How Academic Pressure Contributes to Teen Stress and Anxiety

Kananpreet Kaur

HYPOTHESIS:

Academic pressure significantly contributes to increased stress and anxiety in teenagers, impacting both their mental health and academic performance.

INTRODUCTION:

What is it called when we feel pressurised due to academic performance? Academic pressure refers to the stress students experience to achieve a level of academic excellence. This stressor has multiple sources, and its effects can either be extremely helpful, or cause serious psychological issues. It is often triggered by high expectations from oneself, their parents, or their teachers, high competition, heavy workload, and even socioeconomic pressure. This can be perceived in two ways: as a challenging stress or a hindering stress, depending on the extent to which it is imposed. While challenging stress creates motivation in a student for

improvement, hindering stress contributes to heightened anxiety and poor academic outcomes. In this research paper, we shall explore the link between academic pressure, stress and anxiety in teens.

CAUSES OF ACADEMIC PRESSURE

1. Individual Performance-Avoidance goals/ Low Self Esteem: The foremost factor

   contributing to mental health issues due to academic pressure is in the individual’s mindset itself. A teen who sets unattainable performance-avoidance goals has higher vulnerability to depression and anxiety than those who set realistic goals (Jansen, Lüdtke, & Robitzsch, 2020). Adolescents are at a stage in their lives where they develop two new senses: self-concept & self-esteem, which, for majority of teens, are entangled with the feedback they receive from authority figures. This feedback shapes their emotional responses to stress and pressure. It was found that high academic pressure leads to emotional instability, with lower self-concept (Jansen, M. et al. 2020).

   
   

2. Parental Expectations: One of the biggest causes of academic stress in adolescents is due to parent-child conflict. In such cases, academic pressure originates from unmanageable family expectations and demands (Hu and West 2015). This pressure combined with familial tension worsens teen mental health and increases the likelihood of behavioural issues (Bradford, Vaughn, & Barber, 2007).

   
   

3. Socioeconomic Factors: Environmental factors such as culture, social and economic pressures also contribute to academic anxiety. High pressure systems where constant testing and expectations are recurrent, create an atmosphere of emotional stress, straining teens’ self-esteem and interpersonal relationships (Hu and West 2015).

Academic anxiety was found to contribute to the performance gap in students across various socioeconomic backgrounds. It accounted for one-tenth to one-fifth of the gap in standardized test performance (Claes, Smeding, Carré, & Sommet, 2024). These pressures are also driven by broader societal issues like income inequality. Countries with higher income inequality saw a larger academic performance gap, showing how societal pressure amplify personal stress (Claes et al., 2024).

EFFECTS OF ACADEMIC STRESS

1. Psychological Impact: According to a systematic review, 48 studies out of 52

   confirmed a strong correlation between academic pressure and adolescent mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and self-harm (Steare, Gutiérrez Muñoz, Sullivan, & Lewis, 2023). This worsens academic performance further causing severe mental health problems.

   
   

2. Academic Failure: Physiological changes caused in response to stress such as

   changes in testosterone and cortisol levels, has been found to be directly linked to negative academic outcomes (Jamieson, Black, Pelaia, & Reis, 2021). In one study, higher levels of math anxiety (including biological responses to anxiety) were associated with worse exam performance, showing how stress affects both biological and psychological well-being.

   
   

3. Problematic Behaviour: The psychological impact of academic pressure extends to behavioural issues as well. Students facing significant academic stress are at risk for problematic behaviour, ranging from emotional outbursts to severe self-harm. Combining this with familial conflict and low self-control exacerbates this behaviour (Hu and West 2015). Another systematic review found that academic pressure during high-stress periods like exam time during the year, amplifies emotional challenges faced by students, leading to increased problem behaviour (Steare et al. 2023).

EMOTIONAL REGULATION & COPING STRATEGIES (For Students & Instructors)

1. SMART Goals: Setting goals according to the parameters of this acronym

   SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound – shall

   help the individual advance in academics mindfully, without risking anxiety.

