Stress in high school teens has always been an interesting topic for me mainly because I am a stressed teen in high school. During my junior year in my Intro to Psychology class, I took a poll of about 50% of my high school asking how stressed they were on a day-to-day basis. I was shocked by the information I received and since then I have wanted to do something about it.
Stress can resemble a heavy weight sitting on our shoulders, and not many people are equipped with the right tools to deal with the excess amount of stress teenagers deal with daily. My challenge is to help people acknowledge the problem of stress among high school teens, and then use that knowledge to help themselves and others. After taking a poll of about 50% of the teens in my high school, it is obvious that there is a problem with how often we feel stressed. Unfortunately, stress no longer only fills us in school, but it follows us home everyday and on the weekends.
These four pie charts contain real statistics based on a poll I took in my high school. About 50% of the whole high school responded to the question, “How Often Do You Feel Stressed?” Moving from left to right from top to bottom, the graphs are ordered from freshman to seniors. Every individual was given the option to say that they are never stressed, and only 1 person out of the 136 people who responded said that they were never stressed. This is a problem.
First, we must understand why we experience stress. Here is a short clip to explain the science behind feeling stressed.
After we understand the background of where stress comes from, we then must acknowledge the different ways that stress presents itself. Stress can be depicted in three different ways: acute, episodic, and chronic.
- Acute – Short-term events which do not last long but if traumatic, can have a lasting impact on us.
- Episodic Stress – Situations which are also short-term but which we find ourselves in regularly, such as rushing to work or other recurring stressful experiences in the workplace.
- Chronic – Ongoing stresses which last into the long-term. These may include the stress of illness or the friction of a fractious relationship.
Identifying the type of stress an individual may have is crucial to treating that stress in the correct way. Coping with stress is extremely difficult for a lot of people, especially because many of them don’t know any effective ways. Understanding healthy vs. unhealthy coping mechanisms is key to helping yourself deal with them. Some examples are:
- Healthy: getting fresh air, relying on rituals, visualize being calm, take a bath, exercise.
- Unhealthy: drinking and smoking, hibernate, ignore the problem, dwell on the negative, eating.
Reaching out to high school students who are stressed out and teaching them about the healthy ways to deal with their stress is important to solving the problem. I want students to reach relief instead of experiencing the constant mind frame of stress.
I now ask for feedback from you. Using questions like “What if….? How might we….? I wonder…..?,” you can add your personal ideas about my project on high school stress within your feedback and questions. I also ask you to take this quick quiz that I prepared for you.
Taking this quiz will help me further my exploration into understanding stress in high school teens, and find more ways to help those who need it. My next steps will be designing and hanging posters around my school describing tips on dealing with stress using healthy coping mechanisms. Stress is okay to a certain degree, but I want students to understand how to deal with the stress when it reaches an overwhelming point.
“Academic Pressure: 5 Tips from an Expert on Coping with School Stress.” Huff Post. Huffington Post, www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/academic-pressure-5-tips-_n_2774106.html. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.
Cohen, Melissa. “Student Stress and Anxiety Guide.” Learn Psychology, www.learnpsychology.org/student-stress-anxiety-guide/. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.
Green, Lauren A. “Best and Worst Ways to Cope with Stress.” Health, 20 Dec. 2013, www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20765943,00.html. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.
Keating, Daniel P. “Dealing with Stress at School in an Age of Anxiety.” Psychology Today, 15 Aug. 2017, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/stressful-lives/201708/dealing-stress-school-in-age-anxiety. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.
“Managing Stress.” Brainsmart, BBC, 14 July 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnpQrMqDoqE. Accessed 17 Apr. 2018.
“Stressed Out: Helping Your Teen Cope with School Pressure.” Parenting Team, Today, 4 Dec. 2017, community.today.com/parentingteam/post/stressed-out-helping-your-teen-cope-with-school-pressure. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.