Schools have traditionally focused on academics, but only recently has there been growing awareness that “the detrimental impact of the pressures on mental health has gained prominence” (Talley, 2024, p. 3). The intense academic pressure students face is due to systematic expectations. “Students are pressurized to get higher marks by the educational institutions to increase their market value,” while “parents are under constant pressure to provide their children a better education to get jobs in the global market.” This dual pressure leads to “severe stress in their academics.” Additionally, the differentiation between private and government schools increases the stress further. To stay in competition, students are forced to attend additional coaching classes. The competitive and parental pressure drives children to focus on marks rather than understanding, ultimately affecting the mental health of children. Since high school marks determine subject choices in higher secondary, students face “tremendous stress to secure marks in public examination” (Subramani and Kadhiravan, 2017, p. 404).
Discipline – Educational psychology.
Introduction
A real world theme that has caught me deepest is the growing academic pressure and its impact on the mental health of high school students. In this competitive world, students are expected to perform well in every area , especially in academics for a successful and secure future. As a result, students face stress, burnout, anxiety and other mental health issues which affect their academics as well as overall development.
This paper addresses the problem of how academic pressure impacts the mental health of high school students . When schools aim students to focus on high grades, entrance exams , and the difference between performances may lead to serious emotional struggle among students.
The motivation behind solving this problem is the increasing number of overwhelmed students who face certain mental health issues due to the high academic pressure . But mental health is also important with academic success. If not solved, this may lead to long term problems like depression, low self – esteem,and lack of motivation.
This paper aims to solve the problem by exploring the causes and effects of academic pressure and suggesting ways to reduce its impact . It includes insights from existing research, surveys, and expert opinions to propose better academic support systems, healthier learning environments, and increased awareness among parents and teachers.
The main contributions of this paper are raising awareness about the mental health crisis among students, the importance of skills based learning for students to achieve their goal and highlighting the issues of high academic pressure.
Background and significance
Academic culture across many educational systems worldwide is often defined by intense competition, high-stakes examinations, and an overwhelming emphasis on measurable academic success. From an early age, students are conditioned to equate self-worth with grades, rankings, and standardized test scores. This narrow definition of achievement fosters an environment where academic perfection is idealized, while creativity, critical thinking, and individual talents are frequently sidelined.
In many societies, particularly those with highly competitive education systems, success is narrowly linked to admission into elite institutions. The pressure to perform well in standardized tests—such as university entrance exams—creates a culture of rote memorization rather than deep learning. Students who do not conform to this rigid academic framework often feel marginalized, despite possessing strengths in other areas.
Parental expectations, societal norms, and institutional structures further reinforce this pressure. Mental health resources are often inadequate, and stigma prevents many students from seeking help. In extreme cases, the relentless stress leads to burnout, anxiety, depression, and even tragic outcomes like self-harm.
This table analyzes the degree of burnout of all students. The study found that 40.01% of students had a good learning condition, 55.16% had a certain degree of academic burnout, 3.55% of students had a relatively severe degree of academic burnout, and 1.28% had a very severe degree of academic burnout.( Liu, Xie, Sun, Di Liu, Yin & Shi, (2023).p 5)
While this model may produce high-achieving students in terms of exam performance, it often fails to nurture essential life skills such as emotional resilience, adaptability, and innovative thinking. The singular focus on competition overshadows personal growth, well-being, and the recognition of diverse forms of intelligence. A shift toward a more balanced, student-centered approach is necessary—one that values curiosity, creativity, and holistic development alongside academic excellence.
Our education system pushes students to compete non stop—but at what cost? When schools obsess over grades and rankings, students stop taking risks, lose their creativity, and burn out. Many struggle with stress and anxiety, but they don’t get enough support because talking about mental health is still taboo.
If we don’t change things, we’ll keep producing students who can ace tests but can’t handle real-life challenges. School shouldn’t just be about memorizing facts—it should teach problem-solving, resilience, and emotional strength. We need an education system that values well-being as much as grades, so students grow into capable, balanced adults. The future needs more than just book-smart people—it needs people who can think, adapt, and thrive.
Historical Discourse
According the world condition in late centuries, Ariés emphasized that our understanding among children’s has developed with time. In 1960s amateur historian has claimed that “childhood was discovered in 17th century” and children’s were viewed as a fundamental people like adults before then. The idea of childhood was favoured by historical developments like in 1842, the British mines act was enabled in which the childrens under 10 are banned as a labourer in mines. Later, Charles dickens portrayal of poor children like Oliver Twist (1838) which raises public awareness. Ariés emphazied that the childhood has evolved among various historical and cultural settings.
