Psychological difficulties or junior high school & High school students in Nghe An

ABSTRACT: There have been many studies on psychological difficulties of junior high school & high school students in different areas across the country, this study was conducted on jun

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PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

& HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NGHE AN

Thu Thi Le Tran', Ai Thi Nhan Nguyen’, Ly Hang Tran’, Loc Phuc Nguyen? ABSTRACT:

There have been many studies on psychological difficulties of junior high school & high school students in different areas across the country, this study was conducted on junior high school and high school students in Nghe An povince The purpose of this study is to understand the current situation of psychological difficulties of students in Nghe An province Three hundred and eight junior high school students and high school students from different schools

in Nghe An participated in this survey All of them completed the survey on 5 psychological areas: (1) Study; (2) Psychophysiological development; (3) Communication with friends; (4) Communication with parents; (5) Communication with teachers One hundred and ninety-five high school students also completed one more area which is vocational guidance The results showed that junior high school students have the most difficulties in the field of communication and psychophysiological development The most difficulties of high school students is in the field of vocational guidance and study Students of the sixth grade and the seventh grade are more difficult than students of the eighth grade in the field of study and communication There is relations between the psychological difficulties of junior high school & high school students with gender, educational level and economic status of the family The study also shows the different psychological difficulties in each level and grade

Keywords: psychological difficulties, students, junior high school, high school

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, the whole society has focused so much attention on enhancing the quality

of mental health in schools, especially supporting students in overcoming their psychological difficulties Psychological difficulties which were effects from within students, led to interfere activities, living and social relationships in some extents (Vu, 2011)

The age of junior high school and high school students with their own characteristics in psychophysiological development is considered as the most challenging period with a lot of psychological difficulties (Ngo, 2007; Nguyen, 2009; Dang & Hoang, 2009) This directly impacts the quality of students’ mental health and especially quality of education and training

In the world, numerous researches on students and adolescents’ mental health have been carried out in many countries In Japan, studies on adolescents aged 12-15 years showed that 15%

of them have mental health problems The rate of children’s psychological health in Germany was 20.7% In the United States, 21% of children aged between 9 and 17 encountered mental health problems (Dang et al., 2013)

' Hanoi National University of Education, Vietnam Email: thuttl@hnue.edu.vn

> Hanoi National University of Education, Vietnam

> The Fund for Young Talent in Psychology & Education, Vietnam.

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In Viet Nam, McKelvey et al (1997) used the (CBCL) Child Behavior Checklist on children aged 4 to 18 years in two wards in Hanoi and result indicated that 19.49% of children possessing mental health problems In another study, Ngo (2007) utilized the (SDQ) Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire on students in Hanoi, showing that 19.46% of students had psychological health problems The study of psychological health on secondary school students by Dang and Hoang (2009) pointed out that 25.76% of students had psychological health problems, in which the threshold was 18.42%, the rate of emotional problems was higher than behavioral issues rate 29.7% and 23.6%, respectively

In short, it can be seen that there is high percentage of junior high school and high school students encountered psychological health problems in numerous local and international studies The findings from this research of psychological difficulties on junior high school and high school students in Nghe An contributes updated knowledge of mental health problems on students Therefore, more appropriate support for school psychological can be developed and provided services for schools in Nghe An

METHODOLOGY

Participants

The sample population consisted of 308 students from junior high schools and high schools in Nghe An province Respondents were 113 junior high school students (53 females and 60 males) Regarding grades, 33.6% of junior high schoo! pupils were in the sixth grade; 30.1% were in The seventh and 34.5% were in the eighth grade The research also included 195 high school students with 75.4% of them in the tenth grade and 24.6% of them in the eleventh grade

These schools gave permission to the researchers to conduct this study on their students The respondents in this research were recruited by convenience sampling method with anonymity Methods

This study mainly used the questionnaire survey method with 02 forms known as M2 (for junior high school students) and M3 (for high school students) In addition, the research also utilized expert method, document analysis The four levels in the survey are scored from | to 4 (Min=1, Max=4) The research data was analyzed by SPSS

Instruments

Demographic Questionnaire A demographic survey was included to gather information about participants’ gender, class, school, academic result, family’s economic situation, parents’ level of education and parents’ occupations

M2 The M2 questionnaire was used to assess the psychological difficulties of junior high school students on 5 areas including study, psychophysiological development, students” communication with friends, communication with parents and relatives and communication with teachers The subscales of the M2 are highly reliable with Cronbach’s alpha’s range from 81 to 85 There was a question about general assessment of pupils’ psychological difficulties.

