Teachers’ Academic Expectations and Psychological Distress among Adolescents in
Private Secondary Schools.
The objective was to see if the teachers' academic expectations of the students contributed to the
psychological distress they experienced. Academic expectations from teachers were strongly
agreed with by respondents aged 16, 17, 18, and 19, with respondents aged 20 following closely
behind in agreement. In terms of gender, both male and female teenagers firmly agreed that their
teachers expected them to perform in a certain way. Respondents strongly agreed that teachers
had academic expectations of them, regardless of their educational level. Teachers' academic
expectations were strongly influenced by the adolescent's mother's educational level, but not by
age, gender, or the adolescent's father's educational level. Academic expectations of teachers, on
the other hand, had a weak positive connection with anxiety, stress, and depression symptoms.
The linear regression found that instructors' academic expectations had a negative influence on
anxiety and depression symptoms but a favorable influence on stress symptoms when compared
to parents' academic expectations and self-academic expectation variables.
Self- academic Expectations and Psychological Distress among Adolescents in Private
Secondary Schools.
The fourth objective was to assess if self- academic expectations contributed to the psychological
distress among adolescents. In relation to the demographic features of age, gender and parents
educational level, all the respondents strongly agreed that they had their own self- expectation in
the way they performed academically. This self-expectation was not significantly influenced by
age and gender but was rather significantly influenced by parents‟ educational level.
Interestingly self- academic expectations had a moderate positive relationship on anxiety and
stress and depression symptoms. The linear regression revealed that self-academic expectations
in comparison to parents and teachers academic expectations variables, had a positive influence
on anxiety, stress and depression symptoms
Strategies for Supporting Adolescents in Dealing with Psychological Distress that they
Experience.
The fifth objective was to explore possible strategies for supporting the adolescents in secondary
schools to deal with the psychological distress they experience. The current study obtained this
information qualitatively from the guidance and counseling teachers. All the respondents
reported that what worked best for them was psycho- education, in that they couched the
adolescent and guided them on how to deal with the issues that were weighing them down.
Cognitive behavioral techniques mainly social skills and homework giving was ranked second as
an intervention to support adolescent to deal with psychological distress. Psycho-spiritual
interventions and support system mainly from parents are the other interventions that current
study uncovered as being helpful for the adolescents in dealing with different psychological
issues.