   
   

2. Eliminating Comparison: Comparing oneself to others not only lowers self-

   esteem but is also an ungrateful act. Eliminate comparison by focusing on personal growth, being self-aware of strengths and weaknesses and practicing

   self-compassion.

   
   

3. Growth Mindset: Having a growth mindset means believing that your abilities

   aren’t innate and can be developed by putting in time and effort, and by learning from experiences. Intelligence or talent are just the starting point and there’s always scope for improvement. This helps manage your expectations from yourself as well.

   
   

4. Expanding Set of Activities/Hobbies: By expanding the horizon of your

   interests and hobbies, you develop your identity past just academics. It creates

   new opportunities and helps take the focus of your self-worth away from

   academics only.

   
   

5. Healthy Lifestyle: The ultimate step a student can take to foster mental well-

   being is to have a healthy lifestyle. A balanced diet, sufficient sleep, daily exercise and healthy relationships help regulate the nervous system and emotions.

   
   

6. Learning and preparing to act: Training instructors to familiarise themselves

   with underlying mental health challenges and be well prepared to combat these issues while providing the right resources.

   
   

7. Connecting with students: Something as simple as learning students’ names, using humour, providing opportunities and empathizing with students,

   cultivates a more supportive environment.

   
   

8. Building an empowering atmosphere in the classroom: Being aware of active-

   learning strategies that can induce anxiety in students, and how to mitigate this stress by structuring groups mindfully or allowing them to form their own groups. Explicitly promoting equality in the classroom and avoiding microaggressions fosters positivity.

   
   

9. Reducing testing anxiety: Introducing alternate means of assessment to manage high-stake tests that could induce high anxiety or modifying existing test structures to cater to students’ mental well-being.

   
   

10. Promoting effective academic skills: Promoting effective learning strategies and strong growth mindsets in students to help them improve.

CITATIONS:

• Claes, N., Smeding, A., Carré, A., & Sommet, N. (2024). The social class test gap: A worldwide investigation of the role of academic anxiety and income inequality in standardized test score disparities. Journal of Educational Psychology, 116(6), 871–888.

https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000881

• Daumiller, M., Putwain, D. W., & Nett, U. (2024). Complex dynamics: Investigation of within-and between-person relationships between achievement emotions and \emotion regulation during exam preparation through dynamic network modeling. Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000883

• Jamieson, J. P., Black, A. E., Pelaia, L. E., & Reis, H. T. (2021). The impact of mathematics

anxiety on stress appraisals, neuroendocrine responses, and academic performance in a community college sample. Journal of Educational Psychology, 113(6), 1164–1176. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000636

• Jansen, M., Lüdtke, O., & Robitzsch, A. (2020). Disentangling different sources of stability and change in students’ academic self-concepts: An integrative data analysis using the STARTS model. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(8), 1614–1631.

https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000448

• Travis, J., Kaszycki, A., Geden, M., & Bunde, J. (2020). Some stress is good stress: The

challenge-hindrance framework, academic self-efficacy, and academic outcomes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(8), 1632–1643. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000478

• Steare, T., Gutiérrez Muñoz, C., Sullivan, A., & Lewis, G. (2023). The association between

academic pressure and adolescent mental health problems: A systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2023.07.028

• Hu, Y., & West, A. (2015). The influence of academic pressure on adolescents' problem behaviour: Chain mediating effects of self-control, parent-child conflict, and subjective well-being. Journal of Educational Psychology.

• Bradford, K., Vaughn, L., & Barber, B. K. (2007). Academic pressure and its impact on

adolescent behaviour. Journal of School Psychology.

• Bold Health. (n.d.). Coping with academic pressure: Tips from a teen psychiatrist. https://boldhealthinc.com/coping-with-academic-pressure-tips-from-a-teen-psychiatrist/

• National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). (2021). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc