How can we make Students Happier at School? Parental Pressure or Support for Academic Success, Educational Stress and School Happiness of Secondary School Students

Abstract

The ongoing debate about if students’ lives are either positively or negatively affected by parental involvement in terms of support or pressure for their children academic success is still important. This study aims to determine the relationships between secondary school students’ gender, parents’ income, grade, parental pressure or support for students’ academic success, educational stress they experience, and their level of school happiness, and to examine the effect of parental pressure or support for academic success on the level of school happiness. The study was carried out with 1051 secondary school students in Düzce, Turkey. To collect data, three separate scales were used, and the data were analyzed using path analysis. The results revealed that happiness at school decreases as hopelessness versus expectation, workload, work pressure increase. On the other hand, happiness at school increases when the parental support for academic success increases. Female students are happier at school than male students. Educational stress leads the parents to put more pressure on their children for their academic success, which makes the school happiness lower. Although the parents support their children for their academic success, the level of happiness at school may decrease if they are under stress. Work pressure sustains the positive effect of parental support for academic success and has a positive impact on school happiness.