ORIGINAL PAPER
Stress faced by gifted Vietnamese students: what might contribute to it?
1
VNU University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi, Vietnam
2
Massey University, Auckland,
New Zealand
Submission date: 2015-08-19
Final revision date: 2015-10-01
Acceptance date: 2015-10-01
Online publication date: 2015-11-04
Publication date: 2015-11-04
Health Psychology Report 2016;4(1):16-23
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Background
Gifted students might have to face an abundance of stress. Nevertheless, very little evidence in Vietnam indicates how much stress those students are experiencing and what might predict it. This study aims to examine the stress level in students of the High School for Gifted Students in Hanoi and factors that might contribute to the stress.
Participants and procedure
This is a cross sectional study with the participation of 150 students from the High School for Gifted Students, Hanoi. Data were collected from March to April 2015. The first measure was the “Stress Level Test”, which was adapted to the Vietnamese culture to measure academic stress in students. The second measure examined factors contributing to stress: 1) social life, 2) family, 3) school work, 4) personal relationships, 5) well-being, 6) adapting skills.
Results
The results showed that 74% of students were experiencing mild to medium stress, which was found to be higher in girls and in students who lived away from home. The six predicting factors significantly contribute 17.30% to students’ stress experience, of which school work (p = .001) and students’ well-being (p = .011) can individually predict stress. These outcomes suggested that more attention should be focused on this specific population and more actions need to be taken to help them perform better at school.
Conclusions
Students of the High School for Gifted Students definitely experienced a considerable amount of stress which was related to school pressure and their well-being. For them to have a better high school life, more recreational and leisure time activities outside the classroom need to take place. In addition, more approachable and functional advisors and counseling personnel would be an ideal solution to this problem.
Gifted students might have to face an abundance of stress. Nevertheless, very little evidence in Vietnam indicates how much stress those students are experiencing and what might predict it. This study aims to examine the stress level in students of the High School for Gifted Students in Hanoi and factors that might contribute to the stress.
Participants and procedure
This is a cross sectional study with the participation of 150 students from the High School for Gifted Students, Hanoi. Data were collected from March to April 2015. The first measure was the “Stress Level Test”, which was adapted to the Vietnamese culture to measure academic stress in students. The second measure examined factors contributing to stress: 1) social life, 2) family, 3) school work, 4) personal relationships, 5) well-being, 6) adapting skills.
Results
The results showed that 74% of students were experiencing mild to medium stress, which was found to be higher in girls and in students who lived away from home. The six predicting factors significantly contribute 17.30% to students’ stress experience, of which school work (p = .001) and students’ well-being (p = .011) can individually predict stress. These outcomes suggested that more attention should be focused on this specific population and more actions need to be taken to help them perform better at school.
Conclusions
Students of the High School for Gifted Students definitely experienced a considerable amount of stress which was related to school pressure and their well-being. For them to have a better high school life, more recreational and leisure time activities outside the classroom need to take place. In addition, more approachable and functional advisors and counseling personnel would be an ideal solution to this problem.
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