Academic pressure: Are you getting enough?
Do your parents put too much pressure on you to succeed in school? If so, you could be in the minority. A recent publication by the Pew Research Center found that 64 percent of Americans think that parents are not putting enough pressure on their kids to do well in school--more than in any other country surveyed.
Really? Not enough pressure?
The results may come as a surprise. Have things really changed so much since a 2003 Gallup poll in which two-thirds of responding American teens said their parents put a great deal (22 percent) or some (41 percent) pressure on them to get into a good college?
"I think it really depends on the family," said Aniya Atasuntsevsa, 20, a third-year student at New York University.
"Personally, my mom didn't put much pressure on me and I think that helped. But I had friends in high school who were really smart and reacted opposite to the pressure their parents put on them and decided not to do the work," she said.
In fact, Anxiety.org, a website affiliated with the University of California at Los Angeles, reports that too much academic pressure can lead to sleep deprivation, eating disorders, depression, excessive worrying, cheating and burnout.
Striking the right balance
So what is the right amount of pressure to make students successful? Seth Geffner, a counselor at Santa Rosa High School in Santa Rosa, Calif., faces this question daily on the job.
"It always depends on the individual student. Some kids are super high achievers, with internal motivation to succeed, and we should be pushing them. But some kids can't handle that," said Geffner.
In an era of standardized testing and competitive college admissions, finding the right balance between too little pressure and too much pressure on students can be challenging. While it's easy to equate higher SAT scores with better academic performance, identifying the best route to student success may be more complicated.
"What does that mean to be successful in school? Graduating high school? Going to trade school? Getting into a four-year school? Success means different things to different people," Geffner said.
Transitioning to college
For Sarah Hadburg, 21, a fourth-year student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), there was no doubt that success in school meant getting into a competitive college.
"I do think the pressure was at an all-time high in high school. I was surrounded by motivated and brilliant peers, and we were all working to get into specific four-year universities. It was difficult to feel as though we weren't competing with one another," Hadburg said in an email.
Getting into college, however, has only changed the type of pressure Hadburg feels.
"This sense of competition has lessened since I've been in college; I find my classmates now to be supportive and helpful," she said. "That being said, the pressure to succeed hasn't subsided, since I know I need to do well to get a job and get into graduate school. So it's just manifested itself in different ways."
Hadburg's experience mirrors a 2007 Associated Press/MTV survey showing that among 13- to 17-year-olds, school is the most commonly mentioned source of stress, while among 18- to 24-year-olds, jobs and financial matters beat out academic pressure as the source of stress.
Staying motivated
This pressure on college students to achieve job success may be increasing in this tough economy.
A recent study by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University reported that a large percentage of college graduates are having a difficult time finding full-time, permanent jobs with benefits that lead to satisfying careers.
Learning to stay motivated in this climate is critical to success. Geffner tries to connect academic achievement to future career success when working with students.
"We should really be helping students establish goals, and then we as educators and parents should put pressure on them to meet those goals. As I talk to kids, the ones who have no goals--beyond the next day--don't go far. Goal-setting is really important to staying motivated," he said.
Atasuntsevsa subscribes to the same wisdom.
"Set personal goals for what you want out of each class. It's much easier to do busy work if you have personal goals," she said.
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