International Journal of Application on Social Science and Humanities Vol.
No.
May 2025: pp 22-29AU ISSN-L 2987-8241 (Electronic Versio.
PARENTS' DREAM AND CHILDREN'S ANXIETY: A CORRELATIONAL
STUDY OF 12TH GRADE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
Harvi Wahyu Putriadi1 & Monika2 Faculty of Psychology.
Tarumanagara University.
Jakarta.
Indonesia Email: harvi.
705210182@stu.
Faculty of Psychology.
Tarumanagara University.
Jakarta.
Indonesia Email: monika@fpsi.
ABSTRACT
Development is crucial during the transition from high school to college.
At this stage, twelfth-grade students often experience concerns related to the future due to being in a transitional phase from secondary education to higher education or career decisions.
This study aims to analyze the relationship between parental expectations and future anxiety in twelfth-grade students.
The research employs a quantitative method with a correlational approach to examine the relationship between the two variables.
A total of 385 twelfth-grade students aged 17-19 participated in this study, selected using purposive sampling techniques.
Data were collected through the Perception of Parental Expectations Inventory (PPEI) developed by Sasikala & Karunanidhi .
, which consists of 22 items, and the Future Anxiety Scale by Zaleski .
, which contains 29 items.
The analysis results show a significant positive relationship between parental expectations and future anxiety.
The Spearman correlation test yielded a significance value of .
037 with a correlation coefficient .
172, indicating that higher parental expectations tend to increase future anxiety in twelfth-grade students.
This study suggests the importance of parents balancing expectations with their children's capacities to reduce pressure that may trigger anxiety.
The findings can serve as a reference for parents, educators, and counselors to provide more effective support in helping twelfth-grade students manage future-related anxiety.
Keywords: future anxiety, high school students, parental expectations INTRODUCTION At this time, students in grade XII often experience concerns related to the future.
One of the main things that students face at this level is high parental expectations regarding their children's education, or known as parental expectations (Din & Yudiana, 2021.
Sasikala & Karunanidhi.
These high expectations include academic achievement, career, and personal development, which can cause anxiety in students, especially when facing the transition to college or the world of work (Wang & Heppner, 2.
The match between parental expectations and students' perceptions of their ability to meet these expectations is very important for students' psychological well-being (Setyaningrum et al.
, 2.
Adler .
n Feist et al, 2.
emphasized that the drive for perfection is innate to every individual, which is often influenced by parental expectations (Feist et al.
, 2.
Children seek to fulfill these expectations to overcome feelings of inferiority and achieve superiority.
However, unrealistic expectations can lead to anxiety.
Anxiety, including excessive worry about the future, is a normal reaction influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors, and plays an important role in human behavior (Sherlina, 2.
Anxiety about the future often increases around important moments such as graduation (Maharani et al.
, 2.
Future anxiety is defined as worry about negative events that have not yet occurred, having cognitive, emotional, and motivational aspects (Zaleski, 1.
The cognitive aspect relates to thoughts about future threats, emotional to feelings of fear, and motivational to preventive High school students experience this in relation to education and career decisions.
Basic anxiety is a feeling of isolation and helplessness, which high school students in grade XII often experience due to the pressure of life transitions (Fauzi & M.
Hum, 2.
Horney points out 22AU https://doi.
org/10.
24912/ijassh.
Parents' Dream and Children's Anxiety: A Correlational Study of 12th Grade High School Students AU Putriadi & Monika three coping strategies: adjusting, aggression, or withdrawal, which students may choose in response to social pressure (Maryam, 2.
Family education plays an important role in children's academic achievement (Hasan et al.
Parents' expectations often do not match their children's abilities, which can lead to pressure and negative effects.
A survey from The Ohio State University showed that 57% of parents demand perfection from their children, leading to burnout.
Studies from UGM and I-NAMHS revealed that around 15.
5 million Indonesian adolescents experience mental disorders, with 3.
7% of them having anxiety disorders.
This emphasizes the importance of a positive approach to parenting for children's mental health.
Folkman .
explains that ongoing anxiety about the future can be considered a chronic stressor that affects an individual's mental and physical health.
When individuals continually perceive the future as a threat that exceeds their coping abilities, it can result in ongoing stress that causes various mental health problems, one of which is anxiety disorders.
This theory emphasizes the importance of effective coping strategies in managing future anxiety to maintain students' mental and physical health.
Ongoing anxiety about the future can be a chronic stressor that affects mental and physical health.
This ongoing stress can arise when a person constantly feels threatened by a future that is perceived to exceed their ability to cope, which can lead to anxiety disorders (Folkman, 2.
The importance of effective coping strategies is emphasized to maintain mental and physical health.
