Jurnal Anxiety

8/3/2019 Jurnal Anxiety

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ANXIETY AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTSIN HONG KONG AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TOACADEMIC PERFORMANCEFanny M. Cheung Paul L. M. Lee

Anxiety among students ha s been a majormental health concern in Hong Kong as well asin other western countries. Th e focus on therelationship between anxiety and learning hasbeen made prominent since the studies ofMandler and' Sarason (1952) and Spielberger(1966). Tryon (1980) suggested that "testanxiety has probably been in existence for aslong as tests have been used to evaluateperformance." Th e pressure from school andexamination would be more severe in aneducational system like Hong Kong's, wherecompetition is keen and opportunities fo r highereducation limited. However, no study has yetinvestigated the degree and the pattern ofmanifestation of anxiety, and the empiricalrelationship between anxiety and schoolperformance among students in Hong Kong.The concept of anxiety is a loosely definedterm. A useful paradigm fo r reviewing thediverse field of anxiety research ha s beenproposed by Phillips, Martin,and Meyers (1972).They summarized the various factors underantecedents, concomitants, and consequencesof anxiety. Two common constructs were usedin conceptualizing anxiety: The dispositionalconstruct, "trait anxiety", isprimarily a functionof past experience and has an internalized locus.Th e situational construct, often referred to as"state" or "situational anxiety", is directly afunction of stressful conditions and has acontemporary locus.Studies on the consequences of anxietyon intellectual functioning and on learninghave generally found that these effects are moremaladaptive and debilitating than adaptive andfacilitating (Spence, 1958; Taylor, 1958;Sarason, Davidson,, Lighthall, Waite, andRuebush, 1960). However, the relationshipbetween anxiety and performance is a complexone depending on the nature of anxiety measuresused (Sarason et al., 1960), nature of the task(Sieber, 1969), stage in the learning process

(Spielberger and Smith, 1966), or the presenceof reinforcement or feedback (Horowitz andArmentrout , 1965; Morris and Fulmer, 1976).Under certain conditions, anxiety may nothinder performance or may even facilitateperformance (Spielberger and Smith, 1966;Lekarczyk and Hill, 1969).Objectives

Th e present study attempts to investigatethe degree of anxiety and the relationshipbetween anxiety and academic achievement fo rsecondary school students in Hong Kong.Specifically the objectives of the presentstudy are:(a) To assess the degree and the pattern ofmanifestation of anxiety among secondaryschool students in Hong Kong;(b) To investigate the relationship betweentrait and situation anxiety;(c) To examine the facilitatingand debilitatingrelationship between anxiety and academicachievement.METHODInstruments

The study was planned in two stages.During the first stage, Ss were asked to fillout a short battery of scales including:(a) Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS)The MAS (Taylor, 1953) is a 50-itemscale derived originally from the MinnesotaMultiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) whichhas been translated into Chinese in Hong Kong aspart of the Chinese MMPI standardization study.The MAS is used to measure predisposition toanxiety. Based on a true-false format, the totalmaximum score is 50.(b) Achievement Anxiety Test (AAT)The AAT is a 19-item questionnaireconcerned with students' attitudes an d

* This study was supported partly by the Social Research Centre of The Chinese University of HongKong56


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Fanny M . Cheung Paul L.M . Lee Anxiety among Seondary Schoo l Studentsexperiences in academic achievement developedby Alpert and Haber (1960) and translatedinto Chinese for this study. The AAT includesa nine-item facilitating anxiety scale (AAT-F)and a 10-item debilitating anxiety scale (AAT-D).The Ss answered each item on a five-pointscale indicating the ascending degree to whichthe item applies to them.(c) S-R Inventory of AnxiousnessThis is a rating scale developed by Endler,Hunt, and Rosenstein (1962) to sample 14reported modes of responses to differentsituations. The scale wa s translated into Chineseand reference was made specifically to theexamination situation which the students ha drecently undergone. The Ss responded to eachitem on a five-point scale on the intensity ofreaction ranging from "none" to "very much".In addition to the total score (SR-T), two sub-scores (SR-B and SR-P) were also calculated onthe basis of items judged to be related to thebehavioral and physiological reactionsrespectively. The average ratings were used fo rthe SR-B and SR-P subscores to allow forcomparison between the two sets of items.(d) Expected Examination Results

Students were asked to put down thescores they expected in their final schoolexaminations in English Oral, English, Chinese,and Mathematics.

