How Does School Impact Teenagers’ Mental Health?

For years, researchers and specialists have been becoming increasingly concerned about the mental health of teenagers. The number of mental illnesses are climbing, suicide rates are skyrocketing, and now to top it all off, a global pandemic has happened, changing the world as we know it. 

In an article written by Sara Nelson on Iowa College of Education website, it states, “One in six children in the United States has a mental health disorder. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 24, and suicide rate among ages 10 to 24 has increased by 56 percent in two decades.” 

Every day students feel pressure to get good grades, fit in, complete homework, socialize, get the recommended hours of sleep while preparing for their future. “I’m very stressed every day. I think I’m stressed because of the workload. Very overwhelmed,” freshman Gianna Riggs said.

Ever since the pandemic hit, schools have been scrambling to move everything online. Everything was very sudden. One minute students were going to school as usual, they had a schedule to follow, they interacted with friends and could freely go about as they pleased. Then the next thing they were at home, quarantined, listening to their teachers talk through the speakers and having to see their friends’ faces through a screen.

In an article from Inside Higher Ed by Lilah Burke, she interviewed Joseph Janes, a professor at The University of Washington. He said, “The level of stress, the level of uncertainty and anxiety is just really high, and for understandable reasons. People are managing and doing the best they can and particularly trying to reassure students and stay in touch with students, many of whom are feeling very anxious, very stressed in a deeply uncertain time for all of us.”

Students now have to worry about their physical health as well as their mental health, family and friends’ health, number of homework assignments and due dates and zoom meeting times. It’s enough to make anyone very stressed. 

Students all over America have expressed worry about how schools are handling the pandemic. 

“Diluted hand sanitizer isn’t as effective. And we’re sitting by people we have not already been exposed to,” Riggs said.

In a CNN article titled ‘Schools are 2 months into reopening under Covid-19 and no one’s officially keeping track of how it’s going’ by Annie Grayer, it includes a picture of a crowded hallway. The caption underneath reads: “Hannah Watters said she was concerned about safety in North Paulding High School when she posted this photo to social media.” This adds more worries, anxiety, and stress on students who already had plenty to begin with.

COVID has changed a lot of things. Schools are following guidelines to keep their students psychically safe, but what about mentally? Some students may have bad home environments and now keeping up with online schooling may put their mental health at even more risk. Low-income students are at a disadvantage because their families may not be able to afford internet for online school.  Also, low-income students may have to worry about how their parents are going to pay the bills, when their next meal is going to come from, etc. 

Low-income students are struggling more with their education than others. According to the United States Census website, “Lower-income households were less likely to report computer and internet availability for educational purposes, compared with higher-income households. In addition to the disparities in access, low-income households may have lower levels of internet and computer proficiency, competing priorities and/or (in ordinary times) children attend schools that are not well equipped to provide online instruction. “ This may put even more pressure on them and they may even struggle more with their mental health than before the pandemic.

The way schools are run today is negatively impacting students’ mental health. In order to improve teenagers’ mental health, schools themselves are considering undergoing some changes to lift the everyday pressure off of their students’ shoulders. Some changes may be mental health days to allow students breaks when needed without worrying about having to catch up and work themselves overtime to make up for the work they’ve missed. 

“I think we should definitely normalize taking mental health days and allow for at least one-two days per semester for a mental health day.  The reason for this is because mental health is just as important as physical health,” social studies teacher Sarah Walczak said. “You can’t perform to your best potential if you’re overstressed, overburdened, or just plain tired.  Life in general is hard, and it’s ok to take breaks and do things that you enjoy to help you ‘recharge’ and feel ready to tackle the harder stuff.”

Additional changes may be later school starting times to allow students to catch up on much needed sleep and for students’ brains to properly wake up, and fewer homework hours so that students may spend time with families, converse with friends, or just relax.

Since COVID, schools have had to change the way they teach. “As much as this current setup is hard, I think the COVID crisis has created a lot of opportunities and some space for educators and students to rethink how we teach and learn.  Pre-COVID students were expected to learn in pretty much the same way (same time, same pace, same content), but I think with our current situation we’re forced to be more open about when and where students learn.” Walczak said. “I think we need to push further and think about how to deliver content that’s more meaningful and reflects the current time period we live in.  Also, we know a lot about how the brain learns, and the way we teach currently with seven isolated content classes may not be the best way to get students to learn.”

Different learning experiences may put more harm and pressure on students. “It can cause a lot of stress not only for Virtual, but for Hybrid students as well. Being able to self manage and keep all on-line tasks in order is time-consuming,” guidance counselor Christopher Muench said. “Some students (and adults) struggle with this type of learning environment.  It’s best to set a visual schedule and remember to balance by getting outside and doing things you enjoy…while social distancing of course.”

“We need to be more open to thinking about how we can teach in ways that show the connections between different content areas and give students more flexibility and choice,” Walczak said. “I’m not sure how that actually works, but I think we should use this time to get creative and reimagine school as a place where all students thrive, not just “survive”.”