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)