Stress in Students

Stress among students is a common phenomenon. Its intensity has increased over the past couple of decades. Students are required to acquire more specialized skills, and become more competitive. The competition has toughened with globalization. Countries are exporting and importing more commodities and services. The need of the hour is more innovation, ingenuity, and ideas.

The common sources of stress for students are:

Parents
Most often than not parents play a vital role in alleviating or aggravating their child’s stress. In a social world, a family tends to follow societal trends. For example, a globetrotting architect is looked at in awe (and why not!) or masters’ graduates in math or chemistry are revered. These are just some common examples to show the reactions to achievements in the society. But these should not be made parameters to judge a child’s ambitions in life. Every child is different.

Friends
Student’s contract lifestyle related stress, which is inadvertently influenced by group behavior. For example, mobile phones, cars, bikes, girlfriends, boyfriends etc are wanton distractions in student life. Although these are unavoidable, they do create an iota of desire in the student’s mind that leads to stress. It is always recommended that students be counseled on choosing friends and a lifestyle.

Academics
Academics are probably the most daunting of hurdles students face in their everyday lives. Don’t we sometimes think, “I’m glad I am through with my student life”. Just imagine the life of students in an ever-evolving world, where there are new things to learn everyday, from a young age.

So what are the ways to deal with it? Here are some quick points.

- Parents need to understand the importance of recognizing a child’s core strengths and actively participating in the educational and subsequent career development of the student based on those strengths.

- Students need to be encouraged to work along a timetable. They should be taught the value of time management, and how it affects results at studies and life.

- Students need to be given an identity based on their personalities and not on their grades. A student’s core area of skill should be identified through assessment centers from an early age. This will give the student an understanding and awareness of his/her core strengths. Many times students up to their early twenties can’t think for themselves, and look up to support.