The same perspective of children’s mental health evolves among society with time. (Strong and Sesma-Vazquez, 2015. p.99) “Before COVID-19 pandemic, the global prevalence of mental illness among children and adolescents was 13.4% across all mental disorders (Polanczyk et al., 2015)”. The pandemic caused destruction to life’s of young people who are expected to have more mental health issues such as “anxiety, depression and/or stress related symptoms (Lee, 2020). For effective planning and providing resources, government conduct a rapid review of the current research on the child and adolescent mental health (Tricco et al., 2017 p 3).
During 1980s and 1990s, evolving treatments and financial models affected the relationship between primary care and mental health services. Some factors bought them closer together — “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants made it easier for primary care providers to provide first-line treatment for major depression and anxiety disorders”. With this, public fundings also supported to enhance the mental health facilities publically. However, at the same time, rising costs also led to the creation of mental health “crave – outs”, which seperated the mental health coverage from general medical care, and push it into two fields apart. (G.Druss and H.Goldman, 2018. p 1200). The understanding of mental health among children develops over time. Mental health issues have been affected by various political, social, and economic factors. With time, Ariés reported that childhood was discovered in the 17th century and in the 19th century British parliament forbade the work of children at mines. The concept of poverty affected the mental health of children at that time in Britain. During the 1980s and 1990s, the reform in new treatments and financial models provided primary treatments for mental health in the public sector and provided general care for mental health issues. In the contemporary context, the COVID-19 severely affects the mental well being of children. Psychiatric research shows that 13.4% children and adolescents face mental disorders during COVID.
Contemporary Debate
Psychiatry emerged as a different field in the late 19th century (1997), during which the American and European psychiatrist focuses on the mental health of non-western people’s. This period was highly recognised by the scientific racism as seen in Samuel Cartwright’s claim that “black slaves fleeing captivity were suffering from a mental illness called drapetomania”(Cartwright 1851). Similarly, Kraepelin described Javanese peoples have “psychic underdevelopment” due to supposed lack of depression (Kraepelin,1921). These perspectives were shaped by superior attitudes, and scientific racism. Thus, the tradition of western psychiatrists investigating and treating mental illness and emotional suffering in non-Western people began.(Whitley,2015. p 285) In today’s unstable economic and political conditions, young professionals cannot depend on long-term employment in a single industry. This scenario makes it essential to learn life skills that allow the adaption into different.
Therefore, the education system must not provide only the knowledge “but also form a need for uninterrupted self-acquirement of such knowledge, ability and skills of self-education, due to the constant and rapid update of knowledge nowadays, as well as independent and creative approach to knowledge throughout the entire active life”. These skills are also essential for achieve goals and dreams that a student aspires to. If, for some reasons students are unable to acquire these skills, they may fail to reach their desired goals, which can lead to stress and anxiety. Therefore, educational resources must be diversified so that individuals can align their learnings both with professional and personal goals. (Amirkhanova et al., 2015. p 783)
During 19th century, European and American psychiatrists showed their interest in the mental health of non western people on the basis of their social conditions like the mental state of blacks who were transported as slaves to different countries. In the modern world, peer pressure and the current education system plays a key role in the mental health of children whereas the rote memorization and grade system is not a valid area to judge students. The model of self education skills in the high education system focuses on changing demands of the workforce, emphasizing the importance of skills and adaptability. Both the articles stress on rethinking the importance of traditional systems – whether it is in psychiatry or in education, by knowing their historical backgrounds and the debates upon them.
Hypothesis
Students who feel less academic pressure and get involved in activities outside the classroom—like sports, arts, or leadership programs—often have better mental health than those who are constantly confined to academics in pursuit of grades and experience academic burnout and stress. A study suggests that “adolescents are not only affected by the setting in which they occur but also by their social experiences in other settings [44]”. This study claims that the involvement of extracurricular activities in the current study can moderate the impact of continuous academic pressure and “school social interchanges on disruptive behavioural problems during secondary school” (M.E.F. Driessens, 2015, p. 3).
Academic argument
Reducing academic pressure and encouraging students’ participation in extracurricular activities led to less academic pressure and burnout among high school students. The rise of the competitive world pressurizes the parents to make their child’s market value. Children are under extreme pressure to obtain higher academic records that can compete with society’s expectations. The constant family and academic pressure leads to stress, anxiety, and depression among high school students. “The self-worth of students in Indian society is mostly determined by good academic performance, and not by vocational and/or other individual qualities [22].” To ensure academic success, many parents remove “their TV cable connections and vastly cut down on their own social lives” to regulate their children’s homework and assignments.
