A Study On The Stress Of The Freshman In Middle School And The Moderator Effect Of Social Support And Coping Style

This study aims at exploring the situation of stress in the freshman in middle school and the influencing factors. This study includes three parts. Study 1 is proposed to cultivate the structure of stress and develop a stress questionnaire for the freshman in middle school; Study 2 investigates the situation of stress in the freshman in middle school; Study 3 discusses the moderator and mediator effects of social support and coping style on both stressor and stress reaction. Respondents come from middle school students, ranged 13 to 18 years. The results showed as follows:1. The self-compiled questionnaire has eligible psychometric index and could be used to measure the stress status of the freshman in middle school. The tool consists of two subscales: stressor and stress reaction. The stressor subscale included 6 factors, which were named adoption of learning, school life transformation, lose of formerly relationship, stress of study, stress from parents and teachers, and emergencies et al. The cumulative rate of interpretation for variation was 51.85%, and the factor loadings were 0.43-0.71 , 0.65-0.84 , 0.48-0.79 , 0.46-0.91 ,0.44-0.71,0.61-0.78, respectively. The stress reaction subscale included 2 factors, which were named physiological reaction and psychological reaction. The cumulative rate of interpretation was 50.17%, and the factor loadings were 0.52-0.78 , 0.53-0.83, respectively. The Crobachαcoefficient of the two subscales were 0.89 and 0.87, respectively, the retest coefficient after two weeks were 0.90 and 0.91 respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the preconceived structure.2. 68.5% of new students felt moderate or serious stress. There were significant differences in some of the factors of stressor among gender, grade, school and whether loading in school. Multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that the main influencing factors of stress reaction according to standardized estimate were stress of study(0.324), school life transformation(0.322), adoption of learning(0.126), lose of formerly relationship(0.114), lack of charm(0.098), stress from economy(0.078).3. The interaction between stressor and social support was significant for the freshman in middle school, so was the interaction between stressor and coping style, which indicated that social support and coping style were important moderators between stressor and stress reaction. But path analysis suggested that the mediator effects of social support and coping between stressor and stress reaction were not significant. The direct effect of stressor on stress reaction was significantly higher than the indirect effect of social support or coping style on stress reaction.