The purpose of this study was to solve the following questions: Is there any difference in the relationship among three variables ― parents' study achievement pressure, students' stress from parents' expectation, and consequential study exhaustion ...
The purpose of this study was to solve the following questions: Is there any difference in the relationship among three variables ― parents' study achievement pressure, students' stress from parents' expectation, and consequential study exhaustion ― in gifted and general students in elementary school?; what are the correlations among those three variables?; What effects do parents' achievement pressure and stress from parents' expectation have on study exhaustion?; In the effect of parents' achievement pressure on students' study exhaustion, does stress from parents' expectation act as mediating variable.
This results of the study can be utilized as follows: to promote healthy growth and development of gifted children; to make their parents who are interested in gifted children education and teachers who directly teach them understand the characteristics of them; to provide basic sources for practical education of gifted children.
The research was done by the survey method. Researcher did survey to two groups of students ― gifted students and general students. The former was 206 gifted students in the fifth and sixth year gifted student classes in Bucheon and Gimpo, Gyeonggi province. The latter was 231 common counterparts belonging to the same school years in normal classes in Incheon and Gyeonggi. Analyses of data were done with various statistical tools.
The findings are as follows. First, this study checked whether there is any difference between two groups in the levels of parents' study achievement pressure, those of stress from parents' expectation, and those of study exhaustion. In the levels of parents' study achievement pressure, both groups of students were found to reveal below average levels of pressure. Though gifted students were found to feel lesser pressure than their common counterparts, the difference between two groups was not statistically significant. In levels of stress from parents' expectation, there was significant difference between two groups. gifted students were found to feel less stress than their common counterparts. In the case of study exhaustion, in all levels of sub-variables of it ― emotional depletion, cynicism, study powerlessness ― general students were significantly higher than gifted ones. Especially, there was biggest difference in study powerlessness of the three elements between two groups.
Second, the correlations among three variables ― parents' study achievement pressure, stress from parents' expectation, and study exhaustion ― were checked with correlation coefficients among both groups of students. In their correlations among gifted students, study exhaustion was positively and significantly correlated with parents' study achievement pressure and stress from parents' expectation. And their stress from parents' expectation was also significantly and positively correlated with parents' study achievement pressure. In the case of general student group, though correlations among variables were similar to the case of gifted counterparts, their coefficients were higher than those of gifted counterparts. And their study exhaustion and study powerlessness were positively correlated.
Third, though parents' study achievement pressure and stress from parents' expectation have effects on study exhaustion in both groups, the two variables did not have meaningful effects on study powerlessness among gifted students.
Fourth, among gifted students, stress from parents' expectation was found to act as the perfect mediating variable between parents' study achievement pressure and study exhaustion. That is, in the case of gifted students in elementary school, parents' study achievement pressure has effect on study exhaustion completely by means of the mediating effect of stress from parents' expectation. In the case of general students, stress from parents' expectation was found to affect partly their study exhaustion. That is, in the case of general students in elementary school, parents' study achievement pressure has effect on study exhaustion indirectly through the mediating effect of stress from parents' expectation, and, at the same time, it also affect study exhaustion directly.
In short, the mediating effect of stress from parents' expectation between parents' study achievement pressure and study exhaustion was found to be complete among gifted students, but partly among general students.