices, mayhave an impact on the manifestation of fears and related anxieties (e.g.Dong et al., 1994; Shore and Rapport, 1998). For example, the most

89

School Psychology International Copyright 2008 SAGE Publications (LosAngeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore), Vol. 29(1): 89104.DOI: 10.1177/0143034307088505

at Universitas Gadjah Mada on April 26, 2015spi.sagepub.comDownloaded from

influential cultural practices in China revolve around Confucianbeliefs (Lee, 1996). Confucian ethics places great emphasis on filialpiety, education and effort (Lee, 1996; Serafica and Schwebel, 1990).These beliefs reflect the cultural significance of family obligation, con-formity to authority figures and high parent and teacher expectationsof students behavioural and academic performance. It has been sug-gested that cultures that value conformity are frequently associatedwith higher levels of parental expectations and control, which in turn,have been linked with greater fearfulness and anxiety in children andadolescents (Siqueland et al., 1996).

Conformity to authority figures is often a typical characteristic ofchildren and adolescents whose parents display an authoritarian parenting style. In authoritarian families, children often perceive parent and child interaction as less open and tolerant and more rigidand tense. Very few studies have investigated the relationship betweenperception of family atmosphere and adolescents worries and fears.Nurmi (1987) found that social interaction in the family had a signifi-cant association with adolescents future orientation and worries.Adolescents reporting a negative family atmosphere (cold, tense, quarrelsome, unsafe, conservative and authoritarian) had fewer educa-tional plans and more worries than those reporting a positive familyclimate (harmonious, safe, warm, supportive, authoritative and toler-ant). A recent survey study of 30 million children in China indicatesthat 70 percent of parents may use inappropriate parenting practices(Guang Ming Daily, 2005). More specifically, 30 percent of parentsovercontrol their children, 30 percent overprotect their children and 10percent use harsh discipline. All three parenting practices are regardedas inappropriate and may be highly related to fearfulness and anxietyin children and adolescents.

Coupled with the cultural beliefs and high adult expectations for achilds school achievement, a unique school system in China may alsocontribute to the level of fearfulness and anxiety in Chinese students.This may be especially true for high school students who experience anexceptional amount of pressure from teachers and parents to succeedin college entrance exams. There are three major types of high schoolsin China: regular high schools, key high schools and private highschools, with the former two types being public schools. The three typesof schools have been developed in China to meet the academic needs ofstudents of varying capabilities and of different family economic status. From the early 1950s to the 1970s, ordinary high schools werealmost the only type of school providing education to students in thelocal community. More recently, the ordinary high schools have servedneighbourhood students who do not make the required cut-off score onthe Midway Exam (an exam that students take during the third and

School Psychology International (2008), Vol. 29(1)

90


last year of middle school). Those who obtain the predetermined scorecan go to public-funded key high schools. Alternately, students from more wealthy families can attend private high schools. All high schoolstudents face tremendous challenges and parent and teacher pressureto succeed in their college entrance examination, a step that may deter-mine their future career and profession.

Most key high schools appeared in the 1970s in China after adecrease in political turmoil and the establishment of new open-dooreconomic reform policies. Compared with regular and private highschools, key high schools are equipped with the best teachers, sufficientfunding and the best learning environment for the academicallyadvanced and highly motivated students who are more likely to entertop universities around the country. Academic demands are the mostchallenging and competition among students is the fiercest in key highschools (Cui et al., 1998; Xiang, 2005). As a result, although students inkey high schools are usually high-achieving students and they have higher expectations for their academic and career success thanstudents in ordinary high schools, key school students reportedly experience more academic and career related fears than ordinary highschool students (Chen and Zhang, 2003).

Private high schools have contributed greatly to the Chinese educa-tion system in providing educational opportunities to students.However, there are some challenging issues facing these schools. First,there is a lack of supervision and quality control from the government.Second, the overall teaching quality of private high schools is not ashigh as key high schools. Third, there is a lack of good administratorsand some schools are facing recruitment problems. These problemshave led to negative social attitudes toward these schools, which mayindirectly affect private school students mental health (Wang, 2005).