In Asia, including Indonesia, parental expectations are often high and related to academic achievement, which can create psychological pressure on adolescents, increasing stress and the potential for other mental disorders.
A study by Naumann et al.
showed that Asian-American college students experienced more intense academic pressure than their Latino counterparts, indicating the significant impact of high parental expectations in the Asian cultural context (Swierstra & Rip, 2.
A research by Hammad .
emphasizes the importance of understanding the factors that influence high school students' future anxiety, which impacts psychological well-being and academic achievement.
This study is unique in that it explores the relationship between parental expectations and future anxiety in grade XII students in Indonesia, an area that has rarely been The results are expected to provide insights for educators and parents to reduce student On the other hand, adolescent mental health issues in Indonesia are a serious concern (Suswati et al.
, 2.
, with the WHO reporting that 14% of global adolescents experience mental health problems, and 4.
6% of adolescents aged 15-19 years have anxiety disorders.
This data is important for the development of policies and programs to improve adolescent mental well-being.
RESEARCH METHOD
Samples This study involved 385 high school students in grade XII with an age range of 17-19 years who were transitioning to college or the world of work.
The purposive sampling method was used to select a sample that met certain criteria, with a proportional technique based on the Lemeshow formula .
, which resulted in a sample size of 384.
16, then rounded to 385 respondents.
Measurement The Perception of Parental Expectations Inventory (PPEI) scale is a measurement tool that evaluates students' views of their parents' expectations, covering personal, academic, career, and ambition expectations of parents.
Developed by Sasikala & Karunanidhi .
and modified by https://10.
24912/ijassh.
International Journal of Application on Social Science and Humanities Vol.
No.
May 2025: pp 22-29AU ISSN-L 2987-8241 (Electronic Versio.
Najwa .
, the scale uses 22 statements with a four-point Likert response.
The conceptual definition defines parental expectations as parents' beliefs about their child's future achievements, while the operational definition involves the four dimensions mentioned (Najwa.
Sasikala & Karunanidhi, 2.
A high score on this scale indicates pressure on the individual to fulfill these expectations, while a low score indicates the opposite.
This study uses the Future Anxiety Scale developed by Zaleski .
and modified by Callista .
to measure individual anxiety towards the future.
This scale is unidimensional with 29 items and a 5-point Likert scale.
The conceptual definition of future anxiety is a feeling of discomfort about things that have not yet happened, while the operational definition includes cognitive, behavioral, and psychosomatic manifestations.
High scores indicate excess anxiety, while low scores indicate less anxiety.
An example of a positive item is "My future is uncertain", and a negative example is "I am confident that I will achieve important goals in the future".
Data collection and analysis The research data will be processed using SPSS for quantitative analysis.
Coding of the data was done through Excel before inputting into SPSS, where validity and reliability were tested.
Items that did not meet the criteria of Cronbach's alpha > .
6 and item total correlation > .
2 were Advanced analysis included a normality test.
if significance was < .
05, the data were not normal.
Spearman's correlation test showed a significant relationship between parental expectations and future anxiety.
Descriptive tests provided an overview of the data, including mean, maximum, minimum, and standard deviation.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Description of research variables Table 1 Overview of the Parental Expectations Variable Dimensions Personal Expectation Academic Expectations Career Expectations Personal Ambitions Total Minimum Maximum Mean Standard Deviation Based on the data obtained regarding parental expectations, the lowest total score was 1.
00 and the highest total score was 4.
In the parental expectations variable using a measuring instrument on a scale of 1 to 4, the research hypothetical mean value was 2.
Then, the empirical mean value obtained was 3.
So the empirical mean score is greater than the research hypothetical mean score, so it can be concluded that the level of parental expectations in this study is high.
Table 2 Parental Expectations Variable Classification 24AU Level of Parental Expectations Frequency Percentage (%) High Medium Low Total https://doi.
org/10.
24912/ijassh.
Parents' Dream and Children's Anxiety: A Correlational Study of 12th Grade High School Students AU Putriadi & Monika Based on the data obtained, participants can be grouped into three groups, namely participants with high, medium, and low parental expectations.
There were 348 people .
38%) with high parental expectations, 32 people .
31%) with medium parental expectations, and 5 people .
29%) with low parental expectations.
This also shows that the participants in this study have high parental expectations.
Overview of Future Anxiety Variables Table 3 Overview of the Future Anxiety Variable Variables Future Anxiety Minimum Maximum Mean Standard Deviation Based on the data obtained, it was found that the lowest total score was 1.
00 and the highest total score was 4.
In the future anxiety variable using a measuring instrument from a scale of 1 to 4, it has a hypothetical research mean value of 2.
Then, the empirical mean value obtained So the empirical mean score is greater than the hypothetical research mean score, so it can be concluded that the level of future anxiety in this study is high.
