Student stress
Stress is not anything new for high school students, especially when you take into consideration the many other aspects that can impact a student’s mental health, such as work, family, friends, their future and politics. In small amounts, stress can be good for getting yourself to study, get homework done, write that essay, etc. In large amounts, however, stress can negatively impact a person’s mental and physical health. The American Psychology Association has found that excess stress can cause issues with a bunch of different parts of the human body, from excess stress upping the risk of heart attack to creating a higher risk of gut diseases.
From a survey we sent out, we found out that the main cause of stress at West is school. Many students wrote about how the expectation to get good grades is a heavy stressor for them, and homework creates even more stress.
“A lot of homework and having to study for a bunch of tests at the same time and for me, at least retakes piling onto that makes it worse” — anonymous
Right behind school, the second biggest stressor at West High is future/post-high school as someone who was surveyed said,
“Auditioning for schools/deciding where to go has 100% been the biggest stressor this year for me as it’s such a huge decision and there are so many little things that are extremely important that are very easy to miss when going through the process of college applications.”
— anonymous
This person is not the only one surveyed who shared this feeling as another person surveyed wrote “School has a lot of homework, and I feel that even if I do all of it I may end up struggling if I go to college.” — anonymous
College
College seems to be a common stressor for many students, but especially for seniors and juniors. Of the seniors that were surveyed, 2/3rds of them said that college was a stressor for them, and for the juniors surveyed, every single one of them said that college was a stressor.
Politics
Along with that, some seniors are now stressed due to now being able to vote as one person wrote, “Also, I’m a registered voter now, and with everything happening this year on a global scale, it’s been increasingly difficult to decide who to vote for in the upcoming presidential election; that has also been a very big decision that I think a lot of people my age are struggling to reckon with”
Extracurriculars
We asked the students how extracurricular activities affected their stress levels, and we got pretty similar answers. What most students responded with is that their extracurriculars both raised and lowered their stress levels.
Extracurriculars helped with stress by giving them a sense of community where the people surveyed felt as if they could be more themselves as one person who filled out the survey put it, “I’m in a lot of extracurriculars,, and I think for the first time in my high school career these have actually helped with stress, rather than contribute to it. They have provided a space for me to be myself and have fun.”
A downside to extracurricular activities would be the time commitment that comes with it, according to someone who filled out the survey “Swimming and cello relieve stress but they also make it harder to manage my time” as another person who filled out the survey put it “You have to stay till pretty late so it’s difficult to balance school work with such a schedule” — anonymous
Managing stress
When dealing with stress we all have different ways of coping. This holds true with the people whom we surveyed.
The common denominator between everyone was that to cope with stress, they would do something that they enjoyed and was calming.
For example, one person wrote, “Taking walks is a good stress reliever.” Another person wrote that “Hanging out with people I care about outside of school” helped them handle stress.
While stress will always be a part of students’ lives while in and after school, there are ways in which students can learn to manage and cope with their stress healthily.
