EVALUATION OF THE RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF A NEW SCALE FOR ACADEMIC STRESS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Keywords:
scale, academic stress, subscale, academic factors, factor analysisAbstract
This study focuses on the development and validation of a scale to measure perceptions of academic stress and its sources among university students. The scale, which includes 40 items, was developed based on empirical evidence and a review of contemporary literature. Experts (n=4) participated in the content validation process of the instrument before it was administered to students (n=70). The developed instrument demonstrated a high internal consistency reliability of .939 (Cronbach's alpha), and factor analysis resulted in four correlated and theoretically meaningful factors. The results of the factor analysis showed that the KMO value, which assesses the suitability of data for factor analysis in our study, is 0.752, thus KMO = .752 > .0.5 supports the factor analysis. Bartlett's Test of Sphericity, which confirms that the variables significantly interact, showed that the chi square value of Bartlett's is 2167.847. Degrees of freedom (df) are 780. The significance level (Sig.) is .000, which is less than 0.05. Bartlett's Test of Sphericity where (Sig) = .000, therefore p < .005, approximates the value of the Chi Square test, and the values and results of the factor analysis revealed four factors. The Cronbach's Alpha value for the four factors ranged from (.883 ~ .924). This scale, which takes about 10 minutes to complete, provides a valuable tool for measuring academic stress and its sources in the university environment.
References
Agolla, J. E. & Ongori, H. (2009). An Assessment of Academic Stress among Undergraduate Students: The Case of University of Botswana. Educational Research and Review, 4(2), 63-70. Available online at http:/www.academicjournals.org/ERR
Ahmad, I., Gul, R., & Zeb, M. (2022). A qualitative inquiry of university student’s experiences of exam stress and its effect on their academic performance. Human Arenas, 1-11.
Bedewy, D., & Gabriel, A. (2015). Examining perceptions of academic stress and its sources among university students: The Perception of Academic Stress Scale. Health psychology open, 2(2), 2055102915596714.
Bueno, D. (2021). Exams as a source of stress: How assessments may affect learning, through stress. IBRO/IBE-
Calaguas, G. M. (2012). Survey of college academic stressors: Development of a new measure. Journal of Human Sciences, 9(1), 441-457.
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of health and social behavior, 385-396.
Costello, A. B., & Osborne, J. W. (2005). Best Practices in Exploratory Factor Analysis: Four Recommendations for Getting the Most From Your Analysis. Practical Assessment Research & Evaluation, 10(7). Available online: http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=10&n=7
García-Ros, R., Pérez-González, F., & Tomás, J. M. (2018). Analyzing academic stress in adolescence and their relationship with students’ psychological and physical well-being: Development and validation of the Questionnaire of Academic Stress in Secondary Education.
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/med/research/platform/wemwbs/about/
Jiménez-Mijangos, L. P., Rodríguez-Arce, J., Martínez-Méndez, R., & Reyes-Lagos, J. J. (2023). Advances and challenges in the detection of academic stress and anxiety in the classroom: A literature review and recommendations. Education and Information Technologies, 28(4), 3637-3666
Jogaratnam, G. & Buchanan, P. (2004). Balancing the Demands of School and Work: Stress and Employed Hospitality Students. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16(4), 237-245.
Joseph, N., Nallapati, A., Machado, M. X., Nair, V., Matele, S., Muthusamy, N., & Sinha, A. (2021). Assessment of academic stress and its coping mechanisms among medical undergraduate students in a large Midwestern university. Current Psychology, 40, 2599-2609.
Kumari, A., & Jain, J. (2014). Examination stress and anxiety: A study of college students. Global Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 4(1), 31-40.
Neil, R. (1994). Stress: Taming the tyrant. TEACH Services, Inc..
Pompilus, E.S., Pompilus, A. (2021). DIE AUSWIRKUNGEN VON STRESS AUF. Academia Letters, Artikel 3326. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3326
Selye, H. (1973). The Evolution of the Stress Concept: The originator of the concept traces its development from the discovery in 1936 of the alarm reaction to modern therapeutic applications of syntoxic and catatoxic hormones. American scientist, 61(6), 692-699.
Sun, J., Dunne, M. P., Hou, X. Y., & Xu, A. Q. (2011). Educational stress scale for adolescents: development, validity, and reliability with Chinese students. Journal of psychoeducational assessment, 29(6), 534-546.
UNESCO Science of Learning Briefings.
Wolman, B.B (1973). Dictionary of Behavioral Science. New York: Van Nostraud Reinhold Company.