Table 4 Classification of the Future Anxiety Variable Future Anxiety Level High Medium Low Total Frequency Percentage (%) Based on the data obtained, participants can be grouped into three groups, namely participants with high, medium, and low future anxiety.
There are 301 people .
18%) with high future anxiety, 48 people .
46%) with medium future anxiety, and 36 people .
35%) with low future This also shows that the participants in this study have high future anxiety.
Table 5 Normality Test of Parental Expectations and Future Anxiety Variables Variables Personal Expectations Academic Expectations Career Expectations Parental Ambitions Future Anxiety Kolmogorov Smirnov Description Abnormally distributed Abnormally distributed Abnormally distributed Abnormally distributed Abnormally distributed This study uses One-sample Kolmogorov Smirov to test normality.
The results of the data processing show that future anxiety obtains a Z value = .
000 and a p value = .
000 < .
05, which means that the data distribution is not normally distributed.
Furthermore, the parental expectations variable with the personal expectations dimension obtains a Z value = .
000 and a p value = .
000 < .
05, which means that the data distribution is not normally distributed, the academic expectations dimension obtains a Z value = .
000 and a p value = .
000 < .
05, which means that the data distribution is not normally distributed, the career expectations dimension obtains a Z value = .
000 and a p value = .
000 < .
05, which means that the data distribution is not normally distributed, the personal ambitions dimension obtains a Z value = .
000 and a p value = 000 < .
05, which means that the data distribution is not normally distributed.
https://10.
24912/ijassh.
International Journal of Application on Social Science and Humanities Vol.
No.
May 2025: pp 22-29AU ISSN-L 2987-8241 (Electronic Versio.
Main data analysis This study uses the Spearman correlation test because there is data that is not normally In this test, parental expectations will be tested with future anxiety to see the correlation between the two variables.
Based on the results of the Spearman correlation that has been carried out, there is a significant relationship between parental expectations and future Table 6 Correlation Test between Parental Expectations and Future Anxiety Variables Correlation Variables Parental Expectations Future Anxiety The results of the Spearman correlation test showed a significance value of .
037, which means that the relationship between these two variables is significant, because it is less than .
The calculated r value of .
172 indicates that there is a weak to moderate positive correlation between parental expectations and future anxiety.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the higher the parental expectations, the higher the level of anxiety felt by students about their future.
Conversely, if parental expectations are low, the level of future anxiety in students also tends to be low.
Additional Data Analysis Table 7 Test of Differences in Parental Expectations Variables by Age Age Total Number .
Mean Rank Kruskal-Wallis H Asymp.
Sig.
Based on the results of the Kruskal Wallis difference test, the significance value of age on parental expectations was .
267, which is greater than .
This indicates that there is no significant difference in the influence of the respondent's age on parental expectations.
Therefore, the alternative hypothesis (H.
is rejected, while the null hypothesis (H.
is accepted, so no further testing is needed.
Table 8 Test of Differences in Parental Expectations Variables by Gender Gender Female Male Total Number .
Mean Rank Kruskal-Wallis H Asymp.
Sig.
Analysis of the difference test of parental expectations variables is reviewed from gender using the Kruskal Wallis test.
Based on the results of the Kruskal Wallis test, the significance value of gender on parental expectations is .
062, which is greater than .
This indicates that there is no significant difference in influence between the gender of respondents on parental expectations.
https://doi.
org/10.
24912/ijassh.
Parents' Dream and Children's Anxiety: A Correlational Study of 12th Grade High School Students AU Putriadi & Monika Thus, the alternative hypothesis (H.
is rejected and the null hypothesis (H.
is accepted, so no further testing is needed.
Table 9
Differential Test of Parental Expectations Variables in terms of Specialization Specialization IPS
IPA
Language Total Number .
Mean Rank Kruskal-Wallis H Asymp.
Sig.
Based on the results of the Kruskal Wallis test, the significance value of interest on parental expectations is .
655, which is greater than .
This indicates that there is no significant difference in influence between respondent interest and parental expectations.
Therefore, the alternative hypothesis (H.
is rejected and the null hypothesis (H.
is accepted, so no further testing is needed.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the results of research that has been conducted on the relationship between parental expectations and future anxiety in XII grade high school students, there is a significant positive relationship between parental expectations and future anxiety through the correlation analysis The higher the parents' expectations, the higher the level of anxiety felt by students towards the future.
This happens because excessive parental demands often cause psychological pressure on students, especially when students find it difficult to meet these expectations.
Students who feel unable to achieve parental expectations tend to experience greater anxiety regarding important decisions about future education and careers.
Acknowledgement This study was supported by the valuable contributions of participants, mentors, and colleagues.
We appreciate their guidance and encouragement throughout the research process.
REFERENCES