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The stress that topples over children is often overlooked by adults simply as effort put in for a good cause: grades. Academic performance is an excuse for exhaustion, lack of appropriate sleep hygiene and even an unhealthy diet. Recent studies conducted on the tired minds of schoolchildren from countries like China, where a single exam has come to mean the future, shed some light on what exactly happens with the brain during these periods of intense learning, and what we can do to maintain a healthy lifestyle, even when high quantities of stress are pulling us down.
What Is Stress?
Stress is defined as a mental state of tension or worry brought on by a difficult situation. When it comes to academic stress, the difficult situation in question is usually related to performance grading of any sort, tests and exams most famously. These forms of examination aren't the direct cause of stress, but their consequences, namely grades, evaluations, or stakes, may contribute to the affected state in a varying degree.
The Link Between School-Provoked Stress and Mental Strain
It has been proven that the subject of academic performance causes increased anxiety and depression cases in students. A disparity between gender and coping mechanisms has also been uncovered in some studies. It has also been suggested that children with better environmental management tend to achieve greater psychological wellness. With all of this being said, much information on how students can work with their stress and let go of the negative mental impact is still unavailable.
Is Stress Good for Academic Performance?
Stressors can disturb the body's homeostatic balance, manifesting in physiological alterations such as changes in heart rate and blood pressure. With this in mind, it is definitely not healthy to be under constant pressure. But does it positively or negatively affect school function? Contrary to the common belief that academic stress leads to poor performance, studies have shown that there isn't a significant correlation between stress levels and grades obtained. This suggests that other factors, such as coping strategies and time management, might be more influential in academic performance.
Pressure and Examples
Perhaps one of the most popular cases of academic stress circulated in the media is the Gaokao exam. The secret of its fame lies in its high stakes: the undergraduate evaluation offers a grade that determines the colleges a student can enter, and, in some people's opinion, the future they will have.
A study conducted on 1,550 first-year high school students taking the exam that year revealed a test anxiety occurrence rate of 79.8%.
Gender, ethnicity, family economic levels, frequency of communication with parents, and relationships with parents were some differentiating factors. The pressure put on these students not only affects their health, but it may not even lead to success.