students finding it hard to cope

The Australian, Milanda Rout, 17 October 2007

 

A new research report, commissioned by the Australian Scholarship Group and conducted by the University of
Melbourne and the Australian Council for Educational Research, has found that one-third of Australian students
are stressed and ‘struggling to cope with school, bullying and having to live up to parental expectations.’

10,000 primary and secondary school students and their teachers across 81 schools participated in the four-year
study. The survey found that two out of 10 primary-school students felt so depressed they stopped doing their
schoolwork, seeing friends and competing in sports.

A third of students surveyed said they lost their tempers frequently and 40 percent said they found it difficult to
calm down. 40 percent of students also revealed that they were never taught how to make friends or resolve
personal problems, and 50 percent of students – ranging from prep to year 12 – said they did not know how to
cope with stress.

A University of Melbourne researcher, Mr Michael Bernard, said that stress levels among primary and secondary
students were ‘disturbing’. He believes that ‘if the present group of students have ongoing levels of anxiety, two in
10 suffer from depression, and a third of them are not able to manage their emotions, [they] are going to leave
schools with unrealised academic potential.’

Mr Bernard also believes social pressure has increased, and says that ‘students are extremely stressed over their relationship with their peers. Social acceptance is probably more important than how they do at school. The pressure
to wear the right clothes, to have the right friends and to fit in is probably magnified more than the previous
generation.’

The report states that ‘urgent changes’ must be made in school curricula to assist Australia’s youth in dealing with emotional and social problems. The report also said that training should be made available for teachers and parents
so that they are better able to assist students dealing with such issues.

 

 

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