Academic pressure and kid’s stress.
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As we get closer to the end of the school year, exam anxieties will begin to grow. There are children, teens and young adults everywhere gearing up for year-end exams and standardized tests, in addition to meeting class deadlines and heavy homework loads. Sadly, the competition to be the best and get the best grades in school has created a vacuum filled with performance pressure felt from many children all over the United States. Some kids can’t take the pressure and end up taking alternative measures.
According to a survey conducted by The Princeton Review and Wrigley, more than 85 percent of students admit to feeling increased stress and tension at exam time, in many cases leading them to make less healthy choices.
The Pressure Cooker
Although experiencing a little stress can keep students on their toes, choosing poor stress management techniques can ultimately work against their academic goals. The recent survey revealed students are dealing with exam time pressures by snacking during study time (76 percent), studying with a caffeine buzz (61 percent) and burning the midnight oil (41 percent). The survey also revealed, however, that some students are finding ways to meet the challenges of studying for test time, such as listening to classical music (20 percent) and even chewing gum (37 percent). Of the students who chew gum while studying for exams, 41 percent do so to combat stress and tension and 23 percent to increase focus and concentration.
In fact, studies have shown that the act of chewing gum increases blood flow to the brain by 25 percent and appears to improve people’s ability to retain and retrieve information.
“Chewing gum while performing memory tests can increase memory substantially,” says Andrew Scholey, Ph.D., CPsychol, professor, Division of Psychology, and director, Human Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, University of Northumbria, UK.
Parent’s Role
It’s important to make sure parents understand the way stress impacts children. They have not reached the peak of their cognitive development yet and may be unable to deal with heavy amounts of stress. In some cases, kids will snap and people will sit there wondering what happened. Remember kids want to please their parents and in desiring that, the first threat to their “people pleaser “ program be it bad grades or bad choices, kids cringe. Even the worst behaved child wants the love of their parents. It is only when it becomes very unhealthy that we need to be concerned and not afraid to ask for assistance.
Stress Relief
Study experts at The Princeton Review recommend a few simple tips to help parents and students deal with test-time stress.
Exercise: Exercise can be an excellent way to recharge batteries and reduce stress around exam time.
Care packages: There’s nothing like a care package from parents to lighten students’ stress and let them know they are rooting for them. Include items such as stress toys, a classical music CD and healthy snacks such as nuts, chewing gum or dried fruit.
Create a calming and productive atmosphere: An effective study area should have good lighting and ventilation, a comfortable chair and space large enough to spread out materials.
Chew gum: The gum experts at Wrigley recommend chewing gum to relieve stress and tension and to help increase focus and concentration during studying and test-taking.
Photo: Ingo Bernhert/Flickr
Having taught post secondary students I think they lack agency: they don’t think they are capable of tackling any course by any instructor and pass it via their own effort. Instead they think the prof has to be an easy marker or like them (tough in classes of 400+ where we don’t know their names). They miss final exams because they forgot or wrote down the wrong date/time…this info in online…then want special accommodation. Just have never learned to take care of their own stuff…sad because they are mostly great young people.