| This study investigated the after-school lives of Taiwanese fourth graders, and the degree to which the pattern of activities contributes to the children's stress. Traditional Chinese culture places a very high value on education and emphasizes the importance of diligent effort to achieve at high levels. As a result, parents typically pay much attention to their children's school performance, and organize their children's time and activities to promote academic excellence. David Elkind, a child psychologist, views this adult-directed parenting as “hurrying children” which will result in stressed children. Stressed children usually feel both physiological and psychological distress which interferes with leading a normal daily life. To investigate whether Taiwanese children who participated in this study suffered from stress, and whether there is evidence of relationships between degree of stress and the structure of after-school life patterns, 292 Taiwanese fourth graders completed questionnaires concerning their after-school activities and their stress levels. This study showed that the average score of stress on RCMAS measure for these Taiwanese participants was in the average range for American norms for children of the same age. Neither the total hours spent in specific after-school activities, nor the total free hours were necessarily related to children's stress. However, the reported total hours of children's after-school activities structured by adults and their reported total non-enjoyable time spent in after-school activities were both slightly positively associated with stress scores for these Taiwanese participants, though the predictability (5%) was not high. Moreover, for these children, non-enjoyable participation in academic activities structured by adults after-school tended to correspond, but only slightly, with more children's stress; if children felt happy to participate in academically related activities after school, their stress might be slightly less, regardless of who decided upon the activities. Findings of this study suggest that children may have a somewhat elevated risk for stress if they spend too many hours in adult-structured activities that the children do not consider enjoyable. |
