does homework give students depression

Is it time to get rid of homework? Mental health experts weigh in.

It's no secret that kids hate homework. And as students grapple with an ongoing pandemic that has had a wide range of mental health impacts, is it time schools start listening to their pleas about workloads?

Some teachers are turning to social media to take a stand against homework. 

Tiktok user @misguided.teacher says he doesn't assign it because the "whole premise of homework is flawed."

For starters, he says, he can't grade work on "even playing fields" when students' home environments can be vastly different.

"Even students who go home to a peaceful house, do they really want to spend their time on busy work? Because typically that's what a lot of homework is, it's busy work," he says in the video that has garnered 1.6 million likes. "You only get one year to be 7, you only got one year to be 10, you only get one year to be 16, 18."

Mental health experts agree heavy workloads have the potential do more harm than good for students, especially when taking into account the impacts of the pandemic. But they also say the answer may not be to eliminate homework altogether.

Emmy Kang, mental health counselor at Humantold , says studies have shown heavy workloads can be "detrimental" for students and cause a "big impact on their mental, physical and emotional health."

"More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies," she says, adding that staying up late to finish assignments also leads to disrupted sleep and exhaustion.

Cynthia Catchings, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist at Talkspace , says heavy workloads can also cause serious mental health problems in the long run, like anxiety and depression. 

And for all the distress homework  can cause, it's not as useful as many may think, says Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, a psychologist and CEO of Omega Recovery treatment center.

"The research shows that there's really limited benefit of homework for elementary age students, that really the school work should be contained in the classroom," he says.

For older students, Kang says, homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night. 

"Most students, especially at these high achieving schools, they're doing a minimum of three hours, and it's taking away time from their friends, from their families, their extracurricular activities. And these are all very important things for a person's mental and emotional health."

Catchings, who also taught third to 12th graders for 12 years, says she's seen the positive effects of a no-homework policy while working with students abroad.

"Not having homework was something that I always admired from the French students (and) the French schools, because that was helping the students to really have the time off and really disconnect from school," she says.

The answer may not be to eliminate homework completely but to be more mindful of the type of work students take home, suggests Kang, who was a high school teacher for 10 years.

"I don't think (we) should scrap homework; I think we should scrap meaningless, purposeless busy work-type homework. That's something that needs to be scrapped entirely," she says, encouraging teachers to be thoughtful and consider the amount of time it would take for students to complete assignments.

The pandemic made the conversation around homework more crucial 

Mindfulness surrounding homework is especially important in the context of the past two years. Many students will be struggling with mental health issues that were brought on or worsened by the pandemic , making heavy workloads even harder to balance.

"COVID was just a disaster in terms of the lack of structure. Everything just deteriorated," Kardaras says, pointing to an increase in cognitive issues and decrease in attention spans among students. "School acts as an anchor for a lot of children, as a stabilizing force, and that disappeared."

But even if students transition back to the structure of in-person classes, Kardaras suspects students may still struggle after two school years of shifted schedules and disrupted sleeping habits.

"We've seen adults struggling to go back to in-person work environments from remote work environments. That effect is amplified with children because children have less resources to be able to cope with those transitions than adults do," he explains.

'Get organized' ahead of back-to-school

In order to make the transition back to in-person school easier, Kang encourages students to "get good sleep, exercise regularly (and) eat a healthy diet."

To help manage workloads, she suggests students "get organized."

"There's so much mental clutter up there when you're disorganized. ... Sitting down and planning out their study schedules can really help manage their time," she says.

Breaking up assignments can also make things easier to tackle.

"I know that heavy workloads can be stressful, but if you sit down and you break down that studying into smaller chunks, they're much more manageable."

If workloads are still too much, Kang encourages students to advocate for themselves.

"They should tell their teachers when a homework assignment just took too much time or if it was too difficult for them to do on their own," she says. "It's good to speak up and ask those questions. Respectfully, of course, because these are your teachers. But still, I think sometimes teachers themselves need this feedback from their students."

More: Some teachers let their students sleep in class. Here's what mental health experts say.

More: Some parents are slipping young kids in for the COVID-19 vaccine, but doctors discourage the move as 'risky'

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More than two hours of homework may be counterproductive, research suggests.

A Stanford education researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.   "Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .   The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.   Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.   Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.   "The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.   Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.   Their study found that too much homework is associated with:   • Greater stress : 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.   • Reductions in health : In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.   • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits : Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.   A balancing act   The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.   Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.   "This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," said Pope, who is also a co-founder of Challenge Success , a nonprofit organization affiliated with the GSE that conducts research and works with schools and parents to improve students' educational experiences..   Pope said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.   "Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.   High-performing paradox   In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."   Student perspectives   The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.   The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Clifton B. Parker is a writer at the Stanford News Service .

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Can Excessive Homework Cause Depression? – 17 Reasons

Does Homework Cause Depression?

You or a loved one may currently be struggling with excessive amounts of homework and are wondering if can homework cause depression. The short answer is that depression can absolutely lead to depression for a variety of reasons. Identifying the cause of your homework-related depression below is the first step toward bettering your mental health. Excessive homework, lack of social support, and perfectionism are just a few of the reasons homework can lead to depression.

Reasons Why Homework Might Cause Depression:

1) multiple hours of homework.

Starting in high school, or sometimes even middle school, students begin to slowly receive more and more hours of homework. There are various reasons why multiple hours of homework per week might lead students to depression, with stress and procrastination being at the top. Certain subjects, such as mathematics or science-related classes (i.e. chemistry) might also be challenging for some students to comprehend, leading them to feel drowned in stress and procrastination. Many hours of homework on a subject that one does not understand may start as stress and procrastination, but across multiple weeks or months may gradually turn into strong feelings of inadequacy and ultimately depression.

2) Extracurricular Activities May Interfere

Only some people in high school are distinguished academics capable of effortlessly finishing hours of homework each week. Other students are naturally gifted in different areas, such as athletics, arts (such as music or drawing), or even gaming! However, these activities can also get in the way of valuable time each student needs to complete homework and be successful in school. If the student prioritizes extracurricular activities significantly more than homework, this certainly can have negative mental health consequences. Ultimately, a school/leisure balance is key when it comes to avoiding student depression and maintaining overall happiness and success!

