Research

1. Pressures young peopleface in education
Key pressures:
 Exam stress
 Making friends – being sociable
 Expectations from others
 Money – jobs
 Career pathway eg uni
 Appearance
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/nicola-morgan/teenage-stress-mental-
health_b_3245464.html
Teenagers have a load of pressures that apply less to children or adults: exams;
rapidly changing bodies; extreme peer pressure; an undeveloped prefrontal cortex
making many thinking processes harder; new realization of all the frightening things
that can happen, and less possible reassurance from adults that all will be OK;
teachers pressing them (because that’s their job) to pass exams in a wide range of
subjects including ones they struggle with or hate.
Then there are extra stresses that weren’t around years ago: social media issues,
including online bullying, so that bullying is no longer confined to school, which was
bad enough, but persists day and night and is horrifically more public; relentlessly
repeated multi-media exposure to stories of tragedy and danger; greater availability
of strong alcohol; more exams and greater perceived need to excel; greater pressure
to conform to “perfect” body shapes, as prescribed by “celebrity” culture; pressure to
go to university or be regarded as a lesser mortal; a highly materialistic and
aspirational culture; real fears about the environment; and an extremely difficult
economic climate which makes their futures very uncertain. And that’s before we
even consider those with horrendously difficult home lives, often lacking support and
hope.
Exam Stress
 The ChildLine National Exam Stress Survey revealed that 96% of the 1300
who completed the survey felt anxious about exams and revision. 59% feeling
pressure from their parents to do well and 64% saying they have never
received any support in dealing with exams
 Some of the students said they coped with the anxiety by smoking, taking
drugs and self-harming. The alarming statistics reveals that almost half of
pupils say they have skipped meals, two thirds of those surveyed said they
have had trouble sleeping and 14% said they have drunk alcohol as a way of
dealing with exam anxiety.
 The NSPCC and ChildLine said that in a 12-month period the number of
students who raised concerns about exam stress in counselling sessions has
increased by 200 per cent.

2.  There were 201 people aged between 10 and 19 who killed themselves in
2014 in the UK - up from 179 in 2013. 36% had a physical health condition
such as acne or asthma, 29% were facing exams or exam results; four died
on an exam day or the day after and 22% had been bullied.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36380910
 To conclude, this source is very reliable because it’s from the UK. I found out
a lot of facts that relate to our documentary topic which confirm with our initial
assumption that teenagers are under a lot of pressure.
http://www.youngminds.org.uk/news/blog/2347_survey_reveals_teenagers_facing_constant
_onslaught_of_stress
 Teenagers growing up today in Britain are under a constant onslaught of
stress and pressure. These findings demonstrate that teenagers are
struggling to cope with the pressures they face to have the perfect body, to
cope with the exam factory culture we have created for them, with bullying
and with the impact online networking is having on their lives. Parents too are
extremely worried about their children and feel really helpless and confused
about how to support and protect them.
 On the pressure to have a perfect body it revealed: 81% said they felt under
pressure to have the perfect body. 40% said they felt the pressure to have a
perfect body came from pictures on social media.
 1 in 3 parents with a teenager have visited a GP or A&E with concerns over
their child’s mental health.
 31% of parents with a teenager find it difficult to get help and support for their
child when they need it.
 40% of parents with a teenager admit that their children have told them that
they want to change how they look.
 61% of parents with a teenager have stated that their child/children have been
bullied.
http://www.youngminds.org.uk/training_services/policy/mental_health_statistics
 1 in 10 children and young people aged 5 - 16 suffer from a diagnosable
mental health disorder - that is around three children in every class (1)
 Between 1 in every 12 and 1 in 15 children and young people deliberately
self-harm (2).
 There has been a big increase in the number of young people being admitted
to hospital because of self-harm. Over the last ten years this figure has
increased by 68% (3).
 More than half of all adults with mental health problems were diagnosed in
childhood. Less than half were treated appropriately at the time (4).
 Nearly 80,000 children and young people suffer from severe depression (5).
 Over 8,000 children aged under 10 years old suffer from severe depression
(6).
 72% of children in care have behavioral or emotional problems - these are
some of the most vulnerable people in our society (7).
 95% of imprisoned young offenders have a mental health disorder. Many of
them are struggling with more than one disorder (8).

3.  The number of young people aged 15-16 with depression nearly doubled
between the 1980s and the 2000s (9).
 The proportion of young people aged 15-16 with a conduct disorder more than
doubled between 1974 and 1999 (10)
 9.6% or nearly 850,000 children and young people aged between 5-16 years
have a mental disorder
 7.7% or nearly 340,000 children aged 5-10 years have a mental disorder
 11.5% or about 510,000 young people aged between 11-16 years have a
mental disorder
 3.3% or about 290,000 children and young people have an anxiety disorder
 2.2% or about 96,000 children have an anxiety disorder
 4.4% or about 195,000 young people have an anxiety disorder

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8720513/GCSEs-Pressure-of-
exams-leaves-teens-suffering-from-mental-illness.html
 In 2010/2011 YoungMinds received 6332 calls to the helpline, 884 calls were
about 16-17 year olds and, of those, 39% were about school problems
including exam stress.
 Increasing pressure and stress will have an adverse effect on many young
people leading to a range of mental health problems including self-harm,
eating disorders and depression. "For a child who has problems in other
areas of their life, such as family breakdown or friendship issues, exams can
be the 'last straw'.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/04/26/leave-us-alone-teens-plea-to-
parents-suffering-from-exams-stress/
 The survey of 1,000 teenagers taking exams this summer showed 78 per
cent expect exam stress to have negative impacts to their appearance, health
or mental state in some way during the revision period with many eating more
or less than usual, one in ten not having time to shower or change their
clothes and one in five not leaving the house for days. Stress will even cause
some teens to sit alone in the dark in angst, whereas others may show signs
of anger.
To conclude, teenagers have a lot of pressure and stress put on them due to several
reasons such as exams, expectations of appearance, social media, bullying and their
future.