In Stage I, the questionnaires wereadministered to Form 4 (10th Grade) studentsin three different schools. Since no public testsof achievement are administered at the end ofForm 4, measures obtained from the anxietyinstruments could only be analyzed in relationto the internal assessments of individual schools.The internal assessments which included the finalexamination scores of Ss in Chinese, English.English Oral, Mathematics, and the average ofall subjects were collected from the threeschools.

In the Stage II, Form 3 (9th grade)students were used as Ss since they were eligibleto sit for three public scaling tests in the subjectsof English, Chinese and Mathematics, which formpart of the Junior Secondary Education Assess-ment System (JSEA) under the administration ofthe Education Department in Hong Kong.Results of the scaling tests are used to scale the

internal assessments made by the individualschools. Scaled internal assessments in sixsubjects (Chinese, English, Mathematics, ScienceSubjects, Social Subjects, Chinese History) andPractical Subjects for prevocational schoolswere recorded in one of eight grades (grade A= 8to grade H=l). An average score was calculatedfor the five required academic subjects, excludingChinese History which was an elective subject.These scaled internal assessments were analyzedin relation to the responses on the anxietyinstruments. The scaled internal assessmentsallowed fo r comparison across schools in Stage IIwhich was not possible in Stage I.

Analysis of the responses and feedbackfrom Stage I showed that the S-R Inventory ofAnxiousness was not an appropriate scale to useas students found some of the items sociallyembarrassing to answer. It was also found thatat Stagel,students were often reluctant or unableto make a prediction on their performance.Their responses were too inconsistent to renderuseful analysis. Thus at Stage II, these twomeasures were dropped.Subjects

In Stage I, 384 Form 4 (10th Grade)students (186 boys and 198 girls) from English-medium secondary schools were selected as Ss.The three schools included one co-educationalschool (N = 97), one boy's school (N = 127)and one girl's school (N = 160). Two of theseschools received government subsidies and onewas a private independent school.In Stage II, the Form 3 (9th grade) Sscomprised a total of 1,022 students (604 boysand 418 girls). The Ss came f rom sevensecondary schools in Hong Kong representingdifferent school types. These included three co-educational schools (N = 134, 66 and 191),two boy's schools (N = 249 and 136), and twogirl's schools (N =108 and 138). Four of theseschools were English-medium schools, onewa s a Chinese-medium school, one had both anEnglish and a Chinese stream, and one was aprevocational school. In terms of funding, oneof the schools was government operated, fou rwere government subsidized, and two wereprivate independent schools.

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C U H K Education Journal Vol .12 No . 1 1984.

ProcedurePrincipals of the selected schools were

informed in advance that the present researchstudy was being carried out, together withanother research study on the survey of attitudestowards languages, by the Social Research Centreof The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Allselected schools agreed to participate in thestudy. At Stage I, the questionnaires wereadministered in June 1980 immediately aftertheir school examinations, and at Stage II inApril-May 1981, shortly after the JSEA testing.The schools provided school internal assessmentsfo r the Form. 4 Ss and the JSEA-scaled internalassessments for the Form 3 Ss about threemonths later.

Students were given about 30 minutes tocomplete the questionnaires under the general

supervision of a research assistant. Names werenot required on the questionnaires. However, tofacilitate the matching of school internalassessments with responses on the questionnaire,students were asked to put down their class,class number and sex on the answer sheet. Theclass numbers served as the link between thequestionnaire and the internal assessments forindividual students.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION(a) Degreee and Pattern of Anxiety

The degree and pattern of anxiety amongsecondary school students in Hong Kong wasassessed by the mean scores and standarddeviations of anxiety scales administered,and compared with those reported in theliterature. Results of the analysis are givenin Table 1.

Table 1Means and Standard Deviations of the Anxiety Measures

Anxiety MeasureMAS

AAT-F

AAT-D

Subject GroupForm 4TotalMaleFemaleForm 3TotalMaleFemaleU. S. Undergraduate lForm 4TotalMaleFemaleForm 3TotalMaleFemaleU. S. Undergraduate 2Form 4TotalMaleFemaleForm 3TotalMaleFemaleU. S. Undergraduate 2

N384186198

10206014161971384186198994577414379384186198994579414379

Mean243424.0924.5820.4519.7121.5014.5625.0725.82243624.5924.77243427.2831.1132.5729.73293829.2629.5126.33

s.d.8.448.268.618.017.788.24

5.605.665.465.145.125.154276.677.006.066.526366.765.33

1 From Taylor (1953)2 From Alpert & Haber (1960)


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F a n n y M . C h e u n g P a u l L . M . L ee Anxiety a m o n g Seondary S c h o o l S t u den t s

SR-T

SR-B

SR-P

Form 4TotalMaleFemale



384186198384186198384186198

29.5830.6128.61

2.552.632.471.651.751.62

8.638.588.60

0.750.720.780.660.670.64

On the MAS, Form 4 Ss manifested highertrait anxiety than Form 3 Ss (mean = 24.34 vs20.45) while psychology undergraduates in theU. S. had much lower anxiety scores (mean =14.56) as reported by Taylor (1953).

The two scales on the AAT were scoredseparately. Form 4 and Form 3 Ss in Hong Kongshowed similar facilitating scores on theAchievement Anxiety Test (mean = 25.07 and24.59 respectively). Form 4 Ss showed higherdebilitating anxiety than Form 3 Ss (mean =31.11 and 29.38 respectively). The U. S. under-graduates, howevei, showed less debilitatinganxiety (mean = 26.33) as reported by Alpertand Haber (1960).On the S-R Inventory, comparison betweenthe physiological reactions and the behavioralreactions showed that the average rating on thephysiological items was 1.68, much lower thanthe average rating of 2.55 on the behavioralitems.These results showed that the overallanxiety level on the MAS and the AAT-D amongHong Kong students were relatively highcompared to results obtained in studies on U. S.students. Anxiety may have more of adebilitating than facultative impact on the HongKong students. The disposition to anxiety maybe manifested more so in their emotional andbehavioral reactions rather than in theirphysiological reactions under a specificexamination situation.

On both the MAS and the AAT-D, Form 4Ss scored significantly higher than Form 3 Ss.The pattern of sex differences on the anxiety

measure was, how ever, less clear. For the Form 4students, males scored higher than females onall of the anxiety m easures except the MAS.However, for the Form 3 students, the onlysex difference was found on the MA S on whichthe female students scored higher.One may interpret the observed sexdifferences as a reflection of the increasingexamination pressure on secondary schoolstudents. Th e specific examination anxietywould affect males more so than females inboth the facilitative and debilitating way amongthe higher form students. Th e greater stressimposed by examination on male students inHong Kong has been noted in another study onthe mental health of Form 5 students using theGeneral Health Questionnaire (Law, 1978). Lawsuggested that parents in Hong Kong may holddifferent expectations of academic attainmentfo r boys and girls.(b) Relationship between trait and specific

anxietyThe intercorrelations of the variouspsychological measu res used are given in Table2. For measures given to both Form 4 and Form3 Ss, consistent patterns of correlations wereobtained. The MAS showed su bstantial relation-ship with the AAT-D (Form 4:0.50, Form3:0.50 ) and also with the SP-T (Form 4: 0.44).It may be concluded that there is a fairly strongrelationship between trait anxiety and specificanxiety toward examination among secondaryschool students in Hong Kong.

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C U H K Education Journal Vol.12 No. l 1984.Table 2

Intel-correlations among the Anxiety MeasuresAnxietyMeasureMASAAT-FAAT-DSR-BSR-P

SubjectGroupForm 4Form 3Form 4Form 3Form 4Form 3Form 4Form 4

AAT-F

- 0.20*-0.14*

-0.14*-0.18*0.30-0.02

AAT-D

0.50*0.50*-0.14*

-0.18*

0.38*0.34*

SR-B

0.35*

0.030.38*

0.52*

SR-P

0.43*-0.02

0.34*

0.52*

SR-T

0.44*0.010.41*

0.89*0.85** a < 01

Fo r both Form 4 and Form 3 Ss, theAAT-F and AAT-D scales had low negativecorrelations (-0.14 and -0.18 respectively). Thisis in line with results obtained by Alpert andHaber (1960) who quoted the average correlationfor a combined sample of 379 undergraduatesas -037 between the facilitating and thedebilitating scales.Substantial correlations were obtainedbetween different specific anxiety scales (AAT-Dand SR-T : 0.41 ; SR-B and SR-P : 0.52).Spuriously high correlations were obtainedbetween the subscores of SR-B and SR-T, andbetween SR-Pand SR-T because of the part-whole relationship.

Th e pattern of intercorrelations betweenmeasures of trait and specific anxiety amongHong Kong students showed that large commonvariances may be tapped by the anxietymeasures. General trait anxiety was substantiallyrelated to anxiety towa rd the exam inationsituation. Trait anxiety a s measu red by the MA Swas related more strongly to the debilitatingaspect of examination anxiety. Self-reports ofproneness to anxiety would also be related toboth behavioral and physiological anxietyreactions as measured by the SR-Inventory.

