Post on 24-Feb-2023
Running head: TEENAGE STRESS 1
Teenage stress
Ivy, Claire, Julie, and Kate
Group 1 - F05E – ITP - Banking Academy of Vietnam
TEENAGE STRESS 2
Abstract
Stress has now become a crucial part of the daily life. It
is rare to see someone leading a stress-free life in the modern
society. Obviously, teenagers, as social members, have to suffer
from stress. Nevertheless, not all teenagers are aware of the
fact that they are under stress. They can easily say “I am so
stressed” without perceiving if they are really stressed or not.
So, this research is to provide helpful information about teenage
stress including causes, consequences, and solutions so that
teenagers can acknowledge it.
Keywords: teenage stress, teenagers, causes, consequences, solutions
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Introduction
The adolescence is a vital turning-point in a person’s life.
Along with the new-found freedom and independence, adolescents
also have to deal with many issues that cause them unpleasant
feelings. Stress is one of those issues. We believe that stress
did exist in the previous times, but it has been getting more
serious with the change of the world. Today, teenagers’ lives are
under so much pressure from school, family and society. Having
realized that, we decided to do research about teenage stress.
The main purpose of this research is to bring an overview of
stress to teenagers so that they can understand clearly the
reasons that lead to their stressful lives, the consequences
caused by stress and finally, some useful ways to overcome it.
Our goal is to answer these three questions: “What makes
teenagers feel stressed?”, “How does stress affect their lives?”
and “How do they overcome it?” If we are able to answer them, it
is our success.
Method
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Participants
One hundred teenagers were randomly selected through
Facebook, a very popular social network, to do the survey. There
were 67 males and 33 females. Their ages are from 15 to 19 and
the average age is 17.5. The number 100 was chosen because it was
reasonable to analyze. Therefore, the result would also be
practical and precise. Participants voluntarily took part in this
survey.
Method and Procedure
The questionnaire was built up according to a proper order.
The first two questions were to ask about some personal habits.
The next three ones questioned directly about their stress
condition. Then the next three questions asked the participants
about how they react when they are stressed and how they overcome
stress. These eight questions had multiple choices. Six questions
had three to four answers, two questions were Yes or No
questions. The last question was to examine the participants’
knowledge of the food which they think is good for stressed
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people and the participants wrote theirs answers in the box which
was given below the question.
The questionnaire was made by an online survey tool which is
at http://www.surveytool.com and posted on two Facebook user’s
accounts.
Procedure
The participants had to answer all the questions by clicking
on the choices and typing the answer. Their answers were sent to
our e-mail address. After all receiving 100 e-mails, the result
was made according to the answers by calculating and then the
figures were expressed as percentage.
Results
The result was analyzed and put into the graphs below.
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Figure 1: How many hours do you spend sleeping a day?
The chart demonstrates that nearly half of the participants
sleep less than 8 hours a day, which is not enough for a
teenager. This means they do not have time for sleeping due to
many reasons. It can be homework overload, insomnia, etc.
Nowadays, teenagers have more pressure on their shoulders than
the previous generations. It can be seen clearly that teenagers’
lives has always been changing with the changing world. If the
24%
45%
31%
8 hours< 8 hours> 8 hours
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lack of sleep condition keeps occurring, adolescent people will
be extremely stressed. Fortunately, one-fourth of the
participants have enough sleeping time, 8 hours, and
approximately one-third of the teenagers who took part in the
survey sleep more than 8 hours a day.
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Figure 2: What makes you stress most?
This chart shows causes of stress in teenagers. Just under
half of the respondents (45%) feel stressed due to school. They
have to cope with homework increasing, examine pressure, etc.
Such circumstances lead to anxiety, depression, even suicide.
Family is another contributing factor towards teenage stress. One
fifth of respondents (20%) choose it as a cause of stress. The
expectations of all members in the family, especially parents are
so high that they weigh the children down. However, just over one
third of people (35%) believe that relationships are main causes
20%
45%
35%
FamilySchoolRelationships
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leading to their stress. This result reveals that stress is not
the problem for only adults; teenagers are also burdened with
many different types of it.
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Figure 3: What do you do to get over stress?
Talking with
friends
Shopping Taking part in outdoor activities
Eating Others0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%33%
6%
17% 18%
26%
This chart reveals the ways adolescence use to get over
stress. It can be seen clearly that one-thirds of respondents
(33%) chose talking with friends, twice as much as taking in
outdoor activities (17%) and eating (18%). This suggests that
chatting is known as the most effective way to release stress. It
is easily understood because friends are very important to
children. They are the ones who adolescence believe in and tend
to share everything with. One-tenths believed playing instruments
could help. Besides, there are small portions of shopping (6%)
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along with sleeping (5%). Surprisingly, some even have negative
thoughts such as self-cutting (1%) and smoking (6%).