3) Excessive Homework From Classes or Teachers

Certain subjects or teachers might also be prone to assign excessive homework that might initially be daunting. For example, mathematics, chemistry, and physics are examples of classes that high school students find both challenging and overwhelming. If these classes are not already difficult enough, a bad professor might add excessive homework that is clearly not necessary for the student’s growth. The combination of excessive homework and poor teachers can easily lead students to mild depression over time.

4) Prior Struggles With Mental Health Issues

Mental health issues in the United States and across the world are higher now than at any point in much of human history. This means that many students already have mild to severe forms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mental health issues. When students receive homework that they feel incapable of completing with little to no support outside school, this may only worsen their mental health. Unfortunately, depression is only one of many mental health issues students may face when confronted with challenging homework.

5) The Sleep Deprivation Cycle

Many students, especially in high school and college, naturally prefer to stay up late and wake up late. These individuals are commonly referred to as “night owls” since they mostly thrive at night. Being a “night owl” is not an inherent problem until the student’s sleep begins to fall below the recommended range of 7-9 hours per night. Sleep deprivation is defined as “a state caused by inadequate quality or quantity of sleep.”

Although side effects of sleep deprivation depend on a few factors, depression is one of the most common. Students might feel stressed during the day and procrastinate until night when they make the logical decision to stay up and finally complete the homework for the following day. This is the day-to-day reality for many students since they have yet to break the sleep deprivation-depression cycle.

6) Concern With Getting Good Grades

Although getting good grades is applauded by almost everyone ranging from students and parents to teachers and principals, some students take it to the extreme. Perfectionism is the need to appear perfect, which might be reflected by extremely good grades or high GPAs (that are often unrealistic or unnecessary). Most colleges do not require students to have anywhere near perfect good grades or GPAs, meaning students should set realistic goals while still making it possible to achieve long-term goals. Setting realistic goals for good grades can also lead students to minimize stress, depression, and other negative effects that come with perfectionism.

7) Physical Health Problems

Some students might also suffer from physical health problems that are either genetic (such as Type I Diabetes) or behavioral health problems (such as obesity). In the case of a young student with obesity, his or her most difficult class might be the physical exercise (PE) class. This student might look at other students performing the daily physical activity for class and feel a sense of inadequacy that can grow over time and lead to depression, especially if not properly addressed or guided.

There is also a slew of other physical health problems that might contribute to a student’s struggle and depression when in school. These health problems might also make it difficult for students to complete homework when away from school, due to a variety of factors.

8) Weight Loss Problems (Homework Cause Depression)

Weight loss may occur when students are overly focused on school and have little to no time to eat a highly nutritious meal. Since food gives energy to the brain and is responsible for many vital functions of the human body, it is no wonder why depression might arise out of weight loss. In addition, many students, particularly young female students, go through a time that challenges their self-image. Other students and social media might pressure these students into conforming to non-realistic beauty standards via weight loss.

9) Young Adults and Lack of Balance

High schoolers and college students are still very young in the grand scheme of life, with many lacking the crucial ability to balance school and homework with other parts of their lives. Especially with the amount of homework some classes assign, students might not balance enough time that is necessary to complete the assigned work. Students might spend much time procrastinating homework and doing fun, but less productive activities, such as playing sports or video games. Mental health counselors (either at school or in a clinical setting) can be extremely effective at helping students manage school work and ultimately avoid depression.

10) Homework and Test Scores

High schoolers and older students must find enough time to complete homework and study to get optimal test scores. Although this does vary from class to class, most individuals will have at least a few classes where balancing homework and testing is critical for success. Test anxiety is a big factor that might lead students to heavily prioritize studying for an exam instead of completing homework. If students are overly concerned with test scores and neglect to complete assigned homework, depressive symptoms may occur.

11) The Importance of Time Management

As mentioned earlier, young children or young people, in general, might often struggle to effectively complete a lot of homework. Building daily habits around homework completion for just 30 minutes per day can add up to make a massive difference (that is 4.5 hours by the end of the school week!). Not only does effective time management make it easier to complete homework, but it also removes much of the stress, procrastination, and even depression that might come as a result of little to no time management.

For younger children or even high schoolers, an adult role model can significantly help develop these necessary habits sooner rather than later.

12) Prestigious Schools Like Stanford University

High schoolers looking to get accepted into prestigious colleges like Stanford University, or college students already in prestigious schools likely have higher chances to suffer from homework-related depression. High schoolers that are accepted into Stanford University have an average GPA of 3.95 out of 4.00.

This means students trying to get into ivy league schools hold themselves to an extreme standard. This extreme standard will inevitably cause a lack of sleep, depression, and a variety of other negative effects. This does not mean that it is impossible to successfully be accepted into Stanford University, it just means it will be very challenging.

13) Teachers Assign Busy Work

Sometimes teachers (mostly in high school) assign work that is repetitive, not super challenging, and time-consuming to complete. These types of assignments are generally referred to as “busy work,” and can be the bane of some high schoolers’ existence. The problem with busy work is that students begin to focus on the completion of the homework due to the sheer amount of time they know it will take to complete it. This takes away from the overall learning experience of the student and will lead many high school students to procrastinate. Procrastination can lead to piled-up homework and can have a negative impact on the student’s depression levels. Ultimately, teachers that assign busy homework cause depression.

14) Family Stress at Home (Homework Cause Depression)

Sometimes the cause of depression is much deeper than meets the eye, with homework simply exacerbating these untouched issues. One deeper issue revolves around family members and the lack of much-needed social support from parents, siblings, and other family members in the household. These family members might simply be unwilling to provide homework support to young adults, or the issue might be as bad as mental or physical abuse. If you know someone that is being abused, please seek help immediately to help them in the long run. It is clear that these issues could easily lead one to depression.

15) Lack of Friendships and Social Life

Being isolated at school and/or at home might be one of the risk factors for developing depression from homework. Friendships can be mutually beneficial when completing tasks such as homework since students are able to check each others’ work and reduce the overall stress of heavy workloads. Students that always seem to be alone or are even bullied might be at an increased risk of serious mental health problems. It is true that some young people and older students work best alone, but this is definitely a warning sign to keep an eye out for if you are a parent.

Putting isolated students into a club or sport they have an initial interest in might be a fantastic way to help them create valuable bonds with those around them and prevent depression!

16) Social Media and Student Well-Being

Social media is something that has had clear negative effects on the mental health of many age groups in the United States but also across the world. Social media often promotes the action of comparing one’s self to others, which might be academic success in this case. Individuals that are constantly watching other students succeed online may feel like they are the only one that does not understand the course material.