(c) Relationship between anxiety andacademic achievementThe relationship between anxiety andacademic achievement of secondary schoolstudents was examined in terms of the

correlations between the anxiety measures andthe school internal assessments. These correla-tions had to be calculated separately for theForm 4 Ss of the three schools. Between MASand school internal assessments, negative cor rela-tions ranging from -0.03 to -0.27 were obtained.The AAT-D correlated negatively with internalassessments ranging from -0.02 to -0.31, whilethe SR-T had negative correlations rangingfrom -0.01 to -0.19. Th e AAT-F however,showed all positive correlations with the internalassessments ranging from 0.04 to 0.25. Allthese correlations were generally low and notstatistically significant. Mor e significant relation-ships were found between the All SubjectsAverage and measures of anxiety.The school internal assessments of Form3 Ss in different schools were scaled using theJSEA scaling tests of English, Chinese, andMathem atics, rendering results from the differentschools comparable. These scaled internal assess-ments (with Grade A = 8 and Grade H = 1) werecorrelated with the anxiety measures. Eventhough the correlations, as given in Table 3,were generally low, the pattern of correlationssuggests that achievement-related anxiety moreso than generic trait anxiety would be relatedto academic perfo rm ance. Significant but lowcorrelations wer e consistently found betweenthe AAT scales and scaled internal assessmentson the academic subjects. Trait anxiety asmeasured by the MAS was not fou nd to berelated to the performance on the examinationsubjects.


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F a n n y M . C h e u n g P a u l L . M . Lee Anxiety a m o n g Seondary S ch o o l S t u d en tsTable 3

Correlations between Anxiety Measures andScaled Internal Assessments of Form 3 StudentsScaled

InternalAssessmentsChineseEnglishMathematicsScience SubjectsSocial SubjectsChinese HistoryPractical Subjects

* a < .05** a < .01

Anxiety MeasureMA S

-0.030.04-0.040.020.01-0.09**-0.03

AAT-F0.12**0.030.08**0.06*0.08**0.13**0.06

AAT-D-0.08**-0.05*-0.08**-0.07*- 0.07*-0.13**

0.00

Earlier studies on the relationship betweenanxiety an d performance have indicated thatthe relationship may be more complex than asimple linear relationship as is depicted by thePearson correlation coefficient (Sarason, et al.,1960; Tryon, 1980). Therefore, the results forForm 3 students were further analyzed in termsof the academic achievement of students scoringhigh, medium, and low on anxiety.The Ss were divided into three groups onthe basis of th eir sc ores on the MAS, AAT-F,

and AAT-D separately. On e standard deviationabove and below the mean was used as thecutoff for the high and the low anxiety groups.The mean scores on scaled internal assessmentsfor the seven examination subjects and theacademic subject total were compared amongthe anxiety groups. The mean scores and F-valuesfo r the ANOVA on the MAS groups, AAT-Fgroups, and AAT-D groups ar e reported inTables 4,5, and 6.

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Table 4Scaled Internal Assessments of Low, M edium, an d High M AS Groups

ScaledInternalAssessmentsChineseEnglishMathematicsScience SubjectsSocial SubjectsPractical SubjectsAcademic Subject Total 1

Lo w( N = 1 5 4 )4.314.564.544.474.536.2822.41

MA S GroupMedium(N = 543)4.044.214.194.174.186.2520.78

High(N = 171)

4.094.584304.414.436.2221.81

F Valueof ANOVA

2.0073.752*3308*2.6130.8080.0870.593

Calculated from the first five academic subjects only.* a


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Table 5Scaled Internal Assessments of Low, Medium, an d High AAT-F Groups

ScaledInternalAssessmentsChineseEnglishMathematicsScience SubjectsSocial SubjectsChinese HistoryPractical SubjectsAcademic Subject Total '

Low( N = 1 5 1 )3.884.434.124.234.234.556.1520.89

AAT-F GroupMedium(N = 561)

4.104.354.304.294.314.766.27

21.34

High(N = 130)4.594.684.574.624.695.186.3023.15

F Valueof ANOVA

8.502**1.6843.247*2.5376.721**8.038**0.5188.275**

1 Calculated from the first five academic subjects only.* a


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Fa nny M . C h eu n g P a u l L . M . L ee Anxiety amongSeondary School S t u d e n t slevel of anxiety. A reverse-J or iota-shaperelationship was found between anxiety andperformance. This curvilinear relationshipsuggests that high anxiety, despite its debilitatinginfluence, m ay have an arousal function whichboostered the students' performance slightlyabove those of medium level of anxiety.CONCLUSION

