Different kinds of resources on Chinese high school students’ anxiety

刘羽茜

Introduction

‘Life always makes us black and blue， but those painful things will make us stronger until we came through. Hemingway once wrote. Nonetheless， is this true？ Perhaps we do recover from pain but sometimes it could kill us. As for a typical high school student in an elite school in China， I feel anxiety everywhere. The pressure from classmates， teachers， parents and even from friends could easily turn something small into a serious issue. This kind of issue will finally lead to negative emotions that strongly affect students academic behaviors and attitudes toward lives. In fact， this situation is being more and more prevalent among todays Chinese high school students.

Signs of students anxiety

Anxiety is defined as a subjective sense of fear， distress， or worry that may exhibit both physical sensations （e.g.， headaches or nausea） and emotional symptoms （e.g.， fear or nervousness） （American Psychiatric Association [APA]， 2000）. Studies have shown that when students feel nervous， afraid， panic， it could be the symptoms of anxiety. Meanwhile， these students often feel worried， tired， dizzy and easier to have bad dreams. Besides， anxiety could have significant influence on students behaviors on their academic performance and productivity.

The situation of students anxiety in Chinese high schools

Yue Peilin，Huang Zitong （2016） conducted a survey among middle school students in Beijing and used the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale （SAS） to test their responses on anxiety. 226 middle school students from different schools were investigated， including 38 junior high school students and 188 senior high school students. The result showed 30 of them has anxiety disorder （SAS > 50 points）， accounting for 13.3%. The mean SAS score of senior high school group was 39.49 （+ 0.68）. We could give the conclusion that anxiety disorder is the most common mental disorder in middle school students.

Li mingrui （2016） did a study on types of anxiety and its factors. Her study tells us that there are three major factors for the appearance of anxiety——family， school， and the individual. First， families that have high level of intimacy and have democratic atmosphere allow students to be less anxious. Second， schools also put pressure on students. Not only do the grade affects students， but also teachers teaching style plays matters. Last， anxiety affected by each students ages and characters as well. When it comes to students characters， studies have shown that self-esteem and self-acceptance are significant.

My research on Chinese high school students anxiety

This study is based on Chinese elite students who study in Special A program and students from top high schools in Beijing （Beijing No.4 High School， The Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University）. The number of students who contribute to the data is 85， which includes 28 males and 57 females. The exploratory research contains three aspects： the level of anxiety and the level of help from others， specific types of anxiety their schools and personal lives bring， and the intervention of school， parents and themselves to reduce anxiety.

Results

1.According to the survey， the causes on students anxiety are showed as follows：

Table 1 Types of anxiety schools bring to students （effective number of data： 78）

Table 2 Types of anxiety students have in their personal lives （60）

2.According to the survey， the extent of different causes on students anxiety are showed as follows：

Table 3 The extent of anxiety each of the following gives them

（1= not a source of anxiety at all 7 = most important source of anxiety）

Table 4 The extent of help each of the following gives them to reduce their anxiety

（1= cannot not help me at all 7 = can help me most）

3. According to the survey， the intervention students seeking for are showed as follows：

Table 5 Types of intervention students seek for in their schools （56）

Table 6 Types of interventions students seek for in their families （73）

Table 7 Types of intervention students seek for themselves （69）

In summary， anxiety caused by teachers， parents， classmates and friends are serious， while help from them are more important. Communicate with parents and teachers as well as find some distraction are effective intervention to reduce anxiety.

The disadvantage of this article is that only elite students take this survey， they might cannot give whole picture of Chinese high schools. Another problem is that the sample data volume is relatively small and majority of them are female students compared with male students. Therefore， the conclusions drawn from the collected data may be inaccurate.

劉羽茜

年龄：16

城市：北京

就读学校：北京师范大学附属实验中学

年级：11

目标专业：行为经济学、心理学

写这篇论文的初衷是因为在竞争力日益增长的环境下，我感受到了身边的朋友和同学们都在压抑着他们的心情，失去了一个高中生应有的朝气与快乐，甚至自己也经常会陷入这样的情绪中。有时我想帮助他们缓解这样的压力和烦恼，但却往往无能为力，好像处于他们内心世界之外一样，被一道道无形的墙隔开。这个名为“心理感冒”的疾病，被同学和家长们曲解，“心理小屋”变成了一个大家望而却步的地方。于是我想去做调查、研究关于高中生的心理现状，尽量用我最大的努力去了解他们的想法。在写论文的时候，我不仅更好地了解了心理学研究的基本研究方法和写论文的技巧，还发现自己的研究吸引了越来越多的人去了解心理、了解他们自己。我想，做研究不应该仅停留在数据和文献上，更应该带着对于科学的敬畏和研究者真挚的感情，给身边的人多一点关怀、给世界多一份温暖。