The main cause of stress among teenagers is
school. Do you agree?
Stress is a part and parcel of life. While it is true
that stress is good in moderation, too much stress can be disastrous. Stress
comes from many sources. However, the main cause of stress is school,
especially females who experience more stress than males. A survey shows that among
13-17 year olds, school is by far the most commonly mentioned source of stress.
Tenth-grader Madelyn Dancy of Memphis has a whole set
of concerns. She wants badly to excel in school so she can fulfill her dream —
and the hopes of her family — of becoming a doctor. “That’s why I work so
hard,” says the 15 year old. “They’re looking at me to do something in my life
that they couldn’t do.” For her, stress comes from schoolwork, and “having to
do so much in so little time.” She also plays lacrosse and tries to have a life
outside school. “It’s going pretty well,” says Dancy. “I’ve hit all my goals,
but I’m setting more.”
Kelly O’Brien has goals, too — the 20 year old from
Santa Rosa, California plans to finish her business administration degree
within a year, get married two years from now, and later have a family and own
a home. Stress comes from balancing her schoolwork with two part-time jobs, as
a bookkeeper and as a candy store clerk.
“It’s always in the back of my mind,” says O’Brien of
the financial pressures of young adulthood. “Right now I’m comfortable, but
I’ve had friends my age who’ve actually bought a home. I’m like, ’How can they
do that?”’
In the survey, 45 percent of girls and young women
reported experiencing stress frequently, to 32 percent of boys and young men.
Those from urban areas experienced it more frequently than those in rural
areas, and surprisingly, those from middle-income households had it more
frequently than those from both lower and higher-income households.
(Middle-income was defined as between $50,000 and $75,000.)
In Southeast Asia, the stress is magnified due to the
stricter education systems. Cash
incentives are given and in this mercenary world, that’s all that matters. Parents
pressure children to study and study, even at the tender age of 3 most of them
are signed up for all kinds of enrichment programs like piano lessons or art
classes, whether they want to or not. The children are never given a break.
Thus, while children their age should be enjoying childhood, playing and
laughing, they are cooped up in classrooms learning and stressing themselves
out. As they grow up, they have to juggle these with schoolwork and their CCAs.
How, then are they supposed to cope? Students nowadays are getting lesser and
lesser social life. Instead, they are either trying to complete the piles of
homework that teachers mercilessly shoved to them, or worse still, coping with these
never-ending homework with numerous projects, CCAs, as well as their enrichment
courses. Is this the way students should be treated? To add on to these already
head pounding problems, school bullies target many children and any one of the
students could be targeted and with the advancement of technology, it may not
be just the physical bullying in the old days. People could get cyber bullied
and this is in ways worse than just physical abuse as evidence of cyberbullying
can be seen by many people and the victim suffers emotional abuse which is
worse than physical abuse as most physical scars will most likely stay for a
few weeks or months while emotional abuse will stick with you permanently and
will always be fresh and raw in your mind and will torment you for as long as
you live. The victims may even commit suicide as they did in several cases. The
stress of this will just add on to the mountains of problems and stress the
students face. Also, it can be disheartening when there is a fierce competition
among students whether in studying or in their CCAs. This is especially evident
in top schools where students are used to getting top results. Then again,
students with parents who divorce would also get a lot of stress and this
stress will be carried on to school where they would not be able to concentrate
on their studies and when they have exams or tests, which is enough to give
stress to normal students already, they do badly and get even more stressed and
this will lead to more family problems when parents abuse them verbally and
even physically, thinking they are not studying hard enough when in reality
they are already studying to the brink of insanity. The parents just work to
get money and do not support their children in their schoolwork. Thus it is
easy for them to point the finger at their children when they produce
unsatisfactory grades but in truth, it is not really the child’s fault. Of what
use is all our wealth if our children become social misfits, jump off high-rise
buildings or end up with broken marriages?
In 2001, about 14,000 children were seen by psychiatrists
at our Institute of Mental Health, of which 2,233 were new cases and these
figures have stayed relatively consistent over the preceding five years. From
1997 to 2001, 20 primary students have jumped to their deaths. In 2001, we had
357 suicides --- almost one suicide every day. The suicide statistics for subsequent
years were never disclosed. But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that
suicide rates of students are still on the rise and most of them due to school.
Demanding parents, hectic school life, abuses, whether
verbally or physically or even worse, cyberbullying, and excessive CCAs or
enrichment programs, the students nowadays have a lot to fret about. Thus, I
can conclude that the main cause of stress is school.
Tan Yi Min (35)
Tan Yi Min (35)