Measures of trait an d specific anxietyshowed that th e overall level of anxiety amongsecondary school students in Hong Kong washigh in comparison to students in the U. S.For Hong Kong students, the level of anxietyamong Form 4 students w as higher than thatamong Form 3 students, Anxiety toward exam-ination was stronger among boys than amonggirls, suggesting greater pressure fo r academicachievement especially among the higher formboys. While the general level of self-report andmanifest anxiety may be found to be relativelyhigh among Hong Kong students, detrimentaleffects on academic performance may notnecessarily entail. The relationship betweenanxiety and academic performance was onlyslight. Such a relationship may be bothfacilitative as well as debilitating in nature.

While the different measures of anxietywere moderately correlated, the generic anxietytrait had less direct relevance to academicperformance. Debilitating anxiety toward exam-ination had a curvilinear relationship withacademic results, with low-anxiety studentsperforming best and medium-anxiety studentsperforming worst. Th e slight differences foundamong different anxiety groups on academicperformance suggests that more complexvariables may be involved in academicperfomance than the manifest level of anxietyalone. The public concern over anxiety amongschool children should rather be addressed tothe issue of student mental health than to theissue of impaired academic performance. Thehigh level of manifest experience of anxietyfound among youth is itself a phenomenonworthy of concern in Hong Kong.ReferencesAlpert, R. & Haber, R. N. (1960) Anxiety in academicachievement situations. Journa l o f Abnormal

& Soc ia l Psycho logy , 61 , 207-215.

Endler, N. S., Hunt, J. McV,& Rosenstein, A. J. (1962)An S-R Inventory of Anxiousness. PsychologicalM onographs, 76 , (17, whole no . 536).

Horowitz, F. & Aimentrout, J. (1965) Discrimination-learning, manifest anxiety, and effects ofreinforcement. Chi ld Development, 36 , 731-748.Law, S. K. (1978) Urban-rural differences in student

mental health: Th e Hong Kong scene . Au stralian& New Zealand Journa l of Psychiatry , 12, 277-281.

Lekarczyk, D. T., & Hill, K. T. (1969) Self-esteem, testanxiety, stress, and verbal learning. Develop-m e n ta l P s y ch o l o g y , 1, 147-154.Mandler, G., & Sarason, S. B. (1952) A study of anxiety& learning. Journal of Abnormal & S o c i a lPsycho logy . 47, 166-173.

Morris, L. W. & Fulmer, R. S. (1976) Test anxiety(Worry & Emotionality) changes during academictesting as a function of feedback and test import-ance. Journa l o f Educ a t iona l Psycho logy , 68 (6):817-824.

Phillips, B. N., Martin, R. P. & Meyers, J. (1972)Interventions in relation to anxiety in school.In C. D. Spielberger (ed.) Anxiety: Currenttrends in theory & research , Vol. II, N. Y. :Academic Press.Sarason, S. B., Davidson, K. S., Lighthall, F. F., Waite,R. R. & Ruebush, B. K. (1960) Anxiety inE lemen tary School Chi l d ren , New York: WileySieber, J. E. (1969) A paradigm fo r experimentalmodification of the effects of test anxiety oncognitive process. American Educa t iona lResearch Journa l , 6, 46-61.

Spence, K. W. (1958) A theory of emotionally baseddrive (D) and its relation to performance insimple learning situations. American Psycho l og -ist, 13, 131-141.

Spielberger, C, D, (ed.) (1966) Anxiety an d Behavior,New York: Academic Press.Spielberger, C. D. & Smith, L. H. (1966) Anxiety, stress,and serial-position effects in serial-verbal learn-ing. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72,589-595.Tavlor, J. A. (1953) A personality scale of manifestanxiety. Journa l o f Abnormal & S o c i a lP s y c h o l o g y , 48, 285-290.Taylor, J. A. (1958) The effects of anxiety level andpsychological stress on verbal teaming. Journa lof Abnormal an d Socia l Psychology, 57, 55-60.

Try on, G. S. (1980) The measurement& treatment oftest anxiety. Review o f Educa t iona l Research,50 (2), 343-372.

Dr. Fanny M. Cheung is Lecturer in Psychology atCUHK. Dr. Paul L. M. Lee is Senior EducationOfficer in Education Department, Hong Kong.

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