Students have lots of stress

Students at AHS say that they have been experiencing increased stress this semester because of the amount of homework they have along with conflicting social activities. Stress affects everyone whether they realize it or not.

The amount of homework that teens in general have is causing raised stress levels in students, which could have the potential of creating mental health issues in today's teens. Teachers disagree with students and parents about what constitutes rigor and what an appropriate workload looks like.

A study done by the American Psychological Association showed that on average teens voted 5.8 out of 10, when asked to rate their level of stress, as opposed to adults who voted 5.1. The results of this study suggest that teenagers feel stressed more than adults. Also, that study showed that 83 percent of teens who voted said that school was the main reason for their stress.

An article from the APA titled “How Stress Affects Your Health” says that stress, if not resolved, can cause chronic health issues. Some of these include higher cardiovascular risk and depression. Different health issues are also caused by the way people cope with stress. Whether that be laying down and taking a nap or doing drugs to take your mind off of things, your health is still affected.

Caryn, a student at AHS, said, “No, [I] don't have much homework,” when asked if she was overwhelmed with the amount of homework that she has.

Sydney, a cheerleader who is on the varsity team at AHS, said, “I don't have a lot of time when I get home from practice.”

According to my research, students who participate in extracurricular activities often feel more stress due to their time being taken up by that activity. This is because almost all of their free time is spent either doing the activity or working on homework.

Students who are dealing with stress can schedule an appointment with a school psychologist or with a guidance counselor if they do not already have someone outside of school they can talk to about their problems.

AHS has recently advertised a “How to stress less” class that happened on September 26th. Even though this has passed, I’m sure that there will be more opportunities available to learn how to prevent stress.