Gender self-confidence, scholastic stress, life satisfaction, and perceived academic achievement for adolescent New Zealanders.

INTRODUCTION: Confidence in one's gender self-concept has been positively associated with subjective well-being. Further, negative consequences for school life have occurred for adolescents with marginalised gender identities. As a central process variable of subjective well-being, life satisfaction has been positively associated with educational outcomes and inversely associated with stress. Stress, life satisfaction, and academic achievement have been examined in terms of gender, but less is known about their relationship with gender self-concept. Importantly, gender self-concept has been rendered especially vulnerable in adolescence-a time when social self-concept and life satisfaction are reportedly lower than in childhood. METHOD: The current study was conducted with adolescents (N = 1601) from seven secondary schools comprising a range of socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnicities, in two major New Zealand metropolitan centres. Data were collected via self-report survey. After checking the validity of each measurement model by using confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling was performed to explore associations between aspects of gender self-concept, stress, life satisfaction (LS), and perceived academic achievement (PAA). RESULTS: Gender self-definition (GSD; one's self-definition of one's own gender identity) was associated positively with stress, and negatively with perceived academic achievement. Gender self-acceptance (GSA; contentment with one's self-defined gender identity) was negatively associated with stress, and positively associated with LS. Both gender self-acceptance and LS were associated positively with PAA. Two stressors mediated the relationship between LS and both GSD and GSA. CONCLUSION: Implications are suggested for fostering gender-identity safe school environments for adolescents to ensure positive wellbeing and scholastic outcomes.

Adolescent stress, help-seeking intentions, subjective achievement and life satisfaction in New Zealand: Tests of mediation, moderated mediation and moderation.

We present the results of a study examining adolescent help-seeking intentions (HSIs), stress, subjective school achievement and life satisfaction. Using a cross-sectional design with a sample of New Zealand adolescents (n = 1601), we tested whether HSIs could mediate or moderate relations between stress and subjective achievement, and between stress and life satisfaction. We inspected these dynamics alongside different help sources (informal and formal) and domains where stress might be experienced (school and personal). Using mediation testing, findings suggest that informal HSIs have at least some influence on the relations between stress and well-being indicators, whereas formal HSIs did not. Conditional indirect effects for the mediation models (moderated mediation) revealed that gender and age did not moderate the relations between stress and informal HSIs, or between stress and well-being indicators with one exception: gender moderated the relation between personal stress and informal HSIs. In most models, tests of moderation lent support for a protective-reactive model in which HSIs reduce the adverse effects of stress on well-being indicators. Discussion focuses on modelling and promoting help-seeking activities across diverse support sources, and doing so earlier in life so that adolescents can benefit from well-honed coping strategies.

A sample validation of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ) in New Zealand.

The Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ) is a 56-item scale measuring stress in 10 domains. The scale has been tested in a number of countries worldwide with mixed support. The current study tested the factor structure, construct validity, and reliability in a sample (n = 1,601) comprising a general population of adolescents in New Zealand. Support was found for the 10-factor structure with adequate internal consistency as well as strong factorial invariance between male and female participants. Significant inverse correlations were found between all ASQ domains and both life satisfaction and perceived academic achievement. Most ASQ domains revealed gender differences, with female participants reporting greater stress than males. Toward a nonbinary perspective of gender, gender-neutral participants reported greater stress than males and females in certain stress domains. Results based on regression analyses indicate that nonacademic ASQ domains were generally related to life satisfaction whereas academic ASQ domains were related to perceived academic achievement. Positive and negative interaction effects were observed between gender and ASQ domains on life satisfaction and academic achievement. Overall, the current results indicate that the ASQ appears to be a reliable, valid instrument for adolescent stress in New Zealand with relevance to perceived life satisfaction and achievement.

Trait and state anxiety across academic evaluative contexts: development and validation of the MTEA-12 and MSEA-12 scales.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Educational measures of anxiety focus heavily on students' experiences with tests yet overlook other assessment contexts. In this research, two brief multiscale questionnaires were developed and validated to measure trait evaluation anxiety (MTEA-12) and state evaluation anxiety (MSEA-12) for use in various assessment contexts in non-clinical, educational settings. DESIGN: The research included a cross-sectional analysis of self-report data using authentic assessment settings in which evaluation anxiety was measured. METHOD: Instruments were tested using a validation sample of 241 first-year university students in New Zealand. Scale development included component structures for state and trait scales based on existing theoretical frameworks. RESULTS: Analyses using confirmatory factor analysis and descriptive statistics indicate that the scales are reliable and structurally valid. Multivariate general linear modeling using subscales from the MTEA-12, MSEA-12, and student grades suggest adequate criterion-related validity. Initial predictive validity in which one relevant MTEA-12 factor explained between 21% and 54% of the variance in three MSEA-12 factors. CONCLUSIONS: Results document MTEA-12 and MSEA-12 as reliable measures of trait and state dimensions of evaluation anxiety for test and writing contexts. Initial estimates suggest the scales as having promising validity, and recommendations for further validation are outlined.