Gretchen Gilbert, Corey Earnshaw, Connor Scullin

Mrs. Kusinitz

Writing 104

11 January 2018

Stress Causes Clippers to Wreck

“I normally breakdown” confessed Jordan Stanford, a senior in high school. “I often get

stressed if work gets piled on top of each other in a short amount of time, it hinders me to get

done other things outside of school that I need to do,” Jordan explained. He revealed that this is

his initial response to stress. Jordan described the night before he was preparing for his Spanish

final. While trying to practice his speaking, he stuttered often and sometimes even paced around

his room. He stayed up all night trying to memorize the words he could not yet master. He

emphasized the need to do well on the test. The possibility of failure along with the extensive

pressure from his parents is very stressful for him. Often he does not know how to cope with this

stress and this results in a “breakdown.” But Jordan is not alone. He is just one of many high

school students that are experiencing a problem that is prominent in many of our nation’s

schools. The numerous high expectations that high school students face is the cause for the

increase in dangerous stress levels in high schools across the country.

Teenagers have always been given the life-long label of “carefree youth.” Yet the

majority of current students at Cumberland High School, the high school in which Jordan

attends, would disagree.

Stress is defined as the "nonspecific

response of the body to any demand"

(Selye, 1976). Cumberland High School students are certainly having responses to the immense

demands they are under. In the large suburb of Cumberland, Rhode Island, the district’s culture

creates an atmosphere opposite to that of “carefree” and this is shown through the student’s

persistent stress during their academic career.

More noticeably, juniors and seniors seem to experience more stress than underclassmen.

The large school of 1,379 has recently boasted the new path of development to prepare their

students to be “post-secondary eligible and post-secondary ready,” (Tenreiro, NEASC). The

demanding undertaking of determining your future after high school while managing the duties

of being in high school do not go unnoticed. CHS junior Sydney Crowe is currently struggling

with this issue. She explains, “I’ve usually been a stressed student as a freshman and sophomore

because I wanted to keep my grades up, but now I feel like I am stressed because I have too

many things to worry about. Sports and schoolwork were manageable for me but college

planning pushes me over the edge.”

A current teacher and former student at CHS, Christina Gagliardo, encountered similar

experiences as students today when she attended Cumberland High School. She reported that

“​the schoolwork [she] had each week and getting it done with good grades” was the source of a

considerable amount of her stress during her junior and senior years. She added, “It was the

content and the workload that would be stressful. I often waited until the last minute to complete

assignments so that didn't help.” Although stress has been a constant through generations of

Cumberland High School students, the degree and source of stress appears to have changed. ​In a

survey conducted at Cumberland High School, of which only juniors and seniors were polled,

out of the 100 respondents, about one fifth answered that they felt their stress levels on an
average school day reached a 7 on a 1-10 scale. In accordance with the poll results, the

American Psychological Association (APA) reported that teens believe their stress level during

the school year is higher than what is healthy. The APA conducted this study online during the

summer of 2013 and collected data from 1,950 adults and 1,018 teens. The study revealed that,

“during the school year, teens say their stress level is higher than levels reported by adults in the

past month.” The CEO of the APA, Norman B. Anderson, stated in the study’s conclusions that

“it is alarming that the teen stress experience is so similar to that of adults.” Most teens today are

experiencing stress levels that are equivalent to that of adults - a trend that has only started

appearing within the last decade.

According to about 60% of the polled students from Cumberland High School, school is

the primary stressor in their life. Post-secondary planning was the second most popular stressor

with about 20% of the responses.​ Nationally, researchers found that ​“83 percent of teens said that

school was ‘a somewhat or significant source of stress’” and “twenty-seven percent reported

‘extreme stress’ during the school year” (Ossola). So why exactly are Cumberland High School

students as well as students across the nation stressed about school?

 One might think it is simply because of the heavy workload, which at times is the

problem, however nowadays students possess a fear of failure. Senior at CHS, Paul Barry reveals

that he “always fear[s] that [he’s] not going to do good.” “If I don’t do good,” he continued, “I

think that I am going to disappoint myself and my mom.” As a result of his parents’

expectations, he feels as though he is not succeeding if he is not getting an A.

It seems that now more than ever there is added pressure from parents, teachers, and

often times the students themselves to do well in school. Alexandra Ossola from ​The Atlantic

stated, ​“It’s more competitive than ever to get into college...”​ Not only do students have to

compete for admission into college, they also have to compete for scholarships and financial aid.

In order for a student to pay for their education, it is almost impossible to avoid taking out loans

and having to pay back their student debt later on in life, when they have other expenses such as

a house or family. Aa reported by ​Forbes​, in the United States alone, the total combined student

loan debt is 1.31 trillion dollars. Because most students and their parents don’t want to live the

rest of their life in debt, they are more likely to place extra pressure on themselves or their

children which can add additional stress to a student’s life.

In accordance with the CHS-conducted poll, college is a stressor for both seniors and

juniors. However, for juniors specifically it is the process of visiting schools and researching

them as well. Paul also added that he felt his junior year was one of the most stressful “because

of college and everything. That's the most recent grades you're sending to college so you want to

make a good impression.” Jordan concurred stating that the “most stressful” year of his high

school career was junior year as well.

