© 2019 IJRAR May 2019, Volume 6, Issue 2 www.ijrar.

org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

Parental Expectations and Its Relation to Academic

Stress among School Students
C. Subramani1 & J. Venkatachalam2
1 C. Subramani, Research Scholar (Ph. D), Department of Psychology, Periyar University, Salem – 636011, India.
2 Dr. J. Venkatachalam, Professor, Department of Psychology, Periyar University, Salem – 636011, India.

ABSTRACT
Parental support is needed for every school student to achieve their academics. However, when parents have high
expectations rather than support, it would reflect in academics of their children. When they could not achieve their
parents’ expectations, it prompts stress and impacts their academic achievement. Hence, the aim of this study was to
examine the relationship between parental expectations and academic stress of school students. Sample of 179 (92-
male and 87-female) school students selected through simple random sampling and have completed self-report
questionnaires of High Parental Expectations for Academics (Fuligni, 1997) and The Educational Stress Scale for
Adolescent (Sun et al., 2011). Result of correlation analysis indicated no significant relationship between parental
expectations and academic stress of school students. Further, independent sample t-test indicated that there was a
significant gender difference in academic stress and in sub-scales: pressure from study, workload, worry about grades
and despondency. The result also showed that there was no significant gender difference in parental expectations of
school students.

Key words: Parental Expectations, Academic Stress, School Students

INTRODUCTION
Everyone wants to be successful in their life, hence stress is unavoidable as optimum level of stress is essential to
function effectively towards any goal (Yerkes & Dodson, 1908). On the other hand, when stress exceeds optimum
level, it becomes distress and it should be taken care of. Every individual might encounter the stress once in their
lifetime. Cause of the stress called stressor might come from all walks of the path. Many criteria are used to categorize
different types of stress such as marital stress, familial stress, work-related stress and academic stress (Acosta-Gómez
et al., 2018). In this study, academic stress of the school students has been focused. Academic stress is a mental distress
with respect to some anticipated frustration associated with academic failure or even an awareness of possibility of
such failure (Gupta, & Khan, 1987). Stress has become part of students’ academic life due to the various internal and
external expectations placed upon their shoulders (Reddy, Menon, & Thattil, 2018). External expectations such as
parental attitude and high parental expectations causes stress among school students (Putwain, 2007; Rao, 1954).
Parents have high attitude and expectations towards their children’s education such as their children should perform
well in all subjects and should be a topper in the class. Studying 10th to 12th standard students are mostly expected to
excel in their academics by their parents, because it is an entry for higher studies. Review of relevant literature
suggested that parents have significant role in their child’s act in many disciplines of life. Molnar (1979) found that
parents’ education and home environment play a significant role in child’s academic achievement. Though parental
involvement leads to better academic achievement (Holmes, 2013), high expectations of the parents lead to stress of
students (Kumar & Jadaun, 2018; Ma, Siu & Tse, 2018). Parents usually set unrealistically high goals, it sometimes
leads to drastic outbursts by students in the form of stress, depression and even suicides (Hazari, 2013). Hence, in the
present study a modest attempt is made to find out the relationship between parental expectations and academic stress
of the school students.

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© 2019 IJRAR May 2019, Volume 6, Issue 2 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

OBJECTIVES
1. To explore the gender difference with regards to parental expectations and academic stress of school students
2. To examine the relationship between parental expectations and academic stress of school students

METHOD AND PROCEDURE

The present study was carried out in higher secondary schools of Salem city, Tamil Nadu. A sample of 179 (92-male
and 87-female), school students were drawn randomly for the present study. The age of the participants ranged 14 - 17
years.

Tools used for the Present Study

1. High Parental Expectations scale developed by Fuligni (1997) was used to assess parental expectations of the
students. It consists of four items and each item to be responded on 5-point Likert scale ranging from "almost
never" (1) to "almost always" (5). The scale retained a good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = .77) and was
reliable for the adolescents (Ma, Siu, & Tse, 2018).
2. Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents (ESSA) by Sun et al. (2011) was used for assessing academic stress of
school students. The scale consists of 16 items divided into 5 subscales: pressure from study, workload, worry about
grades, self-expectation, and despondency. 5 -Point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly
agree (5) is used to respond. The internal consistency reliability of Cronbach’s alpha was 0.81 indicating good
internal consistency (Sun et al., 2011).

Statistical Analysis
Independent sample t-test was applied to find out the differences between the respondents with regard to parental
expectations and academic stress of school students. Correlation was computed to ascertain the relationship of parental
expectations with academic stress.

RESULTS
Gender Difference in Parental Expectations and Academic Stress of School Students
Study of academic stress along gender lines is notable because, there is great difference in the academic stress of
female and male students and studies revealed that female students were found to be under more academic stress than
male students (Misra & Castillo, 2004; Matud, 2004; Gentry et al., 2007). Academic stress is caused due to the
examination system, burden of homework and attitudes of parents and teachers (Backović, Ilić Živojinović,
Maksimović, & Maksimović, 2012; Sarita, 2015). Even some parents intend to compensate through their children
(Dhull & Kumari, 2015) and also, they have different expectations for sons and daughters (Ho, 1989). In Indian culture,
parents have more expectations for their male child because of societal perspective that male should success in
education well enough so that he can look after the parents and family in future (Rajkotwala, 2016; Krishnan, 2018).
Hence, the t-test was carried out to identify gender difference in parental expectations and academic stress of school
students.