Students from each type of school face unique challenges; however,they all endure strong pressure from parents and teachers to succeedacademically, which may affect their emotional well-being. Very fewstudies have compared the level of fearfulness and anxiety among ordinary, key and private high schools in China. The existing studieshave only compared regular and key high schools and the studies haveyielded mixed findings. Zhang et al. (2003) investigated the mentalhealth of key high school students in East China and found that key high school students had a significantly higher score on anxietymeasures than the national youth norm. Li and Zhu (2005) studied the mental health of private high school students in the Hunanprovince (central China) and reported that private high school studentshad a significantly higher score than the Chinese national norm oneight items: compulsion, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety,hostility, fear, paranoid ideation and psychosis. One explanation was

Li and Prevatt: Fears and Related Anxieties

91


that parents had paid more money for their children to go to privateschools and they expected higher scores from their children. If childrencannot meet their parents expectations to achieve academically, theymay become fearful and anxious (Li and Zhu, 2005). Zhang et al. (2000)found that the anxiety and fear levels of high school students did notdiffer based on gender, grade or type of schools. Alternately, Su et al.(2002) found the prevalence rate of anxiety among ordinary high school students to be significantly higher than among key high schoolstudents. Ordinary high school students had a significantly higherscore than key high school students on items such as feelings of failureand guilt, work difficulty and lack of appetite. The researchers believedthat ordinary high school students faced more college entrance exampressure and less academic support, which may have led to higher levels of anxiety. Finally, Dai (1996) studied anxiety in ordinary andkey high school students. The results were mixed, but findings indi-cated more anxiety among students in higher grades, in key high schoolstudents compared to ordinary high schools and in females compared tomales.

In summary, Chinese students from ordinary, key and private high schools face unique academic and emotional challenges and pres-sure, but they all may be in a very vulnerable position due to highparent and teacher expectations and pressure to succeed in collegeentrance exams and honour the family and the school. They are alsovulnerable due to possible inappropriate parenting practices. Very fewexisting studies have examined the relationships between type of highschool, grade level, gender and fears and related anxieties. Resultshave been inconsistent. Furthermore, there is no literature on whetherperceptions of family interaction might moderate these relationships.Finally, many studies of fears and anxieties use measures standard-ized on Western students, which may not be able to capture the uniquecultural implications in Chinese samples. Thus, there were three majorpurposes for this study. The first goal was to examine whether therewas a significant difference in the number and type of reported fearsand related anxieties in students from different high schools by gradelevel and gender, controlling for perceptions of family climate. Thisanalysis utilized standardized measures of fears and anxieties and ameasure of perception of family atmosphere. The second goal was toexamine whether, in general, the level of fears and anxieties self-reported by the Chinese sample differed from the normative sample ofWestern students. This analysis also utilized standardized measures of fears and anxieties. The third goal was to examine whether the standardized measure of fears was able to capture the unique fears ofChinese students. This analysis used an open-ended measure of fears.


92


Methods

ParticipantsThe present study was conducted in Dingzhou County, Hebei Provincein northern China. Dingzhou is located about 200 kilometres south ofBeijing, the capital of China. This county is situated on flat plains andis surrounded by farmland. Thus, most of its residents are farmers.Four hundred and fifty students participated in this study, with 150from an ordinary high school, 150 from a key high school and 150 froma private high school. Both the ordinary high school and key highschool are funded by the county, which receives education funding fromthe regional government. However, the key high school receives morefunding and enjoys much better facilities than the ordinary highschool, such as new multimedia classrooms with closed circuit TVs,high tech language and computer labs and advanced sports centres.Furthermore, the teachers of this key high school are from top uni-versities in the Hebei Province or have distinguished themselves ashaving the best teaching methods in the county, whereas the teachersin the ordinary high school are mostly from two-year colleges and haveobtained their Bachelors degree through continued education. The pri-vate school is funded through student tuition fees. Most of the teachersof the private school have a four-year college degree. There are threegrade levels in Chinese high schools. There were about nine classes ineach grade in the ordinary and key high schools and four classes in each grade in the private school. There was an average of 70 to 80students in each class. In all schools (ordinary, key and private), stu-dents remained together throughout the day in the same class, withdifferent teachers for different subjects. However, the students in eachclassroom remained intact. For each type of school one class was randomly selected from each grade and 50 students from those selectedclasses were again randomly selected to participate in the study.