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Figure 4: Have you ever thought in a negative way due to stress?
62%
38%
YesNo
This chart illustrates how many of the participants have
ever thought in a negative way. Unexpectedly, only 38% of them
have never done it before. It is thought that teenage years are
the time of a life. When people are at that age, they are
energetic, positive, and cheerful. However, nowadays, teenagers
are being so affected by stress that they have some negative
thoughts such as dropping school, leaving home, and committing
suicide. This is a serious problem for family, school, and
society.
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Figure 5: In your opinion, what kind of food is good for stressed
people?
Fruit
Vegeta...
Ice-cream
Chocolate
Water
Chicken
Alcohol
Cake
Coffee Eg
g0%5%10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%
48%
6%12% 10%
5% 3% 4% 5% 5%2%
This chart shows what kind of food teenagers think is good
for stressed people. Nearly half of the responses are fruit while
chocolate and ice-cream have only one-tenth for each. This is
pretty surprising because it is widely believed that people like
to eat sweets when they feel stressed. In addition, there are
other responses: vegetable (6%), water (5%), chicken (3%),
alcohol (4%), cake (5%), coffee (5%), and egg (2%). It can be
seen easily that these kinds of food are chosen by teenagers’
favorite. Some of them are good for health but some of them are
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not. This result also reveals that teenagers still do not know
what kind of food can help them get over stress.
Discussion
Nowadays, along with the change of the world, teenagers have
a more stressful life than the previous generations. Society,
family and school are putting a lot of pressure on them. At home,
they are expected to behave well, to do the household chores, and
to get good marks. Furthermore, some teenagers have to witness
domestic violence or they are the victims of it. Still, at
school, teachers want their students to not only study hard to
win a seat in a university but also participate in school
activities. They may also be bullied by their classmates due to
their ranks, their backgrounds and so on. To add up to teenage
pressure, society also expects teenagers to be good citizens, to
study hard to contribute to society. Relationship is the other
aspect of the society. Love quarrels, having a fight with their
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best friends have influences on teenagers, too. However, the
most popular pressure is studying pressure. Teenagers have to
study a lot. Obviously, with just 24 hours a day, studying much
means there is not much time left for entertainment, sleeping,
hanging out with friends. As a result, stress keeps increasing
continuously. To some extents, they will collapse, both
physically and mentally. This result leads to depression, suicide
commitment, aggression, withdraw from reality. The world has
always been changing but it also causes a huge issue for
teenagers, it is stress.
Stress is a natural reaction of the body. Different people
react to stress differently. For instance, a student’s stomach
suddenly aches before an exam, an interviewee cannot think
straight when he is answering a complicated question.
Scientifically, the effects of stress can be divided into two
types which are negative and positive.
Teenage stress is easily recognized through these three
reactions: aggression, depression, and withdrawal.
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Stress makes teenagers become much more aggressive.
Aggression is an outbreak of anger which occurs when many strong
unpleasant feelings are repressed at the same time. Under that
circumstance, people tend to cause harm to unleash their
feelings. Among teenagers, it occurs when they have too much
homework to do or are criticized by teachers. To make the matter
worse, there are conflicts between their parents. They use bad
language, talk back to their parents or even pick up fights at
school. The consequences are unpredictable.
Depression is another reaction when teenagers feel stressed.
According to Melinda Smith, M.A, Suzanne Barston, and Jeanne
Segal, (2012), there are many symptoms of depression such as
feeling useless or worthless about themselves, constantly
irritable, and unable to concentrate. It has great influences on
teens’ lives. For instance, they use stimulants like coffee,
cigarettes, wine, etc as a self-booster to overcome stress.
However, it is proven that using such things makes the situation
worse as well as increase stress.
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A lot of teenagers who are under stress find it difficult to
confide in anyone, so they choose to isolate themselves from the
society. They believe that there is no one standing by them and
that thought separates them from family and friends. Therefore,
no one can share thoughts and feelings with them. Moreover, when
withdrawal lasts for a long time, teenagers want to commit
suicide due to being tired of living.
Despite all of these, stress is not always dreadful as we
believe. Stress in short term can be a motivating factor. For
example, when a student has a deadline to be met, he will work
very hard even it means that he has to stay up all night.
Teenagers will not try their best if there is no motivation.
According to Sherry Obenauer (2012), there are thirteen ways
to get over stress. However, in the result of the survey, only
four of them were chosen. They are exercising regularly, eating,
sleeping and sharing with others. Each of them has its own
benefit.
To begin with, spending 30 minutes a day exercising
definitely is a good idea. Exercising is varied in many forms
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such as doing aerobics, swimming, working out and so on. It is
proven that doing aerobics can help the body not only become
flexible but also release a number of calming and healthy
chemicals. Moreover, these activities distract people from
stressful issues.