The amount of time spent on social media can also often take away from time that high schoolers could be spent completing homework and other important things. Ultimately, social media is best, like many things, when consumed in moderation and is not used to negatively compare oneself with others.

17) Stomach Problems Such as Celiac Disease

Stomach problems include, but are not limited to celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), lactose intolerance, and constipation or gas. Most of these stomach problems have nausea and even vomiting as some of their primary negative effects. Attempting to do homework or even come to school when having severe nausea is challenging, to say the least. Students with these issues will often have less time as a result, and may even feel as though homework cause depression.

From the list above, there are many clear reasons why excessive homework assignments might lead a student of any age to depression. If you or someone you know struggles with severe depression, please seek professional help. Although there are many ways homework can cause depression, we are strong and capable of overcoming the depression and still achieving success. Ultimately, social support from family and friends, academic guidance, and a consistent homework routine are just a few of the things that might help reduce depression caused by homework.

2 thoughts on “Can Excessive Homework Cause Depression? – 17 Reasons”

Wowwww!! This is extremely insightful ❤️‍🔥Can’t wait for your next post !

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Supporting Students with Depression in School

Mental health is a crucial component to overall health and well-being and mental health among children and adolescents continues to be a significant public health concern. According to a report in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), 20.9% of adolescents aged 12–17 years had ever experienced a major depressive episode and in 2019, 36.7% of high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless and 18.8% seriously considered attempting suicide. It is essential to be able to notice the signs and symptoms of depression in children and adolescents and know best practices in support and intervention.

Depression in children and adolescents often presents differently than it does in adults. Feelings of sadness and loneliness are common, but moodiness or irritability may be more predominant expressions of these underlying feelings.

Additional symptoms may include:

• Loss of appetite or overeating
• Sleep disturbances (e.g., excessive sleeping, insomnia, or day-night reversal)
• Social withdrawal

Depression rates are soaring among children and adolescents and disproportionately among children of color, children who identify as LGBTQ, and children with special health care needs including cognitive and learning disabilities.

Depression can impact school attendance, school performance, and/or social interactions with peers and teachers. Depression negatively impacts a child’s development. Major depressive disorder in children is also associated with increased risk for the following:

• Suicidal ideations, attempts and completion
• Substance use
• Exposure to violence
• Driving while impaired
• Risky sexual behaviors and
• Running away from home

How Schools Can Help

Schools can play an important role in supporting the resilience and mental health of children and youth. This can be done through the same promotion and prevention strategies to support general health.

Connectedness (Mental Health Promotion and Illness Prevention) School staff can promote mental wellbeing by helping students feel connected to school and family through building strong relationships and bonds. Being connected to a community can help a child or teen feel cared for and valued. This sense of connectedness can promote mental health as well as prevent other outcomes such as substance use and suicide.

Depression Screenings (Mental Health Illness Prevention or Early Identification) School-based health centers or nurses can administer depression screenings which can be helpful early identification of symptoms and timely referrals for further in-depth evaluations with mental health professionals. Examples of depression screenings include:

• KADS (Kutcher Adolescent Depression Scale)
• CDS (Columbia Depression Scale)
• CES-DS (Center for Epidemiological Studies- Depression Scale for Children)
• PHQ9 (Patient Health Questionnaire)

If a student is diagnosed with depression, school staff together with families and providers can help develop treatment or safety plans to help the student manage their depression symptoms.

Care Coordination Between Schools and the Pediatrician

Communication between school staff and the student’s pediatrician can help gather and share important information regarding behavioral concerns, withdrawal from social activities with friends or family, and changes in academic performance. This information together with appropriate screenings or evaluation can help assess the best individualized support or intervention needed.

Pediatrician’s Role

Pediatricians are key in supporting the mental health of youth experiencing or at risk of depression.

• AAP has guidelines for adolescent depression in primary care . These guidelines can be used to address practice preparation, identification, assessment, and initial management of adolescent depression in primary care settings as well as treatment and ongoing management.
• Pediatricians can educate, support and empower families for how navigate disclosing and addressing depression with schools from the clinical setting. Pediatricians can partner with a child’s behavioral health team, including their family, school, and treating behavioral health providers. Doing so can help broker communication to suggest and develop accommodations for a 504 disability accommodation plan and/or goals/services to be considered for an individualized education program (IEP) when and where appropriate.
• Pediatricians can utilize strategies to promote relational health in families and mitigate toxic stress ( REF: 2021 AAP Garner update policy statement ); this along with screening practices to identify children with increased risk factors can lead to earlier identification and treatment of depression and emotional dysregulation symptoms in children prior to manifestation of a major depressive disorder.

Helpful Resources

AAP: Guidelines for Adolescent Depression in Primary Care The Guidelines are to be used to address practice preparation, identification, assessment and initial management of adolescent depression in PC settings.

AAP: Mental Health Initiatives These resources are designed to inform pediatricians on how to support the mental health of children.

Preventing childhood toxic stress: partnering with families and communities to promote relational health This policy statement provides guidance on promotion of relational health to mitigate toxic stress in children.

CDC Adolescent and School Health: Mental Health This website provides valuable resources on how schools, parents and health providers can support teen mental health.

Resource for Schools

School and Classroom Depression Strategies (uaschools.org) This Fact Sheet contains strategies designed to address potential symptoms of student depression and should be used in consultation and collaboration with your school’s mental health personnel or as part of a larger intervention approach.

Mental Health America: Back to School: Recognizing Depression This resource provides information on how depression impacts school-aged children.

Psych 4 Schools: Depression This resource covers the impact of depression on children. The information provided here is an excerpt of an eBooklet that is meant to assist teachers and other practitioners working with children who are depressed and help to prevent or reduce depressive symptoms in students.

School-Based Approaches to Prevent Depression in Adolescents This review article examined school-based interventions to prevent the onset of depression, reduce the severity of depressive symptoms and enhance global functioning in adolescents. This article also provides strategies for school-based intervention programs.

Resources for Parents & Families

The following resources from American Academy of Pediatrics offer parent tips on teens’ Mental Health:

• AAP Mental Health Resources for Families
• Healthychildren.org: Adolescent Depression: What Parents can do to Help

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Why Are College Students So Depressed?

It may not always feel like the best four years of your life

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Symptoms of Depression in College Students

What percentage of college students experience depression, what really causes depression in college students, impact of depression on academic and personal life, coping with depression in college, treatments for depression in college students, how schools can help.