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Table - 1: t-test scores for gender difference in parental expectations

Male (92) Female (87)
Variables (df-177) t- value
Mean SD Mean SD

Parental Expectations 14.29 2.98 15.11 3.08 1.81NS

NS = Not Significant at 0.05 level

From Table 1, the result shows that there is no significant gender difference between school students as far as parental
expectations are concerned. The mean value of male and female students were 14.29 and 15.11 respectively, which
indicated that gender differences in parental expectations was found to be non-significant i.e., 1.81 (critical value of
df-177 at 0.05 level is 1.96).

Table - 2: t-test scores for gender difference in academic stress

Male (92) Female (87)
Variables (df-177) t- value
Mean SD Mean SD
Pressure from Study 12.72 3.37 14.11 3.32 2.78*
Workload 9.68 2.60 10.86 2.91 2.85*
Worry About the Grades 10.77 2.13 11.68 2.86 2.40*
Self-Expectation 10.40 2.34 11.07 2.74 1.74NS
Despondency 9.02 2.71 10.25 2.62 3.08*
ESSA Total 52.60 7.68 57.98 9.37 4.20*
* = Significant at 0.05 level, NS = Not Significant
Table 2 shows the gender difference in academic stress total score and its sub-scale scores. Significant gender
differences were observed in the dimensions of pressure from the study, workload, worry about the grades and
despondency of academic stress dimensions with t-values 2.78, 2.85, 2.40 and 3.08 respectively (critical value of df-
177 at 0.05 level is 1.96). The calculated t-value for the dimension of self-expectation of male and female students was
1.74. The result, thus pointed out non-significant gender difference in the dimension of self-expectation. Further,
significant gender difference in the total score of academic stress of school students was observed (t-value was 4.208).
The calculated t-value for male and female students was found to be statistically significant, which indicated that female
students (M-52.60) had more academic stress than male students (M-57.98).

Relationship Between Parental Expectations and Academic Stress of School Students

Parents have crucial role in their children’s development (Sroufe, 2002; Harter, 2006) and they have numerous wishes
and expectations for their children particularly about their education (Goldenberg et al., 2001; Glick & White 2004).
Children realize the parental expectations and attempt to satisfy their expectations. But sometimes parents’ expectations
induce worry in their child and it impacts the academic achievement. When they could not achieve their parents’
expectations, it causes stress and influences on their academic achievement (Kumar& Jadaun, 2018). Hence, it is
assumed that there would be a significant relationship between parental expectations and academic stress among school
students and is tested with correlation analysis.

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Table - 3: Correlation values between parental expectations and academic stress
Pressure Worry About Self- Academic
Variables Workload Despondency
from Study the Grades Expectation stress total
Parental
-.011NS .037NS .192** .052NS .082NS .102NS
Expectations
**= Significant level at 0.01 level, NS = Not Significant

Table 3 presents correlation values between the studied variables. Results indicated that there was no significant
correlation between parental expectations and academic stress total of school students. However, significant positive
correlation was found between parental expectations and the dimension of worry about the grades.

DISCUSSION
As reported by the results given in Table 1, results are indicative that there was no significant gender difference in
parental expectations which showed that parents of male and female students have equal expectations regarding their
children’s academics. The possible reason for this could be that nowadays girls are given equal opportunities and thus
are expected of performing equally well when compared to boys. The result is in line with the findings of Chui and
Wong (2017) who concluded that there was no difference between gender regarding perceived parental expectations.
Further, table 2 revealed while assessing the differences in academic stress of male and female school students,
findings were revealed that female students had more academic stress than male students (t-value: 4.208). Similar
results were found by Dhull and Kumari (2015), that they indicated significant gender differences with reference to
dimensions of academic stress (pressure from study, workload, worry about grades and despondency). However,
present findings indicated non-significant gender difference in the dimension of self-expectation.
Table 3 shows the correlation between parental expectations and academic stress among school students. No
significant correlation has been reported between parental expectations and academic stress, when the critical value of
‘r’-@ 0.05 level is 0.102. It appears that parental expectations did not correlate with academic stress except in the
dimension of worry about the grades. The result is in line with the study by Mathur and Anjali (2014) who concluded
that correlation between parental stress and school going children academic performance was found non-significant.
The reason might be that students perceive their parents’ academic expectation as motivation, not as stressful, and these
students themselves are very conscious of their academics and want to achieve maximum within a limited period, which
often causes academic stress among them.

CONCLUSION
The results demonstrated that gender related differences were seen regarding academic stress of the respondents.
However, no difference in parental expectations of school students. No significant relationship was found between
parental expectations and academic stress. Taking the results into the consideration, counselling programme could be
arranged by school management in collaboration with psychologists to reduce the academic stress of the students.
Programmes could be conducted to create awareness among parents how to support their children towards academics
without causing stress.

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