The impact of parental encouragement on high school students' academic anxiety

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between parental encouragement and high school students' academic anxiety. The study sample included 400 high school students in Hanoi (39.8% male, 56.5% female, and 3.8% other genders). Utilizing Cassady's Academic Anxiety Scale (2020), the research quantified students’ academic anxiety levels. Parental encouragement for children is assessed in terms of content, form, and appropriateness or inappropriateness of encouragement factors, which are designed by the group, based on existing materials. The results showed that 91.2% of students reported different levels of anxiety in learning; 13.2% of the variation in academic anxiety was explained by different dimensions of encouragement. Parents' inappropriate encouragement of students' abilities had the strongest impact on students' academic anxiety (ẞ = 0.16), followed by inappropriate encouragement regarding students' emotions and desires, with regression coefficients of ẞ = 0.14 and ẞ = 0.12, respectively. These results underscore that encouragement from parents for learning should take into account the factors that are suitable for individual student needs to mitigate academic anxiety.