Depression is one of the most common mental health conditions and affects people of all ages, including college students. It impacts thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and is characterized by persistent sadness and loss of interest in once-enjoyable activities.

This condition is prevalent on college campuses, affecting an estimated 53% of students at some point.

"College students are a vulnerable population who are faced with a range of new and often wonderful—yet sometimes stressful—experiences," explains Randall Dwenger, MD , the chief medical officer at Mountainside Treatment Center. He also notes that people who have a predisposition to depression typically start to display symptoms during their early 20s.

Depression can take a toll on many aspects of a young person's life, including academic performance, social life, and physical health. It can also increase their risk of substance abuse and co-occurring mental health conditions.

For this reason, it is crucial to recognize the signs of depression in college students and provide tools, resources, and support that can help.

At a Glance

College students are faced with multiple stressors like living on their own for the first time, meeting new people, and taking a rigorous course load. All of these changes happen at one time and cause major stress.

Any symptoms—both mild and severe—can affect college students' performance and mental health.

Fortunately, help is available and schools have also stepped in to address mental health concerns.

"Even mild symptoms may significantly interfere with academic and social functioning," explains Amy Mezulis, PhD , a licensed clinical psychologist and chief clinical officer of Joon. She also notes that it can lead to symptoms such as trouble concentrating, fatigue , and low energy, which can make it tough for students to keep up with academic work.

Randall Dwenger, MD

Some students may experience frustration with themselves at not being able to keep up with the challenges of living independently: balancing academics, social life, and tasks of daily living. These frustrations turned inward may present as depression.

Symptoms of depression that college students may experience include:

• Feeling sad, low, or "empty"
• Loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities
• Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
• Missing class
• Poor grades
• Not having the motivation to finish assignments
• Poor self-care and personal hygiene
• Using drugs or alcohol to cope with difficult emotions
• Irritability or restlessness
• Guilt, helplessness, or hopelessness
• Lack of energy or fatigue
• Feelings of worthlessness
• Reduced physical activity
• Changes in sleep habits and appetite
• Thoughts of self-harm or suicide

If you are having suicidal thoughts, contact the  National Suicide Prevention Lifeline  at  988  for support and assistance from a trained counselor. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.

For more mental health resources, see our  National Helpline Database .

Unfortunately, it isn’t easy to predict which students will excel and which will struggle with all the changes and challenges that college brings.

“Some students may experience frustration with themselves at not being able to keep up with the challenges of living independently: balancing academics, social life, and tasks of daily living. These frustrations turned inward may present as depression,” Dr. Dwenger says.

In one study that involved interviewing college students about their experiences, students suggested that depression affected many academic areas, including their effort, ability to focus, and time management.

Struggling with motivation and falling behind on academic work were common themes.

"[Depression] can definitely be a drain on focus because if I’m having a particularly bad episode, it’s hard to do anything at all," one student explained.

For some students, falling behind in classes can make depression feel even worse. "Once you start falling behind, then the depression kicks in, it will make me think less of myself for that. Then it’s even harder to catch up. As the things pile up, it gets more difficult to pull myself out of [the depression]," another student told researchers.

Depression rates among U.S. college students are at an all-time high and growing. According to one internet-based survey, 44% reported that they currently have symptoms of depression, and 15% said they had considered suicide in the past year.

A 2022 study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders examined data from the national Healthy Minds study between the years 2013 and 2021. The researchers found that there has been a steady, consistent decline in the mental health of college students throughout the United States, amounting to a 135% increase in depression over the course of those eight years. 

Between 2013 and 2021, the number of college students who met the diagnostic criteria for one or more mental disorders doubled.

Such numbers are sobering, but the survey also found some positive indicators; more students are participating in therapy, and fewer are turning to alcohol to cope with their mental health problems. Unfortunately, the increasing rates of depression may also be outpacing the resources that are available to treat it.

And while the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with significant increases in rates of depression, the survey data shows that these increases are part of a larger trend and not simply attributable to a singular pandemic-era dip in mental well-being.

For students to get the help they need, researchers, public health experts, and academic institutions need to learn more about why students are struggling with depression. By identifying the factors that play a role, they can offer better interventions and develop prevention programs to combat depression in college students.

Leaving home for the first time can be an exciting but also challenging time for many students. It can be a time of self-discovery and personal growth, but it can also be stressful, anxiety-provoking, and isolating for many. 

The following are just some of the common factors that can play a role in the onset of depression among college-age students.

Transitions and Adjustments

"The transition to college can be a big change, both academically and socially," explains Laura Erickson-Schroth, MD , chief medical officer of The Jed Foundation (JED). Going to college often means leaving behind social connections and support and starting over in a new environment.

For most students, college is their first experience living away from home. Moving out, adjusting to a new environment, and forging new social connections can contribute to stress that can play a part in causing depression, Dr. Erickson-Schroth says.

Students are also dealing with a lot of pressure to perform well. This stress can affect well-being and contribute to feelings of inadequacy and helplessness.

Relationships and Social Pressures

Students also face the pressure of fitting in with their peers in a new setting. They may feel disconnected from their old friends and struggle to form new friendships in an unfamiliar environment. This lack of social support may contribute to depression.

The college years can also be a time to forge new relationships with friends and romantic partners, but this can also be a source of conflict and strife. Arguments with roommates, losing touch with old friends, and problems in romantic relationships can sometimes leave college students feeling distressed.

Financial Stress

Paying for school and managing living expenses can create additional pressures. College is the first time many young people have had to deal with this type of financial pressure, and it can create feelings of stress that can play a part in the onset of depression.

Dr. Erickson-Schroth notes that students from lower-income households experience more financial stress, including struggles related to finding stable housing, food, and healthcare.

Surveys suggest that three out of every five college students face some type of insecurity related to essential needs.

Social activities and academic demands can contribute to poor sleep habits. Depression and sleep have a bidirectional relationship. Irregular or poor sleep habits are linked to the onset of depression, but depression can make sleeping more difficult. Sleep disturbances are also associated with an increased risk of suicidal ideation.  

Research has also found that 82% of college students who experience suicidal thinking also experience sleep disturbances.

Substance Use

Some students may experiment with alcohol and drugs in college, in some cases as a way to cope with negative emotions and stress. Unfortunately, such substance use is also associated with increased depressive symptoms.