 Many students also struggle with personal setbacks in their life. Jordan recalled, “I had

surgery in the middle of the school year,” and explained that “with the pressure of how important

junior year is, it gave me a lot of stress.” These personal setbacks are often added stressors that

happen behind the scenes. Paul also conveyed that during his sophomore year he received a

severe concussion and was “basically not able to do school work for the first semester and a

half.” The increased workload and pressure of college planning already causes stress levels to

rise, but students who experience outside stress due to injury often reach maximum levels of

stress.

Mary Gwadz, the senior research scientist at the NYU College of Nursing states that,

“these experiences can cause kids to burn out by the time they get to college, or to feel the

psychological and physical effects of stress for much of their adult lives” (Ossola). However,

these students are feeling these effects now. Stress can have major physical and psychological

effects on students. These include, reduced ability to sleep, increased irritability and aggression,

anxiety, depression, and other life-altering symptoms. According to the Anxiety and Depression

Association of America, 25% of adolescents aged 13-18 have some form of anxiety. Senior Paul

Barry revealed that he is someone affected by anxiety. His anxiety is at its worst on test days:

“My mind gets really negative and my body makes me feel like I’m sick,” he professes. However

Paul has learned how to overcome his test anxiety. He states, “Sometimes I take tests where I’m

more comfortable like in the guidance office or with another teacher. Sometimes there's just

times where that's not possible but you just have to push through and reassure yourself that it's

possible and you can do it.”

 However, “A little stress and in moderation can be helpful to high schoolers in so many

ways. It motivates them to study, to do better. It helps push them,” says Mary Alvord, a

psychologist specializing in teens told ​Atlantic. ​CHS student Jordan Stanford concurred with this

statement stating, “I do feel stressed often times but it is not always a bad thing...On a normal

day during the school year I’m stressed enough to the point where I am most productive. If I am

not stressed I find myself to be tired and not want to do anything, but if I am over stressed I also

don't want to do anything. Somewhere in the middle with a little bit of stress is ideal for me.”

Finding this balance is the key to maintaining a successful future.

With the increase of stress levels, comes an increase in the need to alleviate stress.

Multiple responses from the CHS-conducted poll listed listening to music, sleeping, exercising,

engaging in a favored activity, and planning ahead as popular ways to relieve stress. The

Cleveland Clinic lists deep breathing exercises, meditation, progressive muscle relaxation,

mental imagery relaxation, counseling, and more as healthy methods of relieving stress. Other

more proactive approaches to easing stress offered by the clinic were exercising regularly, taking

better control of your life, and asserting yourself by saying “no” more often. Engaging in some

form of stress relief is suggested and often essential to surviving high school.

In a world where stress seems to be all around, current high school students and the

future generations of students should be taught proper ways to handle their stress. Norman B.

Anderson CEO of the APA advised, ​“in order to break this cycle of stress and unhealthy

behaviors as a nation, we need to provide teens with better support and health education at

school and home, at the community level and in their interactions with healthcare professionals.”
Just like most issues in the world, an increase in awareness and education will help future

generations to better understand, recognize, and cope with the sources and effects of stress.

Perhaps schools such as Cumberland High School need to be more considerate of the

immense pressures being put on juniors and seniors. Whether it is the expenses of college,

school workload, their social life, or their job, students have been placed in a position to be

stressed. This issue ultimately begins with the negative culture and climate that American

students like those at CHS are surrounded by. This starts with the ideals and beliefs of each

community. In order to make an impact, any contribution to alleviating this problem can be as

simple as being more considerate towards juniors and seniors going through this transitional

period in their life.

Works Cited

Armacost, Robert L. "High School Student Stress and the Role of Counselors." November 1990:

p. 105. ​AskRI​. Web. 14 December 2017.

Barry, Paul. Personal Interview. 5 Jan. 2018.

Crowe, Sydney. Personal Interview. 3 Jan. 2018.

Friedman, Zack. “Student Loan Debt In 2017: A 1.3 Trillion Crisis”. ​Forbes​. Forbes, 21 Feb.

2017. Web. 17 Jan. 2018.

Gagliardo, Christina. Personal Interview. 21 Dec. 2017.

National Institute of Mental Health. ​Any Anxiety Disorder Among Children. ​Web. 7 January

2018.
New England Association of Schools and Colleges. ​Transforming Student Achievement. ​Nov.

2015. Web. 7 Jan. 2018.

Ossola, Alexandra. “High-Stress High School.” ​The Atlantic​. 9 October 2015. Web. 7 January

2018.

Stanford, Jordan. Written Interview. 3 Jan. 2018.

“Stress: 10 Ways To Ease Stress.”​Cleveland Clinic. ​5​ ​Sep. 2014. Web. 15 January 2018.

United States. American Psychological Association. ​2014 American Psychological Association

Survey Shows Teen Stress Rivals That of Adults​. 11 February 2014. Web. 7 January 2018.