The next solution is eating healthily. What we eat and drink
affects greatly on how we think and behave. Foods containing fat,
cholesterol, and sugar along with drinks high in caffeine, sugar
and alcohol should be avoided as they cause many health problems
to our brains and bodies, such as headache, irritation,
incapability of concentrating, anxiety or heart-related disease.
Eating fruits, vegetables, grain, and calcium products is
recommended. Also, drinking a lot of water is a perfect choice
instead of coffee, juice and carbonated drinks.
Following the two solutions above is sleeping. Seven or
eight hours must be spent on sleeping per day in order for the
body to rest and recover. A lack of sleep damages the body and
leads to a mental breakdown. The last way is sharing thoughts and
feelings. It is essential to have a person to share stories with,
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especially to adolescent. They always look for sympathy and
support from others so that they can feel relieved and not
isolated. Young people tend to share daily things with their
friends since they are at the same age and are able to understand
each other easily. Restraining emotion so much is definitely a
bad selection.
Besides from these four particular ways, going shopping,
playing instrument and listening to music are considered stress
relievers as well
References
AIS The American Institute of Stress (2012) ‘Definition of
Stress’ AIS: Topics of Interest http://www.stress.org/
[accessed 5 May 2012]
American Psychological Association (2012) ‘Stress: The
different kinds of stress’ APA: Psychology Help Center
http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/ [accessed 5 May 2012]
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Fatfreekitchen (2012) ‘Meaning & Definition of Stress and
Types of Stress’ http://www.fatfreekitchen.com/
[accessed 5 May 2012]
India Parenting (2012) ‘Teen Aggression’ Articles India
Parenting http://www.indiaparenting.com/ [accessed 5 May
2012]
Melinda Smith, M.A, Suzanne Barston, & Jeanne Segal, Ph.D
(2012) ‘Teen Depression: A guide for parents and
teachers’ Helpguide.org: A trusted non-profit resource
http://www.helpguide.org [accessed 5 May 2012]
Melissa Stoppler, MD (2012) ‘Stress’ MedicineNet
http://www.medicinenet.com/ [accessed 5 May 2012)
Sherry Obenauer, M.A (2012) ‘Thirteen Stress Relievers That
You Can Easily Do Now’ Selfhelp Magazines: Articles
http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/article/ [accessed 5
May 2012]
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Appendices
Literature Review
Stress is difficult to define. There are many definitions
which are given in both medical and scientific field. Simply put,
stress is a feeling that is created to react to a particular
case. For instance, a person may feel they are under stress due
to his lack of sleep and lack of sleep is the case here. Any
factor which creates stress is called stressor. According to
American Psychological Association and Fatfreekitchen (2012),
there are three types of stress: acute stress, episodic acute
stress, and chronic stress. Acute stress, which is the most
popular kind of stress, is caused by demands and pressure in the
daily life and it does not last long. Episodic acute stress is
due to overworking, over-tension, and over-worrying. However, the
most dangerous type is chronic stress. It is long term for weeks,
months, and even years. Therefore, it is also the most difficult
form of stress to realize and treat.
A concise history of stress (Melissa Stoppler, 2012) shows
that tress had not been acknowledged until the twentieth century,
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when some scientists started doing researches on it. At the
beginning of the twentieth century, the neurologist Walter
Cannon, who was the first scientist to claim that the causes of
stress were both emotional and physical, did some experiments on
animals to see the relationship between mental, emotional states
and physiological functioning. However, he did not point out the
effect was good or bad. Later, Hans Selye (1936), another
scientist who had been studying stress, did experiments on rats
in various ways. He discovered that if the process of the
adapting to constant stress was excessive, it could damage the
body. Since then, stress has been thought to have bad effect on
people’s health.
Stress has two aspects but people tend to recognize only one
aspect which is the bad one. Therefore, this research is to show
both aspects of stress and people can clearly acknowledge stress.
To make it particular, we focus on teenagers who are the most
concerned subject of the society.
Questionnaire
1. How often do you do exercise?
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A. Everyday
B. 3 times a week
C. Sometimes
2. How many hours do you spend sleeping a day?
A. 8 hours
B. Less than 8 hours
C. More than 8 hours
3. Are you under too much parental pressure?
A. Yes
B. No
4. Which level of stress are you at?
A. Low
B. Medium
C. High
D. Very high
5. What makes you stressed most?
A. School
B. Family
C. Relationships
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6. How do you react when you are under stress?
A. Aggression
B. Depression
C. Escape or hide
7. What do you do to get over stress?
A. Talking with your friends
B. Shopping
C. Taking part in outdoor activities
D. Eating
E. Others ( Write your answer below )
8. Have you ever thought in a negative way due to stress?
A. Yes
B. No
9. In your opinion, what kind of food is good for stressed
people?