Other Hurdles

Dr. Erickson-Schroth notes that some young adults face additional challenges that can make them more susceptible to depression.

"Youth of color who attend college at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) often experience microaggressions and have trouble finding spaces where they feel they can be themselves," she explains.

Research also suggests that LGBTQIA+ students, financially insecure students, and lower-division students have a higher risk of experiencing more severe depression.

Generational Challenges

The COVID-19 pandemic also played a role in fueling struggles that many college students have experienced over the past few years. Dr. Dwenger notes that the social disruptions caused by the pandemic left many students struggling without the tools, resources, and coping skills they needed to navigate what is already a tricky period in most people's lives. 

"Many experienced a sort of “whiplash” in adjusting back to in-person learning and resuming social interactions," he explains.

Unique global concerns facing today's generation of college students can also contribute to depression. This can include environmental worries, climate anxiety , political turmoil, social justice issues, and other concerns.

The political minefield, losses in terms of personal freedoms and choice, and issues of diversity may inspire some young people into action and activism, but these issues can also bring feelings of pessimism and hopelessness to many.

The high rates of depression among college students negatively affect physical health, mental well-being, academic success, and interpersonal relationships . These effects can be distressing and far-reaching. They can also potentially interfere with a student's long-term academic and professional goals.

One of the most immediate effects of depression in college students is its effect on academic performance, attendance, and participation. Depression makes it harder to concentrate, reduces motivation to learn, and even makes it hard for students to attend class sessions.

The toll on a student's academic life can be severe. It can lead to poor test performance and bad grades, which even jeopardize a student's ability to graduate and, for those depending on academic scholarships, impair their ability to keep their form of financial support.

Declining grades and poor feedback from instructors can worsen the feelings of hopelessness and inadequacy that many students are already struggling with.

Life Outside of School

Depression also makes it more challenging for students to enjoy many of the experiences that are often associated with college. Extracurricular activities, social events, and hobbies that they used to enjoy lose their appeal. This often means that they stop participating in these activities altogether. 

Because social withdrawal is another common symptom of depression, making important connections and getting the social support they need becomes even more of a challenge. As a result, a student with depression may feel disconnected from their friends, roommates, family members, and college community.

Physical Health

Depression can also affect a college student's physical health. When people are depressed, they also experience increases in stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol . 

This stress response is associated with a variety of health effects, including impaired immunity. Periods of prolonged stress associated with depression can also elevate the risk of health problems such as autoimmune conditions, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, and gastrointestinal disorders.

It is also common for people with depression to experience a variety of physical symptoms, including back pain, stomach upset, reduced psychomotor activity, and joint pain.

If you are a college student struggling with depression, there are a few things that you can do that may help make it easier to cope. 

Make a Plan

Dr. Erickson-Schroth suggests proactive plans for how you'll take care of your mental health before college begins. 

"Make a list of some of the potential challenges you may face. This could include finding community, adjusting to living in a new place away from family and friends, keeping up with a different level of academic work, or getting the right amount of good nutrition, exercise, and sleep," she explains.

Once you have a list, brainstorm some ways you'll tackle these challenges. This can include checking out resources your school might offer and leaning on tactics that have worked for you in the past.

Try Behavioral Activation

Dr. Mezulis says that one of the best ways to manage depression is to use a strategy known as behavioral activation . It involves scheduling activities that help promote a positive mood and well-being, even if you might not necessarily feel in the mood.

The idea is that doing things that are good for us and that we typically enjoy will give us opportunities to feel effective, socially connected, and happy, thus improving our mood.

This includes scheduling things like social events, exercise, and even daily tasks like doing your laundry and homework. Start by taking stock of some of your daily habits and look for ways to schedule activities that will support your emotional well-being:

• Make it a habit to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day
• Eat a balanced diet
• Utilize relaxation techniques to cope with stress
• Start a mindfulness or meditation practice
• Get regular physical activity
• Seek support from family, friends, professors, advisors, and others

While there are many strategies you can use on your own to improve your mental health and ability to cope, it is important to seek professional help if your symptoms have lasted longer than two weeks and/or are making it difficult to function in your daily life. Treatment options can include on- or off-campus options.

Talking to a mental health professional at your school's counseling center or student health services can be a great place to start. They can provide further options about mental health services that are available on-campus or refer you to off-campus providers.

Your doctor or therapist may recommend a few different options to treat your depression. Because depression is complex and influenced by a number of factors, research suggests that a combination of therapy and medication is often the most effective treatment approach.

During talk therapy , you can discuss the challenges you are facing with a professional. Your therapist can help you gain insights, improve relationships, and develop new coping skills.

There are different types of therapy that can help, including cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) , which focuses on changing negative thoughts; interpersonal therapy (IPT) , which focuses on improving relationships; and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) , which improves thoughts, emotions, and relationships.

There are also medications that can help people find relief from symptoms of depression. Antidepressants that are commonly prescribed include Prozac (fluoxetine), Paxil (paroxetine), Zoloft (sertraline), Celexa (citalopram), and Lexapro (escitalopram).

Some antidepressants carry a black box warning of an increased risk of suicide in young people under the age of 25. This risk tends to be highest when treatment is first initiated, so young people should be monitored for signs of increased suicidal thinking or behavior while taking antidepressant medication.

Resources for Professional Help

Dr. Dwenger recommends reaching out for professional support sooner rather than later. "Don’t try to hide it when you find yourself falling behind or missing commitments. All colleges have Student Services that include mental health services, academic guidance, and many resources both on campus and off," he suggests.

While all colleges offer different services, you might be able to access mental health services at the following locations:

• Student Support Services : Offers a range of services for academic and personal development and may provide counseling services
• Counseling Center : Provides counseling services to students experiencing mental health concerns
• Student Health Center : Offers a variety of health services to students, including mental health care
• Psychology Clinic : Provides psychological services to students and community members

Some colleges and universities may also offer teletherapy services. Other places to turn if you are experiencing depression include your resident advisor (RA), academic advisor, a trusted professor, or campus helpline. 

While colleges and universities offer resources to combat depression, evidence suggests that around 60% of students are unaware of these options.

Dr. Erickson-Schroth says every college should have a comprehensive plan designed to address aspects of student mental health. Such plans should include strategies that make student mental health a priority:

• Ways to promote social connections: Strategies for promoting social connections include improving student coping skills, identifying students at risk, providing mental health and crisis support, and encouraging help-seeking
• Staff mental health training: Training can help higher education faculty feel empowered, informed, and knowledgeable when it comes to helping students with mental health problems
• Peer training programs: These can be particularly helpful since students are more likely to turn to their peers instead of other adults.
• Community-building spaces: These can help students build connections, including LGBTQIA+ centers and clubs for students of color.