Due to constant academic stress and exam failure, “every day 6.23 Indian students commit suicide [24] – raising questions regarding the effects of the school system on the wellbeing of young people” (Deb, Sibnath, Strodl, Esben, and Sun, Hansen, 2015, p. 27). Mainly, in Indian societies, students are pressured to get good grades and good academic performances. Parents put constant pressure on students for their academic performances. The students are judged on their grades, and to avoid the judgmental societies, students give themselves to academics by sacrificing their dreams and goals. They just get stuck in the vicious cycle of grades and distracted from their true destinations, which leads to stress, anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.
The paper emphasizes that the way parents express their expectations to their children plays a crucial role in their children’s mental well-being. To avoid causing “educational stress and/or academic anxiety,” parents should support and encourage their children rather than pressurize them with their high expectations. Excessive stress can lead to higher anxiety, which in turn results in ‘low academic performance’. As “Hooda and Saini (2017) suggest that the anxiety level related to certain academic tasks increases as a student’s academic performance suffers because of the stress, and although a little anxiety may result in motivation, if the amount increases, this may not be a positive factor on students’ success” (Cassady, 2010; Mahajan, 2015).
Thus, both schools and families should aim to provide a supportive and stress-free environment to students for their better academic performances and mental well-being (Toraman, Aktan, and Korkmaz, 2022, p. 93). This may be true that parental support and school environments emphasize students to work well in their academics, but in most cases, this is not applicable because the typical Indian society mindset never lets parents give their children space and their own learning methods.
Conclusion:
The overall discussion reveals that academic pressures significantly affect the mental health and academic performance of high school students. In India, where education is seen as a competition where students struggle to get good grades and pass entrance exams because these are the parameters for measuring the self-worth of students in current times. High achievers struggle with the constant burden to maintain their ranks, which leads to later-on stress, burnout, and other mental health issues. On the other hand, the students who are ‘low performing in academics’ face stress from failure and social judgment, which affects their confidence and self-esteem.
Students’ environment plays a crucial role. When environments like school, family, and society support unconditionally and encourage students, they feel confident and emotionally strong, which also results in better academic performance. However, expectations are also needed for students’ better futures, but a balance between the expectations and students’ capabilities can make a supportive bond between the student and parents or school, which can result in better mental health.
The importance of extracurricular activities also stands out. These activities provide a break from academic stress, support emotional well-being, and help students to build life skills and confidence.
To reduce the negative impact of academic pressure, the school must adopt a holistic approach that values emotional health, creativity, and diverse talents. This is essential to ensure that students grow not just academically but also as mentally strong and balanced individuals.
Bibliography/Refrences –
1. Talley (2024) . Understanding the impact of Academic Pressure on Student Mental Health | ScholarWorks
2. Subramani and Kadhiravan, (2017)
ACADEMIC STRESS AND MENTAL HEALTH AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
3. Strong and Sesma-Vazquez(2015).
Discourses on Children’s Mental Health: A Critical Review
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137428318_6
4. Tricco et al. (2017). Child and adolescent mental illness during COVID-19: A rapid review
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178120323702
5. G.Druss and H.Goldman (2018). Integrating Health and Mental Health Services: A Past and Future History
American Journal of Psychiatry
https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2018.18020169
6. Whitley (2015). Global Mental Health: concepts, conflicts and controversies Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences
https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796015000451
7. Amirkhanova et al. (2015). Model of self-education skills in high education system
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.192
8. M.E.F. Driessens, (2015). Extracurricular activity participation
moderates impact of family and school factors on adolescents’ disruptive behavioural problems
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-015-2464
9. Deb, Sibnath,Strodl, Esben and Sun,Hansen, (2015) . Academic Stress, Parental Pressure, Anxiety and Mental Health among Indian High School Students
https://eprints.qut.edu.au/86092/
10. Toraman, Aktan and Korkmaz, (2022). How Can We Make Students Happier at School? Parental Pressure or Support for Academic Success, Educational Stress and School Happiness of Secondary School Students
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1328706
11. Liu, Xie, Sun, Di Liu, Yin & Shi (2023).
Factors associated with academic burnout and its prevalence among university students : a cross-sectional study. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-023-04316-y
(Writer Introduction: Navjot Kaur is a student at Nanakmatta Public School in Uttarakhand, with a keen interest in exploring real-world issues that affect her peers and community. Her curiosity and concern for student well-being led her to author a research paper titled “Academic Pressure and Its Impact on Mental Health Among High School Students.” Through this work, Navjot brings thoughtful attention to a topic of growing importance, reflecting her passion for understanding and addressing the challenges faced by young people today.)