Among the total participants, there were 223 (49.6 percent) femalestudents and 219 (48.7 percent) male students (eight students did notreport their gender). Age of participants ranged from 16 to 22 (M =18.45, SD = 1.15). Parent education level ranged from elementaryschool to graduate level, with 19.2 percent elementary school, 34.4 percent middle school, 31.1 percent high school and 7.3 percent collegeand graduate level. Eight percent of students did not report parenteducation level. Ninety-four percent of the students reported that they were from intact families and 1.8 percent indicated their parentswere divorced; the rest (4.2 percent) did not report family status.Among all participants, 81.6 percent had at least one sibling while 14.4percent reported being the only child of the family (this is typical ofrural places in China where parents manage to have a second child in


93


spite of the one-child policy reinforced by the Chinese government fromthe 1970s).

Assessment instrumentsThe Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (FSSC-R). The FSSC-R(Ollendick, 1983) is an 80-item fear schedule for children and adoles-cents aged 7 to 17. Previous studies have used it for adolescents above17 years of age and found similar sound psychometric properties (e.g.Schaefer et al., 2003). Respondents indicate their level of fear for each of the 80 stimulus items using a three-point scale (None, Someor A Lot). The FSSC-R measures specific fears in the categories ofschool, home, social, physical, animal, travel and miscellaneous. A five-factor solution based on factor analysis has been reported for theschedule: fear of failure and criticism, fear of the unknown, fear ofminor injury and small animals, fear of danger and death and medicalfears (Ollendick et al., 1989).

The FSSC-R was translated into Chinese in 1994 (Dong et al. 1994).One item in the FSSC-R was changed in the translation (Item 73, Russia was changed to A foreign country). The items were then trans-lated literally back into English and two of the authors (Yang andOllendick) resolved discrepancies in intended meanings and wording ofthe items. The reading level of the items is appropriate for students inthe first grade and beyond (Dong et al., 1994).

Psychometric data on the FSSC-R suggests adequate reliability andvalidity. According to Ollendick (1983), the FSSC-R possesses highinternal consistency ranging from 0.92 to 0.95 and testretest reli-ability at 0.82 (1 week) and 0.55 (3 months). The present study used atotal fear score (80240) and the subscale for fear of failure and criticism. Because this study dealt with school related fear, the othersubscales (e.g. animals, medical, death, unknown) were not utilized.Internal consistency reliability with the current study was assessed onthe FSSC-R total score and the fear of failure and criticism subscalescore. The analysis yielded an alpha coefficient of 0.94 for the totalscore indicating high internal consistency. Internal consistency for thefear of failure and criticism was 0.83.

Revised Childrens Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS): The RCMAS(Reynolds and Richmond, 1985, 2000) is a well-normed instrument for children and adolescents of 5 to 19 years of age, consisting of 37 Yes or No items (28 anxiety items and 9 Lie scale items). A similarprocedure was followed by Dong et al. (1994) in translating the RCMASinto Chinese. The RCMAS was designed to assess the presence of generalized and nonspecific/nonsituational anxiety (i.e. trait anxiety).The RCMAS yields four anxiety scores: total anxiety score, physiologi-cal anxiety, worry/oversensitivity and concentration. Coefficients of


94


congruence across ethnic and gender groups ranged from 0.96 to 0.99(Reynolds and Richmond, 1997). Reported internal consistency coeffi-cients across ages ranged from 0.78 to 0.87. Concurrent and constructvalidity studies of the RCMAS indicate correlations ranging from 0.78 to 0.85 between the RCMAS and the A-Trait scale of the STAIC(Crowley and Emerson, 1996). The alpha coefficients with the currentChinese sample ranged from 0.70 to 0.82 (Total Anxiety, 0.82; physio-logical, 0.70; worry/oversensitivity, 0.76 and concentration, 0.80).

Open Ended Measure of Students Fears. In order to explore whetherChinese high school students had experienced fears that could not becaptured by the FSSC-R, students were asked to name the most fearfulthings that they had experienced. This was done in an open-ended format. The majority of students listed three to five fearful things. Ofthe sample of 450, 50 students (11 percent) did not report any fears onthis measure. A total of 125 different feared items were reported by thestudents.