You don't have to be a mental health professional to have a positive impact on your students' emotional well-being. You just need to pay attention, listen, and connect students to help if they need it.

Colleges and universities must offer comprehensive support for students experiencing depression. Recognizing the signs of this condition can allow students to better access resources that can help support their well-being and recovery.

Schools can help by promoting depression awareness and working to combat the stigma that might prevent students from seeking help.

Frequently Asked Questions

While depression does not have a single cause, stress is a common factor that plays a major role in causing depression in college students. Coping with many different new challenges, including moving away from home, juggling new responsibilities, dealing with roommates, and adjusting to all of these transitions, can be stressful for many people.

Students who have mental health conditions such as depression may experience interruptions in their life that make it difficult to manage their normal daily needs and achieve their educational goals. If you have been diagnosed with depression or another psychiatric illness, you can request that your school make reasonable accommodations. Such accommodations may include more time to complete assignments or additional time on exams.

Liu XQ, Guo YX, Zhang WJ, Gao WJ. Influencing factors, prediction and prevention of depression in college students: A literature review . World J Psychiatry . 2022;12(7):860-873. doi:10.5498/wjp.v12.i7.860

American Psychiatric Association (APA). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . 5th ed, text revision. Washington, D.C.; 2022.

Mohammed TF, Gin LE, Wiesenthal NJ, Cooper KM. The experiences of undergraduates with depression in online science learning environments . CBE Life Sci Educ . 2022;21(2):ar18. doi:10.1187/cbe.21-09-0228

Healthy Minds Network. The Healthy Minds Study: 2021-2022 Data Report .

Lipson SK, Zhou S, Abelson S, et al. Trends in college student mental health and help-seeking by race/ethnicity: Findings from the national healthy minds study, 2013–2021 . Journal of Affective Disorders . 2022;306:138-147. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2022.03.038

Ettman CK, Cohen GH, Abdalla SM, et al. Persistent depressive symptoms during COVID-19: a national, population-representative, longitudinal study of U.S. adults . The Lancet Regional Health - Americas . 2022;5:100091. doi:10.1016/j.lana.2021.100091)

The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice. The Hope Center Student Basic Needs Survey .

Fang H, Tu S, Sheng J, Shao A. Depression in sleep disturbance: A review on a bidirectional relationship, mechanisms and treatment .  J Cell Mol Med . 2019;23(4):2324-2332. doi:10.1111/jcmm.14170

Brüdern J, Hallensleben N, Höller I, et al. Sleep disturbances predict active suicidal ideation the next day: an ecological momentary assessment study . BMC Psychiatry . 2022;22(1):65. doi:10.1186/s12888-022-03716-6

Becker SP, Dvorsky MR, Holdaway AS, Luebbe AM. Sleep problems and suicidal behaviors in college students . J Psychiatr Res . 2018;99:122-128. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2018.01.009

Brenner P, Brandt L, Li G, DiBernardo A, Bodén R, Reutfors J. Substance use disorders and risk for treatment resistant depression: a population-based, nested case-control study .  Addiction . 2020;115(4):768-777. doi:10.1111/add.14866

Busch CA, Mohammed TF, Nadile EM, Cooper KM. Aspects of online college science courses that alleviate and exacerbate undergraduate depression . PLoS One . 2022;17(6):e0269201. Published 2022 Jun 1. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0269201

Konturek PC, Brzozowski T, Konturek SJ. Stress and the gut: pathophysiology, clinical consequences, diagnostic approach and treatment options . J Physiol Pharmacol . 2011;62(6):591-9.

National Institute of Mental Health. Depression .

Cuijpers P, Sijbrandij M, Koole SL, Andersson G, Beekman AT, Reynolds CF. Adding psychotherapy to antidepressant medication in depression and anxiety disorders: a meta-analysis . World Psychiatry . 2014;13(1):56-67. doi:10.1002/wps.20089

Inside Higher Ed. Lack of awareness causes students to fall through the cracks .

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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10 Reasons Why Homework is Associated with Depression

Oct 01, 2023 | aj@knockofftherapy

High school students have a lot of responsibilities and expectations. They always have, but, nowadays, the amount of time students have to  devote to homework has increased . This is why we’re talking about the question, “does homework cause depression?”

This leaves students with less time for hanging out with friends, managing physical symptoms of stress , and understanding that better grades don’t equal better life.

And, yet, students still have to deal with too much homework that makes it impossible for them to take care of their mental health. Here are 10 reasons why homework is associated with depression. 

This blog is all about answering the question “Does homework cause depression?”

Homework and depression:, 1. the benefits of homework don’t always outweigh the stress it causes .

At the end of the day, homework is all about cementing the learning the students have done in class. However, a lot of students complete busy work that does not promote the active learning they need for a class to help them in the future.

Instead, homework assignments, especially for high school students, are now designed to give students heavy workloads instead of providing only the amount necessary to process the information they’re learning in class. 

2. Students deal with the added stress of college applications

By their junior year, high schoolers have to start applying to college. They have to handle both excessive homework that may or may not help their learning and individual essays for every college.

They have to do this while cultivating relationships with encouraging teachers for future letters of recommendation.

Therefore, they have to dedicate time to excessive amounts of homework while having enough time to plan out which universities they want to apply to, complete applications, and write multiple essays.

3. Students don’t always rely on their support systems

As much as parents want students to turn to them for support, lots of students are individuating and becoming independent from their family members.

They take on rigorous courses that require high academic performance without communicating with their families about the lack of sleep and excessive stress. Students may theoretically have enough time to complete assignments.

But, they struggle with a lack of balance because they’re taking on extra stress at the same time they’re learning critical life skills. Oftentimes, high schoolers don’t ask for help because they don’t want to admit they can’t do it all. 

4. Stress makes it difficult to avoid poor eating habits

High school students often think that they can maintain unhealthy habits, like limiting their hours of sleep and eating unsatisfying foods, long enough to get into a good college.

Once they graduate from high school, they think that they will be college students with a new and improved homework routine and a better quality of life.

However, high schoolers don’t realize the negative impact that unsatisfying, non-nutritious foods have on their mental health when they rely on poor eating habits during times of stress.

