Supported by research, 49 percent of students feel stressed daily (Ossola 1). This stress originates from complex high school graduation requirements. Students have expectations to attain sturdy grades, even with excessive stipulations. If students cannot manage high school well enough, college will be even worse. The implementation of moderate graduation requirements causes a lessened amount of stress on teenagers to be successful and pressured to attend college from more complicated requirements. Harsh High School Graduation Requirements Intense requirements to graduate high school result in stress. Patti Neighmond, award-winning journalist claims, real world students ache from academics. Some of them, and their parents, make the decision to reduce the level of intensity of their classes (Neighmond 1). By reducing the extremity of classes, students have more manageable amounts of stress. Although AP classes can be more demanding and time consuming, students take these courses to boost their GPA in expectancy to attend college. They constantly ponder the possibilities of failing high school classes. With thoughts like that, these students feel an additional amount …show more content…
The writer of “High-Stress High School” expresses, as a result of provisional stress, anxiety can occur. After a long period of time with anxiety, the immune system deteriorates and depression occurs (Ossola 1). Teens who experience stress and anxiety need more moderate graduation requirements to succeed in high school, and stay healthy. These teens cannot focus in such poor condition of depression. Reviewed by Ph.D., Nancy Brown, educational pressure has the effect of fits of panic and breakdowns, even in naive students (Kaur 1). Teacher’s and parent’s expectations of their students have a tendency to be high and barely reachable. Students can only do so much to flourish without facing an overabundance of
In the essay “College Pressures” by William Zinsser, Zinsser speaks about the pressures and anxiety that plague college students, all the while wishing that they had “a chance to savor each segment of their education as an experience in itself and not as a grim preparation for the next step.” Referring to the 1979 generation of college students as “panicky to succeed”, he lists four of the following stressors for college students.
To begin with, high expectations from family, friends, and academics beside family issues are two of the most common causes of teenage stress. Let’s begin with the high expectations issue. Some parents might not understand that putting an excessive amount of pressure on a teen to be perfect will damage their self-esteem. It results in stress called “Hyperstress which occurs when an individual is pushed beyond what he or she can handle” (“Teen Stress-Types”). Parents need to avoid setting impractical expectations. For instance, straight A’s for several kids may not be easily attained, instead they should decide to try for A’s and B’s with noth...
Stress is an important problem faced by many college students, especially first year students, and it can have a large impact on college freshmen. For example, according to Hirsch and Keniston (1970), about half of first year students do not graduate from college due to dropping out (p. 1-20). Also, David Leonhardt (2009) agrees that the United States excels at putting “teenagers in college, but only half of students who enroll end up with a bachelor’s degree” (p. 1). In addition, the level of stress seems to increase each year. For instance, the National Health Ministries (2006) claim that many college students have become “more overwhelmed and stressed” than the student generation of the last fifteen years (p. 2).
Studies have shown that many college students are not able to handle the stress while in school, which hinders the ability for the brain to act in a normal way (Shahrokh and Hales, 2003). If a person is unable to deal with the stress that one is being faced with, it will have negative consequences in terms of causing several psychological disorders (Canby et al., 2014). Entering post-secondary education is a completely new environment for students, as it can be tough for many to adjust to the new surroundings. There are many factors that cause stress when students enter college, as it can include having the ability to deal with lower marks (Struthers et al., 2000) and having to create a new social life. Once and if a social life is established, it can cause more stress among students because it can lead into peer pressure that results in risky behavior. In particular, peer pressure can cause alcoholism or drug abuse (Seiffge-Krenke, 1990) or it can also cause unprotected sex. Not only does stress revolve around peer-pressure, but it can also be caused by headaches and lack of energy. If a student is constantly staying up late to finish assignments or to study, it can cause headaches from the lack of sleep; thus causing stress. With all the given factors, it can be hard to overcome these external factors which can ultimately lead to stress among
Life is stressful. But as students, parents and others we must learn how to manage that stress in a positive and beneficial way. The reason why I bring this up is because lately there have been a series of articles and news reports suggesting that college admissions is becoming to competive and our students are crumbling under the stress. One article I read from a college admissions advisor even went so far as to say she is suggesting that her students get B 's instead
College students in the 21st century face a wide range of challenges. Students that are fresh out of high school find themselves away from home, often for the first time, and need to adjust to their new situation. Adults returning to college struggle to find time to study while also fulfilling work and family obligations. College students are increasingly relying on technology, and the costs of attending college have been skyrocketing. Every student’s personal situation is different, but most college students have been feeling the effects of stress. Stress is the body’s response to external pressures (Nordqvist, 2015). Stress can be good and bad. An example of good stress that college students have would be feeling pressured to study for an
Academic stress that acts on students is becoming greater when students are enrolled in a higher level course and when students have a competitive environment. The level of difficulty of a course increases when a student enrolls in a higher level course and might have a hard time understanding the syllabus. Therefore, they have to spend more time in that particular subject as they struggle to absorb all the knowledge presented during lecture hour. In the meantime, they need to work on other courses. The heavy academic workload tends to apply stress on students. If they do not have a good time management and fail to cope with the intense academic stress, they will develop mental health problems. Besides that, competitive academic environment tends to produce more aggressive students. As an example, competition arises in a classroom when the students are challenged face-to-face to compete for A’s. This forces an individual to outperform other students in order to get the grade they desire. However, effort and hard work does not always pays off. Putting in hard work without getting any reward is very discouraging yet disappointing. Negative emotions trap students who face disappointments and causes them to be diagnosed with mental health
High-school: some kids go to class, some kids go to parties, some kids go Harvard, and other kids drop out. No two kids are the same… that is what makes high school the unique and interesting place that it is. A high school caters to the wants and needs of a large variety of student types. Walking down the hall, you notice a pack of girls chomping on their gum and texting (not inconspicuously) with their football playing suitors dragging along behind – the preps; a group of boys with their glasses pushed well up the bridge of their noses, conspiring about the Big Bang or the derivative of the cubed root of the sine of two pi – the super nerds; and somewhere, running between the other clans, books piled high, scholarship applications flying off the top of their stack, are the stressed-out, college-bound overachievers. It is later that I am concerned about. The way that these college-bound overachievers interpret the expectations of college causes them to lead hectic, stressful lifestyles.
