The effects of Jewish religious identity and age on levels of perceived academic stress

Academic stress has been found to be linked to suicidal ideation among adolescents in Singapore. Because educational achievement is also highly valued among Jewish Americans, a quasi-experimental quantitative study was conducted to assess the effect of Jewish religious affiliation and age on levels of perceived academic stress as measured by the Academic Stress Inventory (AESI). Family systems theory (FST) provided the study's theoretical framework. The study included 45 Jewish and 27 non-Jewish participants recruited from adult distance and traditional undergraduate and graduate students who completed the AESI twice: once based on their current levels of academic stress and again based upon their recollection of how they would have completed it at 13 years of age. Analysis of variance tests found no significant main effect of Jewish religious affiliation and no age group by religious affiliation interaction for overall AESI scores. The hypothesized two-way interaction between religious identity and age group was obtained for the AESI self-stress subscale. Jewish students' scores on this subscale were significantly higher than non-Jewish students in the retrospective condition, but no simple main effect of religious affiliation was obtained in the present-day condition. Consistent with FST, the emphasis on academic achievement prevalent in Jewish families appears to be internalized in Jewish students by the time they reach adolescence. This research can contribute to positive social change by alerting school and religious leaders to the need for stress-reduction interventions targeted toward Jewish adolescents so that risks associated with academic stress may be reduced.