5. Students might turn to substance abuse to handle stress

When we think of high school students abusing substances, we probably think of alcohol. What we don’t think about is caffeine or energy drinks.

While high schoolers certainly drink underage, the far more dangerous substances are the ones they’re allowed to consume before their bodies are developed.

High schoolers can consume caffeine to pull-nighters before a test or during the day when they need to stay awake during classes. This substance abuse leads to  sleep deprivation and sporadic sleep schedules that disrupt their learning process and brain development .

6. Students don’t prioritize their emotional health

People value mental health more now than ever before . We’re talking about it more and sharing our experiences despite the stigma that still exists around mental health. So, we expose students to resources and tools that can help them fight anxiety and depression.

But, they don’t take them seriously because we’re also telling them that they have to get into a four-year university, pick the major that will determine their future career, and, if they fail at any of this, their future is doomed.

In other words, we give them the tools and resources, but we haven’t given them the infrastructure to take it seriously. They don’t have the safety to take care of themselves because they have so many assignments, expectations, and future problems to manage.

7. It’s easy to spend lots of time on social media

As obvious as it is, social media must be addressed when we talk about students and the hours of homework they have to complete.

Regardless of how much we encourage and motivate students to complete their homework assignments, we still can’t change the effect of social media on their lives.

Students who want good grades will most likely find a way to do that, even if they lose hours of sleep from going through social media. Social media is complicated, but it harms young people and we have to state that.

It distracts students, gives them a false sense of reality they can’t live up to, and provides them with a distraction from the stress and pain they’re feeling. 

8. Students have to participate in extracurricular activities 

Society has way too many expectations on young people for young people to be able to meet all of them and avoid mental illness. Extracurricular activities are no different.

Whether a student signs up for band, volunteering outside of school, or sports, that’s one more commitment they make. Sometimes, students do these activities because they choose to, but, far more often, they make these commitments because they are pleasing someone else.

That someone else might be college admissions or parents, but it usually isn’t them. Unfortunately, that means they don’t have as much time for the amount of homework they need to finish. 

9. Students need flexibility in their schedule to have a social life

On top of thinking ahead to college applications and staying ahead of homework assignments, students need time to hang out with friends.

Most students will find a way to spend time with friends and complete large amounts of homework, but they won’t do so without serious mental health problems.

The problem with high school students is not that they will avoid people or become depressed because they don’t see their friends. Unfortunately, they instead experience burnout and lose sleep to do everything they want to do. 

10. Students don’t learn about time management

Before their brains are fully developed, high schoolers are already attempting to function like adults. They try to form good study habits, complete a lot of homework, and spend time with friends and family. High school students do all of this with a lack of balance.

Whatever is not crucial to their existence is not a part of their life. When young adults have too many responsibilities and needs to meet, they choose the ones they think are most important and let the rest of them deteriorate.

For example, a student is much more likely to ignore their physical health problems and mental health issues if their grades are good and they get to spend time with friends. 

Related posts:

• 21 Small But Effective Tips for Dealing with Stress in College
• 12 Soothing Tools You Need to Use Right Now for College Stress Management
• 10 Thoughtful Gifts to Reduce Stress for the Chronic Worrier
• 16 Useful Ways to Improve Your Work School Life Balance

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Is Excessive Homework the Cause of Many Teen Issues?

Sydney Trebus , Business Manager | September 15, 2019

Does excessive homework really make a student perform worse? Is homework a big influencer on the emotional and physical health of students? Can we change the bad reputation homework has obtained over the years or is it too late?

Today, schooling is ever-changing, currently focusing on a “necessary” end goal of attending college. Standards are rising, teachers are better trained, and students are left with rigorous courses riddled with hours and hours of homework. People are now wondering how important homework really is. Is that just the overload talking or does homework actually have a negative impact on students? 

Popular opinion would suggest yes, claiming that homework is a useless and stress-inducing part of school at any age. Many Boulder High students communicate a similar complaint. 

Seniors Carson Williams and Carson Bennett voiced their opinions. Bennet says that “Homework results in later bedtimes which means we get less sleep and therefore, have less energy the next day.” Williams agreed and added,“Homework is good if you need it to study, but if it is just busywork then it is useless.” 

Another student, Bishal Ellison, commented that in some classes “homework doesn’t impact [his] success, there is no point … In one of [his] classes, homework is just for extra credit.”

While student opinions are extremely significant, teachers are the ones in control of this so-called “stress inducing and useless activity.” 

Mr. Weatherly, an AP World Geography teacher here at Boulder High, commented that homework has an enormous impact on the success of students within the class; he claimed that there is simply not enough time in class to review everything. He does, however, agree with popular opinion, saying, “Teachers give homework thinking about their own class, not the five or six others students have.” 

So which is it? How important is homework? Homework has been seen both beneficial and detrimental in association with time. Homework over a certain time limit can cause stress, depression, anxiety, lack of sleep, and more. 

Homework distracts from extracurriculars and sports as well, something colleges often look for. Homework is ultimately leading students to resent school as a whole.

According to a study done by Stanford University, 56 percent of students considered homework a primary source of stress, 43 percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while less than one percent of the students said homework was not a stressor. They were able to conclude that too much homework can result in a lack of sleep, headaches, exhaustion, and weight loss. 

Experts denote that the homework assigned to students today promotes less active learning and instead leads to boredom and a lack of problem-solving skills. Active learning, done through students learning from each other through discussion and collaboration, enhances a student’s ability to analyze and apply content to aid them in a real-world setting. 

This negative attitude towards homework can, unfortunately, arise at a young age, especially in today’s schooling systems. 

Students in all grades are required to extend the hard rigor of school past the average eight hours they need to spend inside the building. According to an Education Week article by Marva Hinton, kindergarteners are often required to do a minimum of 30 minutes of homework a night; these young students are expected to read for 15 minutes as well as work on a packet for another 15-30 minutes. 

Kindergarten is forcing children to learn concepts they may not be ready for, discouraging them at a young age. As a principle rule, the National PTA recommends 10 to 20 minutes of homework per night for children in first grade and an additional 10 minutes for every grade after that. 

After this time marker, homework begins to be detrimental to the success of a student. Additionally, according to the Journal of Educational Psychology , students who did more than 90 to 100 minutes of homework per night actually did worse on tests than those with less than 90 minutes of homework.

