Άγχος αξιολόγησης και τρόποι αντιμετώπισης ψυχοπιεστικών καταστάσεων από παιδιά ηλικίας 11-12 ετών

Περίληψη

The primary intent of the study was to investigate the relationship between test anxiety and coping strategies employed by school children aged 11-12 years old. For that purpose we used the Test Anxiety Inventory (T.A.I.) by Charles Spielberger (1982), standardised for the Greek population and the Coping strategies Scale (C.S.S.) by Bezevegis (1994). The reliability for the T.A.I was a = 0.80 (Cronbach alpha) and for the C.S.S. was a = 0.76 (Cronbach alpha). The factor analysis of the CCS. scale revealed three fanctional (support from the family, social support, acceptance/offer of help) and four disfunctional coping strategies (isolation, give up, avoidance, transfer to others the finding of solution). At all stages the analysis showed some quite interesting results, which are in accordance with other research evidence. Children who have well-educated parents tend to use their extended social network when faced with problems. In other words, they tend to use functional coping strategies. Children in the 5th grade report high levels in the cognitive subscale of the T.A.I and ask the help of the close and extended social network in order to cope with problems. The only sex difference appeared is related to the coping strategy transfer to others the finding of solution. More precisely, males tend to use more often than the females this strategy. The first child in the family seeks support from the extended social network and the last one prefers to isolate himself from the problem. The more children in the family the more often they use the strategy isolation. We, also, examined the relationship between anxiety and coping strategies. The analysis showed that the last child of the family experiences high Levels of anxiety. When the children are anxious they ask their parents help. The higher the mother's educational level, the higher the anxiety level of the children in the family. Perhaps the performance of multiple and some times conflicting roles raises mother's educational level which is transfered to the children.