Relationships among Family Function, Academic Achievement and Achievement Anxiety of High School Students

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationships among the family function, the academic achievement and the achievement anxiety of high school students.The subjects of this study were 456 students who were first and second year of high school that located in Seoul. The data were gathered from 16th to 31st, October 2000. For the survey tool, it was used that the Family Assessment Device (FAD) of Epstein, Baldwin & Bishop (1983), the class record order and the Achievement Anxiety Test(AAT) of Alpert & Harber(1960).The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. frequency analysis, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients of SAS program.The results of this study were following：1. The mean score of the family function was 38.30 and the mean grade was 2.25. The high academic achievement was 29.2%. middle grade was 52.7%, and low grade was 18.1%. The mean score of achievement anxiety was 38.45 and the mean grade was 2.02. 2. The family function in adolescents was significantly different according to their academic achievement. The mean score of the low grade was 36.07. That was significantly lower than the mean score 38.94 of the middle grade (F=5.34. p=0.0051).The achievement anxiety in each group was significantly different according to their academic achievement (F = 36.11, p=0.0001). The mean score of the high, middle and low grade were 41.57. 37.69 and 35.62. The facilitating anxiety was the highest in the low grade and the lowest in the high grade(F=28.41, p=0.0001). Theanxiety of the low grade was higher than the other groups p=0.0001). And so, academic high as much as facilitating and debilitating anxiety wassignificantly different according to their school year and religion. That is, the mean score of the first school year and the second year were 39.87 arid 37.29. The mean score of the first school year was significantly higher than that of the second school year(t = 3.91. p=0.0001). The mean score of family function in the religious family(m = 38.84) was significantly higher than that of no religious family(m = 37.35). Also, the achievement anxiety in adolescents was significantly different according to their parent's school career. The mean score of the group that the father's and mother's school career were below junior high school were 36.30 and 36.78.Those were significantly lower than the mean score 38.99 and 39.04 of the group that the father's and mother's school career were above college(F=3.62, 3.05, p=0.0276, 0.0484).4. The subscale of family function, active problem solving was represented the positive correlation with achievement anxiety (r=0.12.p = 0.0138). And, it was highly ranked as much as active problem solving was good. The facilitating anxiety was represented the positive correlation with the family function and the all of the 4 subscales(r=0.13, 0.13, 0.10, 0.14, 0.12, p = 0.0052. 0.0074, 0.0262, 0.0027, 0.0083). And so, family function was high as much as facilitating anxiety was high. Also, the positive correlation was shown between the affective responsiveness, role recognition and emotional support as the subscales of family function and academic achievement (r== 0.11, 0.12, p = 0.0193. 0.0106). That is to say, affective responsiveness and role recognition and emotional support were good as much as academic achievement was high. Besides, the academic achievement was represented relatively the positive correlation with achievement anxiety and facilitating anxiety(r = 0.35, 0.33, p = 0.0001. 0.0001), but that was represented the negative correlation with debilitating anxiety(r=-0.23. p = 0.0001). So, academic achievement was high as much as achievement anxiety and facilitating anxiety were high, debilitating anxiety was low.