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Teen Stress Essay

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The growing teen epidemic: Stress
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Why are teens so stressed?

Teens routinely say that their school-year stress levels are far higher than they think is healthy and their average reported stress exceeds that of adults, per an annual survey published by the American Psychological Association. On average, teens reported their stress level was 5.8 on 10-point scale, compared with 5.1 for adults.

The most common reported sources of stress were school (83 percent), getting into a good college or deciding what to do after high school (69 percent), and financial concerns for their family (65 percent). In another survey on youth stress, the sources were school work (78 percent), parents (68 percent), romantic relationships (64 percent), friend problems (64 percent) and younger siblings (64 percent).
How is stress affecting them?

The APA’s Stress in America survey found that 30 percent of teens reported feeling sad or depressed because of stress and 31 percent felt overwhelmed. Another 35 percent of teens reported that stress caused them to lie awake at night and 26 percent said that they are overeating or eating unhealthy foods in the past month.

The pressures of schoolwork, family life, social life, sports or other activities, combined with a relentless media culture, result in young people being more stressed than ever before. As indicated, stress is also impacting teen’s sleep. They reported sleeping on average 7.4 on school nights and 8.1 hours on non-school nights,

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