An investigation on the levels of academic expectations stress and subjective well-being of the students prepared to the university entrance exams

The purpose of this study is to examine the relation between academic expectations stress level and subjective well-being level of the students prepared to university entrance exams with regard to some demographic variables. The method of this study was designed as descriptive and relational screening model. The data was collected from 10 private teaching institutions in central district in Adıyaman province, in 2013-2014 academic year, by random cluster sampling from different two sections consisting of twelfth grade students. The sample of this study consisted of 353 students prepared to university entrance exams. Academic Expectation Stress Inventor which was developed by Ang and Huan (2006), and adapted by Kelecioglu and Bilge (2009); and 'The Subjective Well-being Scale' which was developed by Dost (2005) and 'Personal Data Form' which was developed by the author were applied for collecting data. Spearman Brown's rank correlation coefficient test technique, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, frequency distribution, Levene F Test; the nonparametric tests which are Kruskal Wallis Test and Mann Whitney-U Test; Dunnet-T3 multiple comparison test which is one of the Post-Hoc techniques were used to analyze the data. The analysis, of the data collected in the research, has been conducted with the SPSS 18.0 program (Statistical Packet for The Social Science 18.0). As a result of the analysis; there is a significant, medium-level, negative relation between academic expectations stress levels and subjective well-being levels of the students. While there is a significant difference between academic expectation level in terms of gender, father's educational status, socioeconomic status, school type, perceived success level; there is no a significant difference in terms of mother's educational status, graduation and receiving private lessons. It was also found out that there is significant difference between subjective well-being and perceived success level; however, there is no significant difference between subjective well-being in terms of gender, socioeconomic status, mother-father education status, graduation and receiving private lessons. The findings were argued in the light of the related literature. Suggestions were improved according to the findings. Key words: Academic Expectations Stress, Academic Stress, Subjective Well-Being, University Entrance Exams