XII. Well-Being: Academic Expectations Stress Inventory (AESI)

Background

The Academic Expectations Stress Inventory (AESI) measures expectations as a source of academic stress in middle and high school Asian students. Sources of stress could come from two domains: expectations of parents/teachers and expectations of self. There is a paucity of instruments adequately measuring expectations as a source of academic stress in middle and high school Asian students. Additionally, expectations of doing well academically have been shown to affect students, particularly Asian students (Lee & Larson, 2000; Wong et al., 2005). AESI was developed to address this gap and has been found to generate scores that are reliable and valid in cross-cultural contexts (Ang et al., 2009) as well.

Abstract

This article describes the development and initial validation of scores from the Academic Expectations Stress Inventory (AESI), which measures expectations as a source of academic stress in middle and high school Asian students. In the first study, exploratory factor analysis results from 721 adolescents suggested a nine-item scale with two factors—Expectations of Parents/Teachers (5 items) and Expectations of Self (4 items). The data also revealed initial evidence of the reliability of AESI’s scores. Initial estimates of convergent validity for AESI’s scores were also reported. In the second study, data from 387 adolescents were subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis that provided support for the factor structure derived from the first study. In the third study, data from 144 adolescents yielded evidence of AESI scores’ test-retest reliability. Additional evidence of AESI’s internal consistency estimates, as well as convergent and discriminant validity for AESI’s scores, were also provided.

Scales and Subscales

The AESI is a five-point Likert scale and consists of 9 items. AESI has 2 subscales, and these are, expectations of parents/teachers (5 items); expectations of self (4 items). The AESI uses a 5-point Likert scale.

Funding

This study was supported by the Academic Research Fund (RI 17/06VH) from the National Institute of Education to Vivien S. Huan.

Reference

Ang, R. P., Klassen, R. M., Chong, W. H., Huan V. S., Wong, I. Y. F., Yeo, L. S., & Krawchuk, L. L. (2009). Cross-cultural invariance of the Academic Expectations Stress Inventory: Adolescent samples from Canada and Singapore. Journal of Adolescence, 32, 1225-1237. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2009.01.009

Lee, M., & Larson, R. (2000). The Korean ‘examination hell’: long hours of studying, distress, and depression. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29, 249-272.

Wong, J., Salili, F., Ho, S. Y., Mak, K. H., Lai, M. K., & Lam, T. H. (2005). The perceptions of adolescents, parents and teachers on the same adolescent health issues. School Psychology International, 26, 371-384.

Citation

Ang, R. P., & Huan, V. S. (2006). Academic Expectations Stress Inventory (AESI): Development, factor analysis, reliability, and validity. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 66, 522-539. doi: 10.1177/0013164405282461.

Ang, R. P., Klassen, R. M., Chong, W. H., Huan V. S., Wong, I. Y. F., Yeo, L. S., & Krawchuk, L. L. (2009). Cross-cultural invariance of the Academic Expectations Stress Inventory: Adolescent samples from Canada and Singapore. Journal of Adolescence, 32, 1225-1237. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2009.01.009