Student Perception of Family Atmosphere. Students were providedwith two qualitative dimensions of family atmosphere (Nurmi, 1987).Words describing positive family atmosphere included harmonious,safe, warm, supportive, authoritative and tolerant. Negative familyatmosphere included quarrelsome, unsafe, cold, tense, authoritarianand intolerant. Students were asked to choose any words from the twodimensions that represented the perceptions of their family atmos-phere. A positive score was obtained by totalling the number of positiveitems endorsed (06) and a negative score was obtained by totalling thenegative items endorsed (06). Because these two scores were signifi-cantly inversely correlated (r = 0.40, p < 0.01), only the positive familyatmosphere score was used in subsequent analyses.

ProcedureThe administration of the measures was conducted in classroom set-tings in a group format following the standard administrationprocedures. The order of measures was the same across all students.The classroom teacher and the first author walked around the class-room to provide assistance and to ensure independent and confidentialresponding. Forty-five minutes of class time were used to complete themeasures. In each class, 50 students participated in the study and theremaining students (2030 non-participants) worked at their desk onother assignments.


95


Results

Analysis of grade, school and gender effectsMultivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) was used to evalu-ate the effects of grade (first, second and third year of high school), typeof school (ordinary, key, and private) and gender on fears and anxieties.Dependent measures were the FSSC-R total fears scale and the subscale for fear of failure and criticism; as well as the RCMAS totalanxiety scale and the subscales for physiological anxiety, worry/oversensitivity and concentration. An initial correlational analysisindicated that perception of positive family atmosphere was signifi-cantly correlated with four of the six dependent variables: totalanxiety(r = 0.23), physiological anxiety (r = 0.17), worry/oversensi-tivity (r = 0.20) and concentration anxiety (r = 0.18). Therefore, theperception of positive family atmosphere was used as a covariate.Because the dependent variables were subsets of one another, two separate MANCOVAs were utilized; one for the total scores (total fears,total anxieties) and one for the subscales (fear of failure, physiologicalanxiety, worry/oversensitivity and concentration anxiety).

Total scores. A preliminary analysis evaluating the homogeneity-of-slopes assumption indicated that the relationship between positiveparenting and the dependent variables (total anxiety, total fears) didnot differ significantly as a function of grade, school and gender, F (34,830) = 0.91, p = 0.62, 2 = 0.03. The MANCOVA indicated a significantmain effect for gender F (2, 419) = 44.99, p = 0.00, 2 = 0.18. Analysis ofbetween subjects effects showed that on total fears, females (adjustedM = 137.81) endorsed significantly more total fears than males (adjusted M = 123.00). There were no significant effects for type ofschool or grade level on total fears, and there were no significant effectsfor any of the independent variables on total anxiety. The effect of thecovariate (positive family atmosphere) accounted for 5 percent of thevariance of gender with fears.

Subscales. A preliminary analysis evaluating the homogeneity-of-slopes assumption indicated that the relationship between positiveparenting and the dependent variables (fear of failure, physiologicalanxiety, worry/oversensitivity, concentration anxiety) did not differsignificantly as a function of grade, school and gender F (68,1660) =0.68, p = 0.97, 2 = 0.03. The MANCOVA indicated a significant maineffect for gender F (4, 417) = 7.85, p = 0.00, 2 = 0.07. Analysis ofbetween subjects effects showed that on fear of failure and criticism,females (adjusted M = 42.15) reported greater fears than males (adjusted M = 39.36). Alternately, for concentration anxiety, males(adjusted M = 2.59) reported greater anxiety than females (adjusted M= 2.29). There were no significant effects for type of school or grade


96


level on any of the anxiety subscales. The effect of the covariate (posi-tive family atmosphere) accounted for 1 percent of the variance ofgender with fear of failure and 3 percent of the variance of gender withconcentration anxiety. Means, Standard Deviations and statisticalanalyses can be obtained from the first author.

