Examination Stress in Singapore primary schoolchildren: how compliance by subjects can impact on study results
Date
2003
Authors
Parker, G
Cai, Zheng-Li
Tan, S
Dear, Keith
Henderson, A Scott
Poh, G
Kwee, G
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Volume Title
Publisher
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Abstract
Objective: Examinations are anecdotally viewed as extremely stressful to Singapore schoolchildren. We test this postulate by obtaining parental ratings of children's emotional stress levels longitudinally in a large representative sample of sixth (P6) and fifth (P5) class primary schoolchildren, respectively, exposed and unexposed to a streaming examination. Method: Children's stress levels were rated monthly by a parent for 10 months. Results: Analyses failed to find evidence of any differential stress impact across P6 and P5 comparison groups, apart from a subset of P6 children whose parents complied with every monthly survey. Conclusion: The streaming examination in the final year of primary school did not emerge as a general stressor to children, but achieved salience within a defined subset of children whose parents were highly study compliant. Study compliance may be a proxy variable of some import, and have wider relevance to other cohort studies and to intervention trials.
Description
Keywords
Keywords: article; emotional stress; examination; female; human; male; parent; patient compliance; primary school; priority journal; school child; Singapore; Child; Cooperative Behavior; Educational Measurement; Female; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Parents; Child stress; Compliance; Examination distress; Study adherence
Citation
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Source
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica
Type
Journal article
Book Title
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DOI
10.1034/j.1600-0447.2003.00163.x