What cannot kill you will make you stronger – Traumatization, dreaming, and performance in public examinations

Abstract

Some evidence has suggested that performance in examinations is facilitated by dreaming but is hampered by traumatization. This notion runs counter to the well-established evidence for the positive association between dreaming and traumatization. Therefore, the study presented here examined the extent to which the intensities of various types of traumatic and dream experiences could predict public examination outcomes while taking sex and mental health factors into consideration. The sample contained 564 Hong Kong upper secondary school graduates, whose academic performance was measured by the results of two public examinations for the admission to local upper secondary schools and universities. Participants’ dream characteristics, severity of traumatic experiences, and psychopathological symptoms were assessed using the Dream Intensity Scale, Dream Motif Scale, Traumatic Experiences Checklist, and Ko’s Mental Health Questionnaire, respectively. Overall, the weight of evidence was in favor of the theory that both dreaming and traumatization may enhance the examination performance of those students who are relatively good achievers.