Comparison of fears and anxieties to normative sampleThe mean fear and anxiety scores for the total sample were comparedto the normative data for the FSSC-R and the RCMAS. One sample t-tests were computed for all comparisons. On total fears, the Chinesesample reported more fears (M = 130.92) than the normative sample (M = 125.00), t = 6.54 (1, 449), p < 0.00. On fear of failure and criticism,the Chinese sample reported more fears, (M = 40.84) than the norma-tive sample (M = 39.00) t = 6.16 (1, 449), p < 0.00. Results indicated thaton total anxiety, the Chinese sample reported more anxiety (M = 10.53)than the normative sample, (M = 8.67), t = 8.41 (1, 449), p < 0.00. Onworry/oversensitivity, the Chinese sample reported more anxieties (M= 5.09) than the normative sample, (M = 4.81), t = 2.37 (1,449), p < 0.02.On physiological anxiety, the Chinese sample reported fewer anxieties(M = 2.99) than the normative sample, (M = 4.10), t = 13.75 (1, 449), p < 0.00. Finally, on concentration, the Chinese sample reported feweranxieties (M = 2.45) than the normative sample (M = 2.80), t = 4.63 (1, 449), p < 0.00.

Qualitative analysis of self-reported fearsA total of 125 unique fears were reported by the participants on theopen-ended measure of fears. Frequency analyses of the most commonthings that Chinese high school students reported being afraid of wereconducted at the item level. The most commonly reported feared itemsinvolved school (three items regarding failing tests or exams, teachercriticism), interpersonal concerns (being misunderstood, lonely ordespised; losing friends) and family concerns (parents quarrelling,angry or ill). The most commonly reported fears were endorsed by an average of 10 percent of the students. The items regarding schoolfailure and family concerns are similar to items on the FSSC-R; how-ever, the items regarding interpersonal concerns are not areas coveredby the FSSC-R. There were some fears that are clearly unique to a Chinese sample, such as Taiwan independence, corruption and lack offinancial support; however, these were of very low frequency andendorsed by less than 1 percent of students.


97


DiscussionContrary to expectation, type of school and grade level did not signifi-cantly affect the fears and related anxieties in this population of Chinese high school students. However, there were significant gendereffects. Chinese females reported more fears of failure and criticism, aswell as total fears, than did Chinese males. Alternately, males reportedmore concentration anxiety than females. While positive parentingwas not directly related to self-report of fears, there were significantcorrelations between positive parenting and lowered anxiety on all fouranxiety scales. Additionally, positive parenting accounted for signifi-cant variance in the relationship between gender and fears. The gendereffects were similar to previous work in which girls reported higher levels of specific fears and related anxieties (e.g. Dong et al., 1994; Liand Morris, in press; Schaefer et al., 2003; Su et al., 2002). The findingfor greater fears of failure and total fears by girls may be related to different reporting styles. For example, Sutton and Farrall (2005),found that males and females were affected differently by social pressure to downplay fears. Specifically, males were more likely tounder-report their fears even though they experience similar levels offears as females. Another possible explanation for female studentshigher level of fears of failure and total fears was that female studentsmight not handle such emotional stress as criticism from teachers andparents and failure in school work and exams as well as male students,which could increase their level of fears. In addition, researchers examining gender differences in motivation to succeed found male highschool students were more focused on personal achievement and success and less fearful of failure and females, on the other hand, weremore fearful of failure and their level of motivation to succeed was significantly lower than males (Chen and Zhang, 2003).

The finding of greater concentration anxiety by boys was consistentwith previous studies (e.g. Wang et al., 1998). It may also be related to different reporting styles. This could be the case for the Chinesesample, where an inability to concentrate may be more socially accept-able than admitting to a fear of specific events. An alternateexplanation could be that parents in the Chinese culture placed higherexpectations on their sons to succeed in school and to honour thefamily. This exerted tremendous pressure on students, especially malestudents. Such pressure may serve as a double-edged sword, whichboth motivates student to succeed and distracts them from their study(Wang, 2004).

Compared to the norms and previous studies in the United States,Chinese students indicated significantly more fears of failure and criticism, total fears, total anxiety and anxiety related to worry/over-sensitivity. As discussed earlier, cultures that purportedly stress


98


inhibition, emotional restraint and obedience are linked to increasedlevels of fearfulness and anxiety in youth (Shore and Rapport, 1998;Siqueland et al., 1996). While the present study did not find differencesamong the Chinese sample due to type of high school and grade level,the normative findings do support the hypothesis that there are morefears and anxieties, in general, among this sample. It may be that thepressure of high school, as well as the family atmosphere, contributesto this overall heightened level of fear. This is supported by the open-ended analysis of most feared items. Among 125 different itemsreported, those that made the top ten were getting a low test score, failing an exam, failing an entrance exam, criticism from teachers, parents quarrelling and parents getting angry at the student. Thus, itcan be speculated that Chinese students higher level of fears and anxieties, compared to Western norms, is in fact due to school and parent related pressure.

