Scale library · Psychology & mental health
Educational Stress Scale (ESSA): Sun et al. (2011)
The ESSA was developed by Sun et al. (2011) through several surveys of Chinese secondary school students to measure academic stress as it arises in Asian education systems. Its 16 items form five dimensions: pressure from study, workload, worry about grades, self-expectation and despondency. A Vietnamese validation with 1,226 students in Ho Chi Minh City (Truc et al., 2015) is available. The scale suits theses on academic pressure, depression, anxiety and sleep among secondary school and first-year university students.
Cite the original, not the blog.
- Model or scale: ESSA
- Constructs: 5
- Items: 16
Original English items
Items marked (R) are reverse-coded: recode them before computing reliability or scale scores. Replace bracketed placeholders such as [system] with the name of the system, brand or organization you study.
Pressure from study (PS, 4 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| PS1 | Future education and employment bring me a lot of academic pressure | No |
| PS2 | My parents care about my academic grades too much which brings me a lot of pressure | No |
| PS3 | I feel a lot of pressure in my daily studying | No |
| PS4 | There is too much competition among classmates which brings me a lot of academic pressure | No |
Workload (WL, 3 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| WL1 | I feel that there is too much school work | No |
| WL2 | I feel there is too much homework | No |
| WL3 | I feel that there are too many tests/exams in the school | No |
Worry about grades (WG, 3 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| WG1 | Academic grade is very important to my future and even can determine my whole life | No |
| WG2 | I feel that I have disappointed my parents when my test/exam results are poor | No |
| WG3 | I feel that I have disappointed my teacher when my test/exam results are not ideal | No |
Self-expectation (SE, 3 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| SE1 | I feel stressed when I do not live up to my own standards | No |
| SE2 | When I fail to live up to my own expectations, I feel I am not good enough | No |
| SE3 | I usually cannot sleep because of worry when I cannot meet the goals I set for myself | No |
Despondency (DE, 3 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| DE1 | I am very dissatisfied with my academic grades | No |
| DE2 | I always lack confidence with my academic scores | No |
| DE3 | It is very difficult for me to concentrate during classes | No |
Response scale
5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree … 5 = Strongly agree). Summing the 16 items gives a total of 16–80; higher scores mean more academic stress. Dimension scores can also be computed separately.
Licence and permission
The items are published in an academic article and reproduced in full in open-access validation studies; we found no fees or usage restrictions. Cite Sun et al. (2011) and the validation version you use.
Sources (APA 7)
- Ho, T. T. Q., Nguyen, B. T. N., & Nguyen, N. P. H. (2022). Academic stress and depression among Vietnamese adolescents: A moderated mediation model of life satisfaction and resilience. Current Psychology, 42(31), 27217–27227. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03661-3
- Moustaka, E., Bacopoulou, F., Manousou, K., Kanaka-Gantenbein, C., Chrousos, G. P., & Darviri, C. (2023). Reliability and validity of the Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents (ESSA) in a sample of Greek students. Children, 10(2), 292. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10020292
- Sun, J., Dunne, M. P., Hou, X.-Y., & Xu, A.-Q. (2011). Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents: Development, validity, and reliability with Chinese students. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 29(6), 534–546. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282910394976
- Tran, T. V., Nguyen, H. T. L., Tran, X. M. T., Tashiro, Y., Seino, K., Van Vo, T., & Nakamura, K. (2024). Academic stress among students in Vietnam: A three-year longitudinal study on the impact of family, lifestyle, and academic factors. Journal of Rural Medicine, 19(4), 279–290. https://doi.org/10.2185/jrm.2024-012
- Truc, T. T., Loan, K. X., Nguyen, N. D., Dixon, J., Sun, J., & Dunne, M. P. (2015). Validation of the Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents (ESSA) in Vietnam. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 27(2), NP2112–NP2121. https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539512440818
Vietnamese translation
A Vietnamese translation of every item, with sample-size advice and studies that used the scale, is on the Vietnamese page for this scale.