Development of the Academic Stress Scale for Adolescents and Examination of Perceived Academic Stress Among Chinese Adolescents

ABSTRACT Academic stress is a common daily stressor among adolescents worldwide, particularly for secondary school students facing the pressure of preparing for postsecondary admission. Building on existing literature and using a sample of 903 adolescents ( M age = 14.91, SD age = 1.79) attending public secondary schools in China, the current study developed the Academic Stress Scale for Adolescents (ASSA) through a series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). The 12‐item ASSA assesses three dimensions of perceived academic stress among secondary school students: academic burden, external expectations, and self‐expectations. The associations with perceived life stress offered evidence supporting the validity of the score interpretations. Measurement invariance by gender (female vs. male) and school level (middle school vs. high school) was supported through multi‐group CFA. In terms of subgroup differences, female students reported greater academic stress related to self‐expectations than male students, while no gender differences were found for academic burden or external expectations. High school students reported greater academic stress across all three dimensions, while middle school students showed more variability. The findings suggest that school‐based stress management interventions should target specific sources of stress and be tailored to students' gender, grade levels, and potentially other characteristics.