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M3 The M3 questionnaire was used to assess the psychological difficulties of high school students on 6 areas, namely study, psychophysiological development, students’ communication with friends, communication with parents and relatives, communication with teachers as well as vocational guidance The subscales of M2 are highly reliable with Cronbach’s alpha extending between 87 and 92 There was also a question about general assessment of students? psychological difficulties

Cronbach’s alpha values for M2 and M3 and their subscales are presented in the Table 1 and Table 2 below

Table 1: Cronbach’s alpha value for M2

Alpha of Items Total Correlation

Communication with parents and relatives 0.85 | 10 0.386- 0.695

The reliability testing of these two questionnaires was conducted on each selected sample group The unreliable items (with Cronbach’s Alpha is below 0.3) were removed from the both questionnaires for secondary and high school students and the items which ensure reliability were retained There is only one item with Cronbach’s Alpha below 0.3 (Study- C218: 0.293) However, we still keep this item because when removing this item the reliability of the total scale does not increase

Table 2: Cronbach’s alpha value for M3

Alpha ofItems | Total Correlation

Communication with parents and relatives 0.92 il 0.626- 0.752

RESULTS

This research aims to comprehend the current situation of psychological difficulties of junior high school as well as high school students in Nghe An province

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Analysis of Junior High School Students’ Psychological Difficulties

Table 3: Junior High School Students’ Psychological Difficulties

Note: N=113; M = Mean; SD = Standard Deviation

In general, according to junior high school students’ self- reports, they were facing various psychological difficulties at the high level in all five areas The mean of students’ psychological difficulties in study, psychophysiological development and communication with friends ranged from 3.08 to 3.2 to 3.36 The mean of communication with parents and relatives as well as communication with the teachers were quite similar and above the moderate range of this population, 3.45 and 3.44 respectively However, the standard deviations of these two aspects were small and similar 0.54 and 0.51 respectively This result was somewhat similar to the study of psychological difficulties of junior high school students in Hanoi (Tran & Nguyen, 2019) However, the rate

of junior high school students having psychological difficulties in Nghe An province was much higher than in Hanoi

Table 4: Junior High School Students’ Psychological Difficulties by Grades

Psychophysiological development 3.45 | 046 | 3.26 | 0.57 | 2.93 | 0.61 Communication with friends 3.60 | 0.42 | 3.44 | 0.55 3.06 | 0.45 Communication with parents and relatives | 3.68 0.44 | 3.41 056 | 3.29 | 0.51 Communication with teachers 3.67 | 0.45 3.52 | 0.44 3.14 | 0.49 Overall 3.53 | 0.39 | 3.39 | 0.44 | 3.06 | 0435

Note: N=113; M = Mean; SD = Standard Deviation

We used T-test to compare the level of psychological difficulties between grades in junior high school There were statistically significant differences among psychological difficulties between students of the sixth grade and the eighth grade in each particular area and all five aspects

in general The sixth grade students encountered more psychological difficulties than the eighth grade students Mean of all the sixth grade students’ psychological difficulties was 3.53 while this value of the eighth grade students is 3.06 This result was different with Tran’s research

on psychological difficulties of junior high school students in Hanoi, in which the eighth grade

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students had more mental difficulties than students of the sixth grade (Tran & Nguyen, 2019) The result indicated students of the seventh grade also experienced more mental difficulties than the eighth grade students and it was statistically significant (Sig=0.000) In the study area, mean

of the seventh grade students and the eighth grade students were 3.11 and 2.80 The mean of psychological difficulties in communication with friends between the seventh grade and the eighth grade students were different, 3.44 and 3.29 respectively

The result from using T-test also manifested statistically significant differences in mean of psychological differences regarding gender, academic performance, family’s financial situation Male students experienced a higher level of difficulty in communication with friends than females, m=3.48 and m=3.24 respectively (Sig=0.017) Students with very good or excellent academic performances (m=3.02) had lower mean of mental difficulties level as compared to those with good, average or poor academic performances (m=3.31) The p-value was 0.024 Students from very poor, poor or average families possessed lower level of communication with teachers than those belonging to rich or very rich families with mean of 3.23 and 3.52 respectively (Sig= 0.041) The results from Oneway ANOVA test on three occupational groups of mothers showed that there is a statistically significant difference in overall mean of five aspects between the freelancers, housewives and the civil servants (Sig=0.045 < 0.05) The level of psychological difficulty of students with mothers being freelancers or housewives was 3.48 while the psychological difficulty level of those with mothers being civil servants was 3.18 There were no statistically significant differences among three mothers’ and fathers’ level of education groups, three fathers’ occupational groups regarding all five psychological difficulties areas

