過去針對明星高中的研究中，大多探討明星高中在學業成就上能帶來正向效果，但明星高中學生壓力問題也時有所聞。就讀明星高在升學道路上看似俱有優勢的收獲，但真的只有得沒有失嗎？明星高中的競爭與升學壓力所帶來的心理健康的負面影響，無疑也是一種代價。本研究主要探討就讀明星學校對心理健康所可能帶來的負面效果。透過大魚小池(The Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect，BFLPE)的概念，來探討就讀明星高中與一般高中，以及個人所處位置的差異在心理健康上的表現。使用「臺灣青少年成長歷程研究」(Taiwan Youth Project，簡稱 TYP)長期追蹤資料，採用反事實分析方法，進一步排除進入明星學校選擇性的效果。研究結果顯示大魚小池效應的存在，本研究也同時考慮魚與池的互動效果，發現就讀明星學校確實也有學校的負面效果存在，個人位置不同其效果也有所差異。過去研究大多只關注明星高中學業成就，或只就中學生心理健康進行探討，本研究則直接檢驗明星高中選擇對心理健康帶來的影響。
The existence of prestigious high schools in Taiwan is an important phenomenon. Every junior high school graduate needs to take the entrance examination and goes to different senior high schools according to their scores. Entering a prestigious school means the students are the best of the best. Most of the past research about Taiwan’s prestigious schools focused on students’ academic performance. Although studying at a prestigious school seems to have its advantages, the gain may come with costs. Past research has shown that studying at a prestigious school has positive effects on academic performance; however, other research found that under the pressure of constant exams executed at the prestigious schools and peer’s competition studying at a prestigious school showed negative effects on students’ mental health. In the present study, we examined the association between studying at a prestigious school and students’ mental health. Adopting the Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect (BFLPE) perspective, the study set to find out the effects of different levels of academic performances (i.e. students’ academic abilities; the Fish) in different types of schools (prestigious vs. regular; the Pond). With longitudinal data from Taiwan Youth Project (TYP) and counterfactual analysis (i.e. IPTW) to estimate the treatment effect of entering prestigious schools, the results showed that studying at a prestigious school was associated with low mental health of students. At different levels of academic performances, the impact of being at a prestigious school had different effects on students’ mental health.
