The Causes And Effects Of Stress In High School Students

Stress is a word that many college students hear on a daily basis; it is a concept that resonates with all students, regardless of age or major. People of all ages experience stress at various times in their lives, but college is a particular time when an individual can be plagued by heightened levels of it. At any given time, a college student might feel academic, financial, and social strains, yet they might not possess the resources to satisfy the demands of these stressors. Accumulation of these stressors (and stress in general) can have a negative impact on the lives of college students, but authors of a recent scientific study made an attempt to find the best techniques for reducing stress in college students.

According to a study by the Associated Press and mtvU, “eight in 10 college students say they have sometimes or frequently experienced stress in their daily lives over the past three months,” (‘Stress in College Students”). College Students are inevitably going to be affected by stress at some point throughout their college experience; however, the cause of the stress can vary by student. Some of the causes of stress on college students can be tests, homework, home life, social life, and jobs. Many times, college students have all or most of these causes piled on top of one another; therefore, giving them extremely high levels of stress. There are many negative effects of stress on college students.

In 1984, a survey was conducted that reported twenty-five percent of seventeen year olds did less than an hour of homework each night. A decade later, a report from the National Center for Education Statistics, reviewing trends in data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, found thirty-nine percent of seventeen year olds said they at least one hour of homework each day. Moving into the twenty-first century, the amount of homework has increased significantly. In 2011, a survey of 1,000 kindergarten through twelfth grade teachers found high school teachers on average assign about three and a half hours of homework each week. For high school students who typically have five classes with different teachers, that could mean as much as seventeen and a half hours each week.

One topic in psychology I find particularly interesting is the amount of stress that students in this generation are subjected to, specifically while in college. There are many reasons why this topic is interesting to me. The first and obvious reason is because I myself am a college student. Therefore, I have personally experienced the tremendous amount of stress that is put on students. I have also witnessed my friends and peers cope with this stress in various ways, some of which are healthy and some of which are not. I also am interested in this topic because I feel that it is universally an important topic. With the job market being so competitive, and the need for advanced degrees becoming commonplace, students are constantly focused on

Marzano and Debra J. Pickering stated in the article called The Case for and Against Homework they presented by saying”7 to 12 hours of homework per week produced the largest effect size for 12th grade students.”On an average high schoolers should spend a minimum of an hour to three hours of completing their homework.This will decrease the amount of stress because too much is not

Most teachers tend to give between 30 minutes to one hour of homework per night, multiply that by about five or six classes equates to four to five hours of homework per night. Galloway, in his article “Nonacademic Effects of Homework in Privileged, High-Performing High Schools, stated, “Students who did more hours of homework experienced greater behavioral engagement in school but also more academic stress, physical health problems, and lack of balance in their lives” (2013) If homework causes these things in students then it is more harmful than helpful. Homework is meant to help students, not cause many problems to one’s

The average homework for high school is 6.8 hours of homework per week. “Metlife studies found 50 percent” of students spend more than one hour. “The Metfile studies found that 70 percent of student have stress over homework”

Stress is a real issue among college students, as college life has many causes that evoke stress. Each person responds to stressful situations in a different way: one can get motivated, and another can just panic and procrastinate. However, there are certain stressors that tend to have negative effects on all students, such as romantic relationships, finance problems, deadlines, new levels of independence, social obligations and so on. The list of stressors is infinite. As well as there are many effects of stress. Melissa Cohen, a licensed clinical social worker and certified coach

Stress not only affects the work performance and grades in the classroom of a college student, it also affects their personal life too. With stress, people usually have too much pressure. They are overloaded with whatever is pressuring them, it brings them down and eventually over runs them. This frequently occurs with the lives of college students, especially if they have many assignments due. Thankfully, there are many ways to relieve and/or reduce stress levels. Three main ways to relieve stress levels are to form time management skills, to practice good sleeping habits, and to exercise regularly.

One of our main caused of getting stress is adapting to the new life, which we have suddenly landed in. These days school related issues are also stressed for the student these days. Sometimes it can cause them stress by doing so badly in college that at some point they want to give up. Some stress issues also create the way people deal with their personal habits like smoking and drinking, which are the worse way of dealing the stress.

Homework; the thing that controls most of a teenagers life. Most students have three or more hours of homework per night. It puts a strain on students sleep, social and family life. “Some school districts [like ours] are considering time limits on homework and a few are considering making homework optional” (Toppo). I completely agree. An hour of homework should be the time limit for the amount of homework that students in our school district should have because it increases achievement levels, covers required materials for standardized testing, and teaches students time management skills.

Having stress is an unavoidable fact for many people, however for adolescent students, experiencing high levels of stress is associated with the transition they go through from a high school to a college environment. It will require the student to make adjustments, learn different approaches for coping with stress, and definitely taking advantage of professional counseling.

There are many things that cause stress for a college student. Stress can affect the performance of a student in many ways, such as loss of sleep, little or no appetite, low self-esteem, depression, or even lack of motivation to keep moving forward. Most, if not all, students in college experience being stressed at one point, because of a school project, a final exam, or maybe even turning in homework. It’s not the work that stresses many people out, it’s the time available to complete the work. Although we have all the time in the world to complete something, it sure doesn’t feel like it when your time gets limited. Especially if the project or homework determines the grade you get in class. In college, a project, test, or homework can make you or break you.

Today in schools the average amount of homework a typical high school student gets a night is estimated at 3.5 hours. That is spaced out between 5-6 classes which a student has to remember each of the subjects throughout the day to understand and complete the homework. This is after a long day at school learning about what our homework will be later, when half of the class time should be set for finishing our homework in each class.

Growing up with a household containing mostly girls, it can become a stressful environment. My parents have always pushed my two sisters and I to be the best. In school I was the child that was struggling while both my younger sisters were top of their classes. I had to work to earn my grades and make sure I was hanging on along with my sisters. As the oldest my sisters would always look up to me, and I wanted to be the best example, but that would but a lot of stress on me. Since freshman year I started preparing for my life, touring colleges, and deciding what I would like to major in. My home environment was stressful, but school was even harder because I have wanted to succeed in life for the longest time, even at a young age. When I discovered dance, it allowed me to become my own person and take some stress off me.