Factors Affecting Stress in Taking the Ordinary National Educational Test of Mathayom Suksa 3 Students of the Schools under the Jurisdiction of Secondary Educational Service Area Office 29

Abstract

The purposes of this study were: (1) to investigate stress of students in taking the Ordinary National Educational Test (ONET) of Mathayom Suksa 3 students; (2) to compare stress of students in different size school and the location of school (3) identify good predictors of the stress and form the equation for predicting the stress. The samples were 400 students under the Jurisdiction of Secondary Educational Service Area Office 29 selected by multi-stage random sampling.  The instruments were 13 tests with reliability ranging from 0.62 to 0.97.  The data were analyzed using percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, F-test and multiple regression analysis.

The research findings were as follows:

1. Mathayom Suksa 3 students had stress at a low level. (=2.04, SD = 0.99)
2. Those from an extra large school had lower stress than large, medium and a small school with significant difference, but those from urban schools and rural schools did not have different stress.
3. Good predicting variables of stress were type-A personality(BEHA), authoritarian rearing style(AUTH), guardians’ expectation (EXP), readiness for the test (RDY), Emotional-focused Coping (EFC), and motivation for achievement (ACH), as presented in the equation for prediction in raw score and standard score below.

 = 28.377 +1.813 X_BEHA + 1.188 X_AUTH - 1.184X_EXP - 0.563 X_RDY +1.125 X_EFC  - 0.746 X_ACH           

  = 0.301 Z_BEHA + 0.298 Z_AUTH  - 0.261 Z_EXP - 0.130 Z_RDY + 0.229 Z_EFC - 0.162 Z_ACH