So, does your life seem busy and hectic? Well, we have news for you. Many of today’s mid-adolescents are busier, and they’re not enjoying it any more than you are!

The Reality of Their Lives

As David Elkind wrote in his classic study, The Hurried Child: “Today’s child has become the unwilling, unintended victim of overwhelming stress—the stress borne of rapid, bewildering social change and constantly rising expectations.”

David Brooks of the Weekly Standard wrote about the stress felt by students at prestigious universities: “Their main lack is time. Students boast to each other about how little sleep they’ve gotten and how long it’s been since they had a chance to get back to their dorm room.”

Adolescents’ lack of time in high school and college is a consistently mentioned plague. For some, this is fueled by a desire to have a full résumé. Most kids competing for spots in elite colleges and universities are well aware the game is less about brainpower and more about tenacity and sheer determination.

By their junior year of high school, many want (most of them say “need”) more money, which almost always means finding a job. Research has shown that getting even a part-time job exponentially adds to the level of stress and busyness in the life of a mid-adolescent.

According to the American Psychological Association, students who work 20 or more hours a week during the school year are “more emotionally distressed, have poorer grades, are more likely to smoke cigarettes, and are more likely to become involved in other high-risk behaviors, such as alcohol and drug use.”

The Sources of Stress

A popular assumption is that adolescents, being older and more street-wise than children, are less vulnerable to stressors. Because of the added burdens of abandonment, social fragmentation and being forced to live in layers, kids are even more prone to stress with fewer triggers needed to push them over the edge.

Three pressure points, while perhaps not overwhelming for all students, seem to have a significant impact on the emotional equilibrium of most. Let’s examine them in turn.

1) The Stress of Success

The pressure to succeed is the source of much stress. The quest for success leads students to an elusive, but powerful, sense that they are never quite good enough. When students do something well, they believe it’s only a step toward adequate performance; failure stalks them at every turn.

We encountered few students who allowed themselves to do their best in a given arena and then let the chips fall where they may. When someone did well on a test or had a great tennis match, the time for celebration was short-lived. The pressure to continue to reach loftier heights was the defining sentiment.

As one student remarked, acting as a spokesperson for several others in a small-group setting, “We feel an incredible pressure to succeed in every area, or it all will fall apart.”