The hours of homework students receive takes time that could be spent on extracurriculars, with family and friends, or on sports or activities. Children and young adults focus a large part of their time and energy on school, removing time to replenish and work on other skills in life, including socializing. 

Physical activity can actually be very beneficial to the success rates of students, improving self-esteem, well-being, motivation, memory, focus, and higher thinking. 

According to the   US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC ) , exercise has an impact on cognitive skills such as concentration and attention, and it enhances classroom attitudes and behaviors. 

The more time taken away from the emotional and physical health of a student, the more resentful they will be towards school. In kindergarten, over 85 percent of students are enthusiastic about learning and attending school, whereas 40 percent of high school students are chronically disengaged from school and any learning that takes place. 

What’s even more baffling is that as students enter high school, they are expected to be enthusiastic about school, obtain perfect grades and test scores, and do extracurricular activities and sports in order to get into a good college. 

Logan Powell, the Dean of Admissions at Brown University asks when accepting students, “Have they learned time management skills, leadership, teamwork, discipline? How have they grown as a person and what qualities will they bring to our campus?” 

These are unrealistic standards for students who most likely already have negative attitudes towards school and homework and aren’t given the opportunity to work on the skills colleges look for by exploring their community through clubs, volunteering, and working.

Experts see how detrimental homework can really be for a plethora of reasons; Donaldson Pressman reported that homework is not only not beneficial to a students grades or GPA, but it is also  detrimental to their attitude towards school, their grades, their self-confidence, their social skills, and their quality of life.” 

Homework, however, helps student achievement, reinforces good habits, involves parents in their students’ learning, and helps students remember material learned in class. 

This is all based on the circumstances however, if schools keep making homework more prominent in the learning system, students will lose their passion for learning. Unfortunately, many of us already have. So when teachers consider giving homework to their students, they should ask themselves how they believe it will improve their students’ learning and abilities.

Comments (4)

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Chris • Feb 23, 2023 at 6:24 am

I hate homework in 5th grade

Jason • May 24, 2023 at 8:25 am

good luck in 7th grade then cuz that’s where finals start to get difficult. I’m barely keeping up right now and have to stay up late to keep up with the work.

John • May 9, 2022 at 11:40 am

Good article very informative.

Garrett • May 19, 2022 at 7:01 pm

yes i agree

Exploring Student Stress And How To Cope As A Stressed Student

School can be a challenging time for both college and high school students. With coursework, relationships, extracurricular activities, and family pressure, you may face a wide range of stressors at different stages of your academic career. While occasional stress may not be a problem, stress can become an issue when it interferes with your mental or physical well-being. Let’s take a closer look at how stress may manifest in students, as well as some coping strategies for managing stress during school. 

What is stress?

Stress is a physical and mental response to demanding situations. When you’re stressed, you may notice symptoms in your body, such as tense muscles or fluttering in your stomach. You may also notice mental and emotional symptoms, such as irritability and trouble concentrating. These symptoms are your body’s way of preparing you to respond to a threat or challenge. 

There are two types of stress: acute stress and chronic stress. Acute stress is stress that comes on quickly (for example, when you get into an argument or are running late to a meeting) and goes away once the situation passes. Chronic stress is  often due to ongoing challenges like work or relationship concerns. As a student, you may experience both acute stress and chronic stress during your time in school.  

Common causes of stress among high school and college students

Student stress can have a wide range of causes, including schoolwork, social dynamics, and worries about the future. Reasons you might experience stress as a student include:

• Pressure to get good grades
• Overwhelming amounts of homework or classwork
• Trouble balancing schoolwork, your social life, and extracurricular activities 
• Pressure to get into a good college or graduate school 
• Standardized tests like the SAT, ACT, or GRE
• Bullying or hazing
• Challenges in friendships or romantic relationships
• Concerns about tuition or student loans
• The transition to adulthood

From anxiety to depression: Effects of stress on mental health

Occasional stress may not always be a problem. However, too much stress can have negative mental health effects. Some of the most common include: 

Generalized anxiety disorder

Anxiety is a sense of ongoing worry or dread about future events. People with generalized anxiety disorder may experience anxiety about a wide range of concerns, to the extent that it interferes with their daily lives . Generalized anxiety disorder may also cause:

• Restlessness or irritability
• Feelings of worry that are hard to control 
• Unexplained muscle pains, headaches, or stomachaches
• Trouble sleeping 

Panic attacks

Panic attacks are sudden episodes of intense fear. These episodes typically last 5 to 20 minutes, often peaking at about 10 minutes, and may not always have an obvious trigger. When you have a panic attack, you might experience symptoms like:

• A rapid heartbeat
• Trouble breathing
• Nausea or dizziness
• An intense fear of dying
• Feelings of overwhelming dread

Depression can cause ongoing feelings of sadness, hopelessness, or low energy. Episodes of depression typically last at least two weeks and:

• Persistent feelings of sadness or emptiness
• Feelings of anger, guilt, or restlessness
• A loss of interest in hobbies and relationships
• An ongoing lack of energy
• Changes in eating and sleeping habits
• Negative feelings about oneself

Substance use

When you have trouble controlling your urges to consume something and these challenges are interfering with your life, you may have a substance use disorder. Substance use disorders can develop from using alcohol, drugs, or other habit-forming substances. Symptoms of a substance use disorder may include:

• An intense, overwhelming desire to use the substance 
• Unsuccessful attempts to stop using the substance
• Symptoms of withdrawal that can be relieved by using the substance
• Challenges in your life or relationships due to using the substance 

High blood pressure, muscle pain, and more: Effects of stress on physical health

Beyond mental health, stress—especially chronic stress— can also have negative effects on physical health . Some examples include:

Trouble sleeping

Elevated stress levels can sometimes lead to insomnia. People with insomnia may struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep, or they may wake up at improper times. Not getting enough sleep can lead to daytime sleepiness and trouble concentrating, which may make it harder for students to focus during class, negatively affecting academic performance. 

High blood pressure

When you experience stress, your body releases hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. These stress hormones can increase your heartbeat and constrict your blood vessels , leading to a spike in blood pressure. Over time, high blood pressure may contribute to vision loss, heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease . 

Aches and pains

When you’re stressed, you may also experience physical pain in your body. While this symptom usually passes when the source of the stress goes away, ongoing stress may lead to your muscles staying in a state of tension. As a result, you may experience effects like tension headaches, migraines, and back and shoulder pain. