NCJ Number
224603
Journal
Journal of Adolescence Volume: 31 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2008 Pages: 583-594
Date Published
October 2008
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether there were similarities and differences in the self-reported anxieties of Mainland Chinese and Singapore Chinese adolescents (12-17 years old), and whether these similarities or differences were related to gender and/or grade; anxiety levels of these two populations were compared with an American normative sample (12-17 years old).
Abstract
Study findings showed a statistical significant gender by grade interaction effect for worry/oversensitivity and social concerns/concentration, with 9th grade and 10th grade girls reporting higher levels of anxiety compared with boys in the same grades. Seventh grade boys reported higher levels of anxiety than seventh grade girls. There were no significant differences between the Mainland Chinese and Singapore Chinese samples in their level of reported total anxiety. Given the similarity between China and Singapore regarding their emphases on child-rearing and familial socialization practices, along with academic excellence, the similarity in both countries’ level of reported total anxiety level was expected; however, collectively, both Chinese adolescent samples reported a significantly higher level of total anxiety compared to the American normative sample. The Mainland Chinese sample consisted of 167 adolescents from 1 middle school and 1 high school in northern China. The Singapore Chinese sample was drawn from a larger study. The final sample consisted of 122 participants (50 percent female). The American subsample consisted of 1,838 students who had completed the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale. This same scale was used with the Chinese samples. 1 table and 44 references