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Brianna Grady

Ms.Wilson

English II Honors

December 15, 2019

The Impact of Stress and Anxiety in Teens

Stress and anxiety in teenagers is extremely common. This anxiety can be caused by

homework, projects, grades, sports, clubs, and expectations from parents. About 8% of teenagers

experience anxiety, which is a very large group of people. Students are given too much work and

tasks to do. They end up no longer being able to actually focus on their work because they are so

overwhelmed. Teachers have recently been overwhelming students with excessive work. By

assigning numerous important homework assignments, projects, quizzes, and tests, teachers are

overwhelming students, leaving them unable to manage their time properly. The level of anxiety

in teenagers has recently increased greatly.“We’ve seen an uptick in students with anxiety. It just

wasn’t this bad a few years ago.” (Vatterot) Since highschoolers are being assigned more work,

their level of anxiety is also increasing. Mental health is very important and teenagers need to get

help so they don’t start adulthood with bad mental health.

About 8% of teenagers face anxiety and stress. Anxiety is your body’s natural response to

stress. Anxiety disorders include Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive

Disorder, Panic Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Social Phobia. “The teens are not

alright, excessive workloads, crammed schedules, and perfectionism are causing teens undue

stress.” When teenagers are dealing with an overwhelming stress, anxiety, and anxiety disorders,

it can be very difficult to actually focus on what they are stressed about. Now, instead of being
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overwhelmed because of their schoolwork and extra out of school activities, they are

overwhelmed because of their anxiety. This anxiety and stress can also lead to teenagers not

wanting to participate in other activities outside of school. Teenagers start to overthink every

single detail, what they wear, how they talk, what other people think of them, etc. Teenagers

overwhelmed themselves by becoming too involved in too many activities. Students also lack

prioritizing and time management skills. “We have a lot of students who are perfectionists,

especially girls. I give a simple homework assignment that shouldn’t take longer than 30

08-minutes. They come back with something way beyond what they needed to do.” (Vatterott)

A solution to this problem is to help teenagers form better time management skills. This

way, students are now given a specific schedule so they aren’t overwhelmed with numerous

tasks all at once. Teenagers also need to be decisive about what activities they should and

shouldn’t participate in, as they tend to overwhelm themselves by signing up for too many clubs,

sports and activities on top of school and homework. “They are so driven. They want to be in all

these activities and take all these AP classes, and then they get stressed out because they are

overscheduled. They act like they’ve got it all together, then the smallest things has them in tears

or leads to a meltdown.” (Vatterott) Schools could also help solve this problem by decreasing the

percentage that homework is worth. “The more homework counts in the grade, the more stressed

students become and the more likely they are to cheat. Many schools are limiting homework’s

impact to 20 percent, 10 percent, or even 5 percent of a grade. Schools that have implemented

standards- based grading often no longer count in the grade. In these instances, teachers would

still give feedback on homework, sometimes by a mark that indicates a level of mastery or with a
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temporary grade that carries zero weight. When homework is taken out of the grade, it takes the

heat off stressed students.”

Solutions for the issue of anxiety in teenagers includes students learning better time

management and teachers assigning less homework/assignments.The best solution to this

problem is to stop counting homework as an important grade. Teenagers spent their time at

school to learn, and their time after school to work, play sports, and other extracurricular

activities. Teenagers often get very overwhelmed when they have homework, tests, and projects

for each class everyday. Studying for up to 4 tests/quizzes, working on important projects, and

struggling with homework that seriously impacts your grade can be extremely stressful.

“Contrary to the myth that “they just won’t do it,” not grading homework empowers students to

self-asses and to complete only those tasks they actually need to do to demonstrate mastery.”

(Vetterott) Overall, to overcome teenagers overwhelming stress and anxiety because of school

and extracurricular activities, teachers need to limit homework’s impact and students need to

learn better time management skills. If both of those happen, anxiety and stress in students

should drastically decrease.

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Works Cited

CODLING, L. Teenagers suffering on a “treadmill of stress”: EXPERTS FEAR PRESSURE TO

SUCCEED IS TAKING ITS TOLL. ​Eastern Eye​, ​[s. l.],​ n. 1500, p. 18, 29 mar. 2019. 1500.

Disponível em:

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,custuid&custid=s8455861&d

b=f6h&AN=135570392&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Acesso em: 4 dez. 2019.

KOVÁCS, I. K.; BORCSA, M. The relationship between anxiety, somatic symptoms and

hardiness in adolescence. ​Romanian Journal of Psychology​, ​[s. l.]​, v. 19, n. 2, p. 42–49, 2017.

DOI 10.24913/rjap.19.2.03. Disponível em:

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,custuid&custid=s8455861&d

b=a9h&AN=130846991&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Acesso em: 4 dez. 2019.

VATTEROTT, C. The Teens Are Not Alright: Excessive workloads, crammed schedules, and

“perfectionism” are causing teens undue stress. ​Educational Leadership​, ​[s. l.],​ v. 76, n. 8, p.

12, 2019. Disponível em:

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,custuid&custid=s8455861&d

b=mat&AN=138002146&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Acesso em: 4 dez. 2019.

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