College and Stress There are numerous stress factors college students encounter while striving to complete their educational goals. Their grades may be affected by daily life stressors that accumulate throughout the semester. Students’ financial needs, lack of social support, family drama, and other various circumstances can all mount up to a tremendous amount of stress and may result in poor grades and lack of collected credits. In fact, stress continues to be a constant issue in people’s lives, (Holmes & Rahe, 1967; Viner, 1999) and these “life demands stressors” are unavoidable and can be overwhelming, which directly or indirectly relate to individuals underperforming because of psychological and physiological symptoms (Holmes & Rahe, 1967; Joseph, Mynard, & Mayall, 2000). There are several researches that show how the stress factors college students come across during their college experience can affect their mental and physical well-being, which correlates to their academic performance.
Being a teenager in today’s society is really tough, but also very stressful! Teenagers have the pressure of: obtaining jobs, going to school and getting good grades, fitting in at school, and making money. Teenagers have too much stress, and don’t really know how to deal with it yet; Hans Selye said “It 's not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it.”
One of the first stressors that come to most people’s mind is academic. Student academic stress is at an all-time high for students everywhere. Just preparing and getting into the college of your choice is just the being of the stress. Besides that, high school and college work is completely different in terms of amount and quality required. Stress can easily come with learning new ways to do things. Change in itself is a challenges and stressors for some people. College assignments can put an enormous amount of pressure on us but we still must do whatever it takes to be successful. The frightening fear of flunking out is factual. Kirsten Schuder, a Mental Health Professional and associate from Press and MTVU conducted a survey in 2008 that said, “More than half of students (60%) reported that severe stress interfered with their ability to complete their schoolwork more often than once, and that this statistic reflects an increase from 2008.” In terms of academic students face stressors in college with course work plus testing. We have weekly or regular testing, midterm and finals. After all this testing, most of us have the stress of preparing to test in order to gain a license for the field of study that we plan to enter. These fields might include teaching, social work, nursing and many other areas. Testing puts a lot of pressure on students to do well in every course.
Powell, Kathryn. “Stressed and Obsessed Part 5: the effects of stress on student life”. The Online Gargoyle. University of Illinois Laboratory High School, 2 May. 2013. Web.
As explained by their investigation, adolescents of today experience a bulk of stress from their school performance. Whether it is from their parents, other family members, teachers, or administrators, an enormous amount of students are feeling the need to continuously achieve excellence. The family should be the ones to lovingly push the child in the right direction. Conversely, a hefty amount of today’s parents are pushing excessively hard to get their child’s grades beyond a B or A, and graduate at the top of their class. Students can also feel tenser because of teachers grading style as each year passes by. With instructors expecting more each year and grading more severe, it places additional pressure on students to work harder and longer than students used to.
Are the new standards and expectations the world has for teenagers really creating monsters? The amount of stress that is put on students these days between trying to balance school, homework, extra curricular activities, social lives, sleep and a healthy lifestyle is being considered a health epidemic (Palmer, 2005). Students are obsessing over getting the grades that are expected of them to please those that push them, and in return, lose sleep and give up other aspects of their lives that are important to them, such as time with friends and family, as well as activities that they enjoy. The stress that they endure from the pressures of parents, teachers, colleges, and peers has many physical as well as mental effects on every student, some more harmful than others. The extreme pressure on students to get perfect grades so that they will be accepted into a college has diminished the concept of actually learning and has left the art of “financing the system” in order to succeed in its place (Palmer, 2005).
Academic stressors in the lives of college students can range from concerns over workload, and achieving good grades. These stressors can be internal or external, and can both be explained in terms of self-esteem, and self-efficacy.