Adolescent stress is a serious issue that affects young people every day. From starting school and finding their first job to managing finances and navigating relationships, teens face many transitions that can feel overwhelming.
1. School Pressure and Adolescent Stress
Whether it is self-inflicted or driven by family, peers, or mentors, students can experience stress to perform. Not just academic pressure, but extracurriculars, honors, and attendance can all cause stress.
Parents and teachers can help students by first acknowledging the situation and reassuring them that these hurdles can be overcome. There are also proactive steps to learn necessary skills to alleviate stress, which typically include time management, figuring out which effective study methods for specific learning types (here is a free quiz to help discover your learning style), and emphasizing the importance of taking breaks.
Not only will these methods help students maintain their academics, but they will also be applicable in higher education and their careers. By managing this stress, students will perform better and be resistant to academic burnout.
2. Social Pressure in Teens
Everyone wants to be liked and have a support system, but finding those people can be difficult. Adolescents can experience stress, especially if they are not part of the in-group. Cliques and bullying are still massive parts of the school experience and are distressing to the youth.
While this isn’t as straightforward, most of the stress in this aspect can be helped within their home. Parents can create a healthy and welcoming environment for their kids, giving them the space to express their feelings and ask for advice.
Confiding in parents, people who have been in their shoes before, lets adolescents know that the experience is temporary. It can also have a domino effect, leading them to learn how to effectively communicate and help set healthy boundaries (against peer pressure and in other relationships).
3. Social Media and Youth Stress
Social media has garnered massive popularity since its inception, notably among preteens and teenagers. While there are age restrictions on most social media, some kids will lie about their age to access these platforms. Most famous influencers use social media as a highlight reel and tend to edit their photos to make themselves more attractive. This creates a false sense of reality and pressures youth to strive for that perfect influencer life.
Spending too much time on social media is debilitating for mental health. Parents should create time limits for consumption and monitor what type of content their kids are seeing. Additionally, emphasizing how much editing and filtering go on online can help adolescents recognize the difference between authenticity and fabrication on social media.
4. Future Planning and Teen Stress
With the uncertainty of the future, adolescents can experience stress, especially during transition periods. Now, more than ever, the state of the job market, economy, and higher education institutions is being challenged; this can cause significant stress for teens because there is no guarantee that plans they create can even be followed.
Parents can help mitigate this stressor by establishing a solid foundation now. Once they’ve reached the right age, let them find a job; after securing part-time work, create a bank account for them to start building up a savings account to have as a crutch for the future. Financial literacy can be a difficult concept, but it is extremely important and will reduce stress there. On our website, you can find our new financial literacy courses to take that first step with your kids.
Not only will this help ease anxiety now, but learning these skills will also greatly help in the future. What they learn early on will be applicable to any future financial situation, allowing them to best help themselves.
5. Family Issues Causing Adolescent Stress
No family is perfect, and there will always be aspects at home that cause stress. Whether an amicable divorce, moving away, or deeper trauma, parents need to be aware of the potential impact in dealing with stress.
There is no one right way to deal with or prevent this type of stress. However, it’s important for families to understand that they may be unable to help in this regard. In this case, emphasizing the importance of support systems outside of the home can be helpful. From confiding with friends who may be experiencing the same feelings or a professional with useful tools, having people to go to is extremely important.
These are just the most common stressors, not a comprehensive list. Everyone is different and will have other stressful experiences in life. The best and most important thing for parents and trusted adults is to pay attention to potential signs of stress or significant changes in behavior or attitude. Adolescents shouldn’t have to go through scary transitions alone.
Feeling stressed? Here are some breathing exercises that can help you relax:
I can tell a lot of thought went into writing this—great job.