The Five Main Sources of Stress Amongst Youth

In our lives, the feeling of stress is not a strange feeling; it is a familiar feeling that we face in the countless amount of situations that we have to go through. Stress can come to us unexpectedly, and sometimes it may even get us startled. After all, Segal et al. (2023) highlighted that:

“Stress is your body’s way of responding to any kind of demand or threat.”

Our everyday lives are filled with surprises, and thus, it is filled with a myriad of situations that gives us this “demand or threat.” While adults are more experienced, youth face more stress because of more surprises coming at them when they have less experience. Although there are countless amount of situations that gives us stress, they all come back to five main sources of stress. In this article, these five main sources are listed below. Along with these five sources, there certainly are ways to minimize stress, which are also shown below!

Source 1: School

First, school is the most common and dominant source of stress for most youth. From balancing between school work and life, to dealing with material that takes time to learn, there are many scenarios that can make the school experience stressful. There are two powerful factors that cause school to become stressful for students, especially with youth. These two factors are: procrastination and assessments.

1. Procrastination is a huge factor that leads to a stressful school experience. For most students, their exhaustion and anxiety may outweigh their encouragement to do their tasks, and cause them to decide to do it another time. However, there will always come a time where they would have to do their tasks, and usually by then, they will find themselves in a time crunch. By pushing off their tasks to a later time, students will have much more stress when they find that time is running out to do their tasks.
2. Assessments can be very daunting as students are looking forward to achieve a grade they wish to achieve. While this factor is not very evident in earlier grades, students usually become stressed when the learning material seems difficult. When a topic seems to not be clear to students, there is often that stress for what would happen if it appeared on an assessment. From this, students are rightfully stressed to study, but then, if the material seems to be too much, students can become too stressed. These assessments can vary from quizzes to tests to exams. When something seems to threat “more,” students are more stressed because of it.

Ways to minimize stress from school:

• Create a healthy schedule and try to stick to it (Make sure it is flexible for school and other things)
• Decide when and where you study best
• Ask for help when needed
• Break your harder tasks into easier steps instead
• Allow room for error in your learning

Source 2: Pressure from friends and family

Second, peer pressure from friends and family is another common source of stress amongst youths. Especially when it comes to trying to fit in with the group, peer pressure can bring demand or threat to you. The influence of other people plays a role with, or maybe against, someone’s identity. As youths start to adapt to new environments, like in school, neighbourhoods, or hobbies, being accepted is a common goal in these new environments. Achieving these goals are sometimes easy, but when they are not easy, feeling pressured to achieve them causes you to feel stressed instead. Peer pressure usually comes from two things: friends and family. There are differences in the peer pressure that these two different things provide:

1. In the pursuit of trying to be accepted, youths are often pressured by friends to do things that are beyond what they would want to do. Friends can positively pressure you to do good and comfortable things. However, they could also pressure you to do things you would not wish to do and reduce your self-esteem. Stress usually occurs from these “demands,” and pressure youths to live up to these expectations from friends. While positive peer pressure is good and not very stressful, negative peer pressure often leads to stress.
2. The pressure we experience from our family is almost always from the idea of living up to someone’s expectations. Especially when it comes to school work, family expectations can bring a lot of stress for it. When youths fall into procrastination or misunderstanding, the pressure from family contributes to more stress for youth. Other pressures from family can be from taking care of any siblings, aiming for a major they want, but the youth doesn’t, etc.. . Living up to family expectations can become a very stressful goal to achieve.

Ways to minimize stress from friends and family:

• Learn to say NO when you do not want to do something
• Choose friends wisely
• Isolate yourself when you are too stressed from friends and family
• Enjoy what you’re doing
• Take care of yourself

Source 3: Negative perspective on themselves

Third, a negative perspective on themselves is another common source of stress amongst youth. Similar to feeling pressured from others, a negative perspective on yourself leads to the fear to change who you are. Being hard on yourself always leads to the “demand” to change the person that you are. While the only thing that can cause this source of stress to occur is yourself, this source is often underestimated. The stress of changing yourself always comes from the self-talk of excessive negativity. When this stress becomes too much, devastating things could happen to a person, especially to youth with a young age.

Ways to minimize stress from a negative perspective of yourself:

• Allow room for error and imperfection (humans are not perfect!)
• Think of good things that you have done instead
• Let your inner-critic also be a friend, not just an enemy (“you are your own worst enemy”)

Source 4: Adapting through big changes

Fourth, having to adapt through a big changes can cause stress amongst youth. Obtaining stress from this source will vary between adults and youths because of their differences in experiences. When a youth has to adapt through a new experience, it is likely that is not easy for them at first. Especially when a big change happens suddenly, like the death of a family member, stress challenges our ability to adapt. There are countless amount of different scenarios of changes that all youths go through. However, with youths, there are two dominant areas of change that they face in their childhood. These two areas are: social and family.

Note: When youths grow up, they are guaranteed to experiences more areas of changes, but these two are the main areas in childhood.

1. Socially, a big change for youth can be a situation like moving homes, schools, or even cities. The uncertainty of the new setting forces youths to be “on edge,” and become stressed instead of welcomed. In a social change, stress comes from having to adapt to a new place. On a social and emotional view, adapting to a new place can cause loneliness at first and/or people to miss old friends.
2. With family, a big change for youth can happen when a relationship “breaks off.” With divorce rates increasing since the 1970s, there are also more youth facing the big change from these divorces. Along with parents, siblings can also cause stress in the family. While having siblings alone could cause stress, having to separate into your own lives can cause stress to occur too. Adapting through these family changes can cause an immeasurable amount of stress as family is often a huge part of the lives of individuals.

Ways to minimize stress from having to adapt through big changes:

• Build resilience for yourself
• Understand that it is acceptable if you cannot handle it yet
• Focus on yourself (For example: a deceased family member would want you to keep being yourself)

Source 5: Unrealistic expectations

Fifth, setting unrealistic expectations can cause stress amongst youth. Setting expectations is a necessary asset for someone to improve themselves. However, when someone does not seem to achieve their expectations, it is easy for them to blame themselves. Youth can be impatient and wish to achieve their goals in a quick manner, blaming themselves when they can’t. When youth set an unrealistic expectation for themselves and keeps trying to achieve it, more stress comes due to being impatient, especially when they expected themselves to master it very quickly. Youth setting unrealistic expectations for themselves can cause stress from trying to live up to their own expectations when they realistically cannot.

Ways to minimize stress from setting unrealistic expectations:

• Be aware of the time and energy you would have to make (If it is too much, then beware)
• Break your expectation down into goals instead (For example: If you want to climb a mountain, reach the bottom of it first)
• Allow room for error with your abilities

For youth, stress is a big part of their lives. In fact, according to survey from the American Psychology Association teenagers reported higher stress levels than adults. When an individual experiences something new for the first time, stress is common to occur. The five sources mentioned were: school, pressure from friends and family, negative perspective on themselves, adapting through big changes, and unrealistic expectations. These five sources are almost guaranteed to have happened in an individual’s childhood. While stress is a necessity to move forward and adapt in life, youth experience a lot of stress. The only actual problem with stress is only when it is too much for a person. When there is too much stress for a person, it is very easy for them to suffocate because of it. As humans, stress is natural, but it is our duty to watch over it and ensure it is still a healthy amount, especially amongst youth.

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Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9