Compared to the normative sample, Chinese students self-reportedlower levels of anxiety related to concentration and physiological dis-comfort. Concentration has always been emphasized by teachers andparents as an effective study skill/strategy in Chinese schools and ithas been regarded as one major personal factor that affects studentachievement. In fact, the ability to concentrate is considered as a majorresource which facilitates information intake and processing. Highschool is a stage when students face more frequent tests and the con-tent information from different classes demands tremendous attentionand concentration. Students may become accustomed to the demandsfor concentration as a prerequisite of learning and thus they are morelikely to concentrate on their school work, although there exists a gender difference in the level of concentration anxiety as describedabove. The finding that Chinese high school students reported compar-atively lower levels of physiological anxiety than US counterparts wassomewhat unanticipated. Many researchers indicate that Chinese, likesome other Asian populations, tend to complain of physical discomfortwhen they experience emotional distress, such as fears and anxieties(e.g. Sue and Sue, 2003). Future research is needed to explore furtherthis result.

An important question is whether the standardized measures basedon American samples are adequate for determining the actual fears ofChinese students. In order to evaluate this, we compared items on theFSSC-R to items endorsed by Chinese students on the open endedquestion, What are the things that you fear the most?. One of the mostfrequently cited fears was getting a low test score. When combined withsimilar items (failing an exam or failing an entrance exam), this areawas clearly the most feared by Chinese students. Similar concerns areevident on the FSSC-R, as indicted by the item, failing a test. Parental


99


concerns were also frequently detailed by Chinese students, such asparents quarrelling, parents getting angry with the student and parents becoming ill or dying. Similar content can be seen on the FSSC-R with items such as having my parents argue or getting punished by my mother/father. The third area that was commonlyendorsed by the Chinese students involved personal and interpersonalareas. These included being misunderstood (tied for the most fre-quently endorsed item), feeling lonely, despised by others and losingfriends. Items addressing similar content are not included on theFSSC-R. This does not necessarily imply that American high schoolstudents are not concerned about these issues. In fact, the literature onUS samples tends to find that the most commonly feared areas for high school students include social, academic and health-related fears(Barrios and Hartman, 1997; Morris and Kratochwill, 1998). However,the FSSC-R does not specifically tap these social and interpersonalareas. As such, research with Chinese populations may need to includealternate measures, as this is clearly an area of great concern to thesestudents.

Implications and directions for researchStudents from ordinary, key and private high schools in this studyseem to share similar levels of fears and related anxieties, in spite oftheir differential learning environments. The results also show thatstudents reporting positive family atmosphere may experience lowerlevels of anxieties. Family environment and parent support are crucialto childrens growth and development. Zou (1999) found in her studythat parents were the most important supporting figures for middleand high school students in addition to teachers and friends. Unfortu-nately, parents were also the people who exerted the most severepunishment on their children. The survey presented earlier suggeststhat 70 percent of parents in China use inappropriate parenting styleswhich have inadvertently increased childrens fears and related anxi-eties (Liu et al., 2005). Thus, it is essential that parents adjust theirparenting style through education programs so that their children cangrow in a warm, supportive and authoritative family environment.

Females seem to have reported higher levels of fears. Parents, educators and psychologists should be aware that it may be moresocially acceptable for girls to express their fears than boys, thus, itmay not necessarily mean that boys do not experience as many fears asgirls (Li and Morris, in press). Fear of failure on exams has been shownto lead to anxiety and depression, which are risk factors for suicide inthe Chinese population (Crystal et al., 1994). In fact, poor academicperformance has been found to be the only consistent social association


100


related to suicide, and has therefore influenced the Zhejiang ProvincialEducation Commission to reduce the frequency of administering exams(Hesketh et al., 2002). In addition, teachers should be aware that malestudents reported higher levels of concentration anxiety. If needed,anxiety reduction techniques should be in place to ease their height-ened level of concentration anxiety.

