Treating technology executives: Understanding tech industry mental health
Academic pressure in students goes beyond the classroom. More than half of all students report feeling stressed every day, and adolescents who report higher levels of academic pressure in their early teens frequently exhibit more severe depressive and self-harm symptoms in their later teenage years. Student mental health has been on the decline over the past 10 years—today, only 38% of students report positive mental health compared to 51% a decade ago.
Beyond academic skill, students must learn stress management in order to ensure their long-term success. Intense academic pressure in students doesn’t encourage kids to learn; it pushes them toward worse mental health outcomes. Decreased self-worth, social isolation, sleep problems, and reduced-self esteem are all potential consequences of academic pressure in students.
The good news—academic pressure is considered to be a modifiable risk factor, meaning interventions can help mitigate the mental health consequences associated with academic stress.
How to handle test anxiety in students
Test anxiety is a manifestation of academic pressure in students that refers to the worry and fear triggered by the negative experience with exams, leading to adverse psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions. The vast majority of university students experience test anxiety and report feeling uneasy or having difficulty concentrating due to compromised functioning and fear of failure.
It is important to distinguish between test anxiety, which is debilitative, and a moderate level of stress that is facilitative. We need a little bit of stress in order to feel physically and mentally sharp, but once the scales are tipped, we jump into an anxious state. Test anxiety actually decreases test performance, as it can impair working memory.
If we are not able to change the structure of the academic program, we can work on helping the student gain the skills needed to weather the storm and handle test anxiety easily.
Mindfulness-based interventions, the practice of increasing awareness in thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations, have demonstrated significant benefits in reducing test anxiety.
Here are some ideas for mindfulness interventions for student stress management:
Mindful breathing practices: Pre-exam diaphragmatic breathing can help with nervous system regulation.
Box breathing: Inhaling for four counts, holding for four counts, exhaling for four counts, and holding for another four counts can help trigger the parasympathetic nervous system and increase feelings of calm.
Grounding exercises: If a student enters into a state of panic, they can reorient themselves to their space by identifying five things they can see, four things they can feel, three things they can hear, two things they can smell, and one thing they can taste.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the evidence-based practice of connecting thoughts, feelings, and behavior, can also be helpful in reducing test anxiety.
Teaching students to identify and challenge cognitive distortions such as catastrophizing (e.g., “I will fail out of school if I don’t ace this quiz”) or emotional reasoning (e.g., “I feel anxious about this paper, so I must be stupid”), can help with decreasing anxiety and increasing test performance.
What about parental academic pressure?
Parental engagement with students and their schools improves educational outcomes, including school attendance, higher grades, and improved test scores. Parental pressure, on the other hand, does the opposite. Parental involvement can either reduce or intensify academic pressure in students, making supportive communication essential for long-term success.
Research shows that when parents place excessively high expectations on their children, not only do grades drop, but self-efficacy decreases. Increased parent-child conflict may also explain this relationship.
Here is how parental pressure differs from parental support across five key dimensions:
Focus
Parental pressure (stressor): Outcome-focused, prioritizing GPA, metrics, and class rank.
Parental support (healthy resource): Focuses on effort and process, encouraging curiosity, praising work ethic, and applauding dedication.
Expectations
Parental pressure (stressor): Unrealistically high, failing to account for the child’s personal abilities or mental health.
Parental support (healthy resource): Appropriately set, considering the child's strengths and abilities, while setting goals for growth rather than parental ego.
Communication
Parental pressure (stressor): Unilateral, demanding excellence and communicating almost exclusively about outcomes.
Parental support (healthy resource): Collaborative, using active, reflective listening focused on healthy goal setting and the student's interests.
Response to adversity
Parental pressure (stressor): Punitive, involving anger, name-calling, or withdrawal of approval when performance falls below expectations.
Parental support (healthy resource): Supportive and focused on problem-solving, exploring emotional experiences around setbacks and creating a clear plan for the future.
How to prevent burnout due to academic pressure
When academic pressure among students becomes chronic, it can contribute to burnout and declining mental health.
Parents, teachers, and mental health professionals can all proactively monitor for signs of academic burnout, including:
Chronic fatigue and emotional exhaustion
Cynicism and drop in motivation to learn
Declining grades despite increased hours of study
Lack of enjoyment in previously enjoyed activities and social withdrawal
Learning how to balance extracurricular activities is an essential aspect of preventing burnout. While moderate levels of involvement can serve as a protective factor for mental health, extreme levels of engagement are associated with anxiety and burnout.
When schedules are rigid and overly stuffed, students lose the developmental skill of learning how to structure their own time. Furthermore, the chronic sleep deprivation caused by over-scheduling leaves students vulnerable to mental and physical exhaustion.
Students can’t prevent burnout entirely on their own; student stress management requires a systemic, multi-level approach:
Individual level: Encourage students to add self-care and downtime into their schedule. Have students engage in mindfulness practice, prioritize sleep hygiene, and include peer socialization time.
Family level: Provide psychoeducation for families to help them understand the connection between pressure, burnout, and depression.
School level: Advocate for reduced student academic pressure, more flexibility, and in-school mental health resources.
Clinical level: Proactively screen students for symptoms of burnout. If using standardized measures, The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS) is one validated survey to use.
What about college preparation?
Academic pressure in students often peaks during the college application process. This pressure from college preparation isn’t limited to academics, either—family dynamics, financial realities, and peer comparison can also come into play.
Creating a supportive space where students can discuss emotions about college preparation—either in a formal setting (e.g., therapy) or informal setting (e.g., social support)—can help with reducing anxiety.
To help with the emotional weight of choosing a college, try these clinical student stress management strategies:
Shift the framework: Restructure thinking from the “best school” to the “best fit” based on the student’s personal learning style, emotional needs, and values.
Teach “coping ahead”: Using elements from DBT, provide the student skills to “cope ahead” with any challenges the admissions process may bring. Mentally rehearsing how they will handle possible rejections will decrease anxiety and boost distress tolerance.
Coach reflective parenting techniques: Encourage parents to interact with their teen as allies rather than rigid taskmasters, keeping conversations focused on understanding their teen rather than keeping a checklist.
How to work with schools to lower academic pressure in students
Addressing academic pressure in students requires collaboration among families, schools, and mental health professionals. While schools can serve as a stressor, they may also serve as a primary point of systemic intervention. School-based programs, including individual school counseling and peer support groups, have been found to be effective interventions for student mental health.
Should a student seek mental health care for stress management from an outside provider, that clinician can only coordinate directly with the school after obtaining a formal, written release of information (ROI)—signed by the student, or by their parents if the student is under 18. With a signed ROI in place, outside providers can assist families in advocating for Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) or 504 Plans if needed, helping clarify how clinical symptoms contribute to academic barriers. Then, the team can collaborate and identify accommodations that aid the student in reaching their academic potential.
Conclusion
Reducing academic pressure in students means shifting our focus away from “perfect” grades toward overall psychological health. When we teach students stress management skills and encourage rest and recovery, we help students learn the tools to prevent burnout.
Ultimately, a high GPA and perfect test scores are meaningless if a student is emotionally depleted. By prioritizing mental well-being alongside academic success, we help students develop not only the skills to succeed academically but also the resilience to thrive beyond the classroom.
Sources
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