The Future is Stress
By Lily Mastrobattista
As our world has progressed, Generations are entering a technological, politic heavy, and social world. Is the changing world around us influencing different behaviors making us adapt to our environment, or are we still going through the same struggles as generations in the past?
These past couples of years have been filled with controversial social issues, a highly debatable political field, and a world spiraling towards a technological-based society. I was born in the year 2002, a generation fresh out of the 90’s ready to explore the coming technological based 2000s. Who knew that the years to come would show significant changes in mental health and lifestyle surrounding a younger generation. As we see our societal environment changing, it is up to debate whether new generations like Gen Z are adapting and enduring changes, or are still going through the past struggles of previous generations.
Through many surveys and tests, the overall bold change that has been found in teens is the stress level. Stress is becoming a normal thing that teens endure each day which has differed from generations in the past. The pressure to succeed has surrounded Gen Z greatly. With school, social media, and national issues, pressure and stress have drastically increased in teenagers.
Over the past years, education has evolved into a competitive field for many students. From personal experience, I know that right as I entered high school and even before, my peers and I had the constant voice in our head yelling the word “college”. For many students, the concept of not going to college is never considered an option because this stigma of success that has been engraved into our minds from a young age.
However, this stigma has taken a toll on many students. In a study done by Denise Reynolds from Stanford, 44% of teens feel a strong pressure to succeed, more girls than boys. Even eight out of ten students feel that success is important “no matter what the cost and that it does not improve once someone gets out of school and into the workforce”. The idea that students are taking any steps they can show that this amount of stress is leading to unethical behavior. In fact, one out of ten students believes that it is necessary to cheat on each test in order to gain success. Denise Clark Pope, from Stanford University, said that “developmentally, teenagers find it difficult to see the long-term consequences of their choices. They respond instead to the immediate pressures to succeed…It’s not that they don’t know right from wrong…it’s that they see themselves as having no choice. They’ll say, ‘It’s not cheating, it’s survival.’”
Of course, cheating is nothing new and has been around for years as many would agree. However, it is not the cheating that is the leading factor in this issue, it is that kids feel that they must cheat in order to gain success. Getting the better grade is worth more to them because that is what will eventually be shown to a future college. Of course, high school is always going to be a stressful time for any teen, but why now is it that Gen Z and Millennials have become increasingly more stressed?
Recent surveys done by the American Psychological Association (APA) shows that stress and pressure levels are now higher in teens than they are in adults. This is an alarming factor. The study shows that during the school year students experience an average stress level of 5.8 out of 10 (1 being the least stress and 10 being the most). Since 3.9 is supposedly the normal stress level for a teen, this raises some concerns. Another concerning factor is that the average adult stress level is a 5.1, making teens more stressed than adults. Even during the summer, teens marked their stress as a 4.6, which is still above the considered normal level. Teenagers facing more stress than adults is a frightening factor no matter which way you approach it. To say that our generation is adapting to our surroundings would be correct, however, the way we are adapting is taking a serious toll on the generations’ mental health.
Some of the biggest problems reported were that 31% of teenagers felt overwhelmed by school and other societal factors. Another 30% felt sad or depressed. The pressure of school has become so intense that teenagers are mirroring adult stress-related symptoms. The pressure of success in school, college and everyday life has become stronger than ever due to our changing society. The mental and physical impacts that it is making is dangerous, more than one-third of teens skip meals regularly due to the added stress and the pressure to get everything done and completed. CBS News states that “Last year’s Stress in America survey found that millennials were the most stressed-out generation so far. In that survey, the 18 to 33-year-old group averaged a 5.4 stress level out of ten.” This survey and article were published in 2014; so you could infer that since then stress levels have increased even more in teens due to our changing society in the past few years.
The main question is where and why all of this stress is erupting and why is it happening so quickly? People magazine listed that for teens the impact of family, social media, school, college, and many social issues such as gun violence, women’s rights, etc. have provoked a huge impact on Gen Z. With college being more stressful than ever, social and political issues impacting the world, social media and with the added stress of just fitting in as a teenager, Gen Z has a lot on their plate.
Another study done by the APA evaluated stress in Gen Z, ages 15–21. As Gun violence, sexual assault and politics have dominated the news, teenagers are becoming very vocal about social and political issues. However, even with their voice, these social issues become a greater stressor to Gen Z. One of the biggest social stressors found in teenagers is gun violence.
Over the past decade, a horrific increase in school shootings and mass shootings have taken place in the U.S. With every new shooting, a new coat of fear emerges. The study showed that 75% of teens report that mass shooting is a stressor while in high populated public places. 72% of teens are concerned about a school shooting taking place in their own school. Many schools have taken steps to try and improve safety in schools. However, even with all the added safety measures in many schools and public places, 41% of students still feel that safety measures are not helping. This type of stress in teenagers is purely heartbreaking. Teenagers are fearing their life and stressing about it when they should be focused on normal teenage issues. Due to the amount of stress that these social issues are causing, a way of coping with them is to speak up, which explains why Gen Z has been so active politically in the past couple of years. Even with the increase in teenage activism, I personally believe that the unethical and unhealthy behaviors caused by stress are a way for teenagers to try and have some control over a part of their life. Although I wouldn’t consider it a coping mechanism it is a way that we as teenagers are adapting to this world and society.
Going back to the original question of whether future generations are adapting or are still going through the same struggles, the answer is both. As time has gone on, social issues have changed and overall childhood and teenage years have developed into a tense, pressure based time due to many of the stressful events that have taken place. Society and the events around this generation have caused an increase in stress, which is unfortunately how we are adapting to our environment. In generations past, there were still roaring social and political issues that I am sure sparked stress in the youth and adults, like for example in the ’50s and 60’s the scare of living in a post-WWII world. There is no doubt about it this time was extremely stressful and scary. Unfortunately, there are no survey averages of the stress level during those times.
However, I feel that the stress that teenagers are facing now is stress that many generations have not had to deal with until their adult years. Teenagers spend their time fearing the future of our country, facing an uprising in political and social issues. A huge shift in our country happened right in the years where teenagers now were just being born. Many believe that the September 11th attacks changed this country forever. Gen Z was born into and grew up in a post 9/11 America. That fear has been with us since the beginning and has traveled with us as more attacks have occurred. As the nation was adapting, we were growing. I feel that this timeline of events set our Generation up for a never-ending adaptation. The stress levels in Gen Z and even Millennials have reached a new peak due to the adaptations, the changes and struggles that they face have reached a new extreme compared to past generations. Social and political issues will continue to happen as time goes on, it will be intriguing to see how the next generations adapt to truly see the direct impact that our changing world has on our daily lives.