Self-report is a subjective and indirect way to determine the exist-ence of fears and related anxieties. It requires the individual to reflectback on his or her inner world, his or her experience, thoughts andexpectations. Self-report has been regarded as an important source ofdata to define, assess and treat fears and related anxieties, because anindividuals inner thoughts and cognitive activities cannot be directlymeasured by direct observational instruments (Barrios and Hartman,1997; Li, 2004; Morris and Kratochwill, 1998). However, as with anyunstructured fear and anxiety questionnaires, it is not known to whatdegree we measure veridical differences in fear and anxiety or a will-ingness to endorse fear and anxiety stimuli on the questionnaires(Shore and Rapport, 1998). Direct comparisons of different method-ologies to study students fears and anxieties may be an importanttopic for future investigations.

China is a nation with vast regional and urban and rural differencesin terms of economic and educational status. Participants for this studywere recruited from one region. Thus, generalization of these results tosimilar populations requires additional replication with larger samplesfrom different regions. Furthermore, few studies have compared student, teacher and parent ratings of students fears and anxietiesusing the same assessment instruments to determine how well the ratings of these different informants correlate with each other (Li andMorris, in press). Therefore, more research is warranted in this area.

ReferencesBarrios, B. A. and Hartman, D. P. (1997) Fears and Anxieties, in E. J. Mash

and L. G. Terdal (eds) Assessment of Childhood Disorders, pp. 23037. NewYork: The Guilford Press.

Chen, J. and Zhang, J. Y. (2003) A Study on Middle School Students Achieve-ment Motive and Achievement Fear, Psychology Science 26: 10710.

Crowley, S. L. and Emerson, E. N. (1996) Discriminant Validity of Self-Reported Anxiety and Depression in Children: Negative Affectivity or Inde-pendent Constructs, Journal of Clinical Child Psychology 25: 13946.

Crystal, D., Chen, C., Fuligni, A. and Stevenson, H. (1994) Psychological Maladjustment and Academic Achievement: A Cross-Cultural Study ofJapanese, Chinese and American High School Students, Child Development65: 73853.

Cui, L. J, She, L. and Ju, P. (1998) A Comparative Study of the Non-Intelligence Factors of Students in Key Middle Schools and Ordinary MiddleSchools, Psychology Science 21: 3942.


101


Dai, H. Q. (1996) Group Difference of Anxiety among Middle School Students,Chinese Mental Health Journal 10: 222.

Dong, Q., Yang, B. and Ollendick, T. H. (1994) Fears in Chinese Children andAdolescents and Their Relations to Anxiety and Depression, Journal ofChild Psychology and Psychiatry 35: 35162.

Guang Ming Daily (2005) Thirty Million Children and Adolescents are at Risk,70 percent Parents Use Inappropriate Parenting Practice. Accessed 12 July2006. Available from: http://www.edu.cn/20051208/3165042.shtml

Hesketh, T., Ding, Q. and Jenkins, R. (2002) Suicide Ideation in Chinese Adolescents, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 37: 23035.

Lee, R. (1996) The Ecology of Violence in the United States, InternationalJournal of Group Tensions 26: 320.

Li, H. (2004) Fears and Related Anxieties in Children Having a Disability,Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences 64: 9A.

Li, H. and Morris, J. R. (in press) Fears and Related Anxieties in Children withLearning Disabilities and Mild Mental Retardation, Journal of Research inDevelopmental Disabilities.

Li, N. and Zhu, D. (2005) Mental Health Conditions of Private High SchoolStudents, Chinese Journal of Special Education 65: 5458.

Liu, J. T., Meng, X. P., Xu, Q. Zh. and Zhang, Y. (2005) Test Anxiety in ChineseHigh School Students and its Relationship with Family Factors, Journal ofShan Dong Psychiatry 18: 12932.

Morris, R. J. and Kratochwill, T. R. (1998) Childhood Fears and Phobias, in R. J. Morris and T. R. Kratochwill (eds) The Practice of Child Therapy, pp. 91131. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Nurmi, J. E. (1987) Age, Sex, Social Class, and Quality of Family Interactionas Determinants of Adolescents Future Orientation: A Developmental TaskInterpretation, Adolescence 22: 97791.

Ollendick, T. H. (1983) Reliability and Validity of the Revised Fear SurveySchedule for Children (FSSC-R), Behavioral Research and Therapy 21:68592.