Analysis of High School Students’ Psychological Difficulties

According to the students’ assessment, they have psychological difficulties in all five areas with the average score ranging from 1.69 to 2.12 ona scale of 4 In which areas they encounter the most difficult are Vocational guidance (Mean=2.12, SD=0.823) and Study (Mean=2.10, SD=0.68)

Table 5: High School Students’ Psychological Difficulties

Note: N=195; M = Mean; SD = Standard Deviation

This outcome was similar with Tran and Nguyen's research on psychological difficulties of high school students in Hanoi The study revealed that the three common psychological difficulties which high school students in Hanoi encounter are study, psychophysiological development and

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vocational guidance (Tran & Nguyen, 2019) However, the level of psychological difficulties of high school students in Nghe An was lower than those in Hanoi Even though the rate of students with symptoms of psychological difficulties was not too high, these pupils still needed to be early identified and cared for In that way, prevention strategies for psychological issues can be established appropriately

Table 6: High School Students’ Psychological Difficulties by Gender

Communication with parents and relatives 1.63 0.66 1.76 0.75

N= 159; M= Mean; SD= Standard Deviation

Results from T-test showed a statistically significant difference between mean of male and female high school groups in two areas In aspect of communication with friends, the level of female students’ psychological difficulties was higher than male students with mean of 1.80 and mean of 1.53 (Sig = 0.002) In area of communication with teachers, the level of female students’ psychological difficulties was higher than male students m= 1.90 and m =1.60, respectively (Sig

= 0.008)

Analyzing the-level-of high-school-students: psychological difficulties according to academic performance among groups of students manifested that there is also a significant difference in the psychophysiological development aspect The mean of pupils with very good or excellent academic performances (m=2.19) was higher than those with good, average or poor academic performances (m=1.90) and Sig = 0.032

Results of T-test comparing 2 independent samples indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in mean between the two family’s economic situation groups of high school students on all six psychological difficulties areas

CONCLUSION

The research was conducted with 308 students (113 junior high school students and 195 high school students) in junior high and high schools in Nghe An province in order to investigate the the current situation of psychological difficulties of students in this area It suggests that junior high school students possess the most psychological difficulties in communication and psychophysiological development while high school students have the most psychological difficulties in vocational guidance and study Generally, junior high school students’ level of psychological difficulties is higher than high school students on five aspects (except vocational

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on psychological difficulties of junior high school students in Nghe An and those in Hanoi The similarities are found in researches on psychological difficulties of Nghe An high school students and high school students in Hanoi Additionally, students with mild to moderate psychological problems need to be identified in time; hence, schools can establish suitable prevention strategies and programs for particular mental health problems of students

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

This study was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Education and Training (B2015-17-73)

REFERENCES

Đang, H M & Hoang, C T (2009) The reality of junior high school’s mental health in Hanoi and needs of school mental health counseling Journal of Social Science and Humanities, 25), 106 - 112 Dang, H.M., Bahr, W & Nguyen, C M (2013) Mental health of Vietnamese children: Current situations and risk factors The research is part of the R21 TW008435 project of the American Institute

of Health, conducted by Vanderbilt University, USA and CRISP Center, University of Education, Hanoi National University

Ngo, T H (2007) Epidemiological study on mental health problems of primary and junior high school pupils in Hanoi The conference proceeding “Scientific-based intervention and prevention on menial health of children in Vietnam” University of Education- Hanoi National University

Nguyen, H L (2009) Psychological disorders of high school adolescents in Hanoi The conference proceeding- The first International Scientific Conference on School- Demand, Orientation and Training of School psychology in Viemam, 95-99 Psychology Institute

Tran, T L T & Nguyen, T.N A (2019) Mental heaith of junior high school and high school students

in Hanoi Journal of Science, Hanoi National University of Education, 641), 91-98.”

Vu, N H 2011) Psychological difficulties of the first grade pupils Encyclopedia Publisher