Ollendick, T. H., King, N. J. and Fray, R. B. (1989) Fears in Children and Adolescents: Reliability and Generalizability across Gender, Age andNationality, Behaviour Research and Therapy 27: 1926.

Ollendick, T. H., Yang, B., King, N., Dong, Q. and Akande, A. (1996) Fears inAmerican, Australian, Chinese, and Nigerian Children and Adolescents: ACross-Cultural Study, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 37:21320.

Reynolds, C. R. and Richmond, B. O. (1985) Revised Childrens Manifest Anxiety Scale. Los Angeles, CA: Western Psychological Services.

Reynolds, C. R. and Richmond, B. O. (1997) What I Think and Feel: ARevised Measure of Childrens Manifest Anxiety, Journal of AbnormalChild Psychology 25: 1520.

Reynolds, C. R. and Richmond, B. O. (2000) Revised Childrens Manifest Anxi-ety Scale.Los Angeles, CA: Western Psychological Services.

Serafica, F. and Schwebel, A. (1990) Counseling Asian-American Parents: ACultural-Developmental Approach to Mental Health of Ethnic Minorities.New York: Praeger Publishers.

Schaefer, B. A., Watkins, M. W. and Burnham, J. J. (2003) Empirical Fear Profiles Among American Youth, Behaviour Research and Therapy 41:1093103.


102


Shore, G. N. and Rapport, M. D. (1998) The Fear Survey Schedule for Children Revised (FSSC-HI): Ethnocultural Variations in Childrens Fearfulness,Journal of Anxiety Disorders 12: 43761.

Siqueland, L., Kendall, P. C. and Steinberg, L. (1996) Anxiety in Children: Perceived Family Environments and Observed Family Interaction, Journalof Clinical Child Psychology 25: 22537.

Su, H., Wang, B. J. and Cheng, H. M. (2002) Depression and Anxiety AmongChinese Middle School Students and the Related Factors, Chinese Journalof Behavioral Medical Science 11: 19698.

Sue, D.W. and Sue, D. (2003) Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory andPractice, 4th Edn. New York: Wiley.

Sutton, R. M. and Farrall, S. (2005) Gender, Socially Desirable Respondingand the Fear of Crime: Are Women Really More Anxious about Crime?,British Journal of Criminology 45: 21224.

Wang, H. (2004) An Analysis of Emotional Characteristics of High School Student Regulation of Negative Emotion in China, Journal of He Xi Uni-versity 20: 8183.

Wang, Y. X. (2005) The Current Development of Private High Schools in Beijing and its Strategic Analysis, Private Education 4.

Wang, J. S., He, E. S. and Li, Y. (1998) A Study of Emotional Well BeingAmong 9,970 Middle School and High School Students, Psychological Science 5: 4046.

Xiang, X. Q. (2005) From Key High School to Model High School, China Science and Technology Information 15: 2067.

Zhang, Z. J., Li, X. S. and Dong, Y. (2000) An Investigation of High School Students Anxiety and Depression, Anhui Medical Journal 21: 5455.

Zhang, X. L., Zhang, X. Q., Shao, M. and Wang, G. (2003) Analyses of MentalHealth States of Students in Key High Schools, Journal of Clinical Psycho-somatic Diseases 9: 9596.

Zou, H. (1999) Social Support and Peer Relationship of Middle School Students, Journal of Beijing Teachers University 1: 4654.

Huijun Li is an Assistant Professor in the Department of EducationalPsychology and Learning Systems at Florida State University. Herresearch interests and publications are in the area of assessment offears and anxieties of children and adolescents from different ethnic,cultural and language backgrounds. She also specializes in home,school and personal factors contributing to childrens fears and anxieties and their academic performance. Address: Department ofEducational Psychology and Learning Systems, College of Education,307 Stone Building, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4453, USA. Email: [email protected]

Frances Prevatt is a Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems at Florida State University. She isalso co-director of the Adult Learning Evaluation Center. Her researchinterests and major publications are in the areas of ADHD in adults


103


and personality assessment in children and adults. Address: Depart-ment of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, College of Education, 307 Stone Building, Florida State University, Tallahassee,FL 32306-4453, USA. Email: [email protected]


104


Documents

School Psychology International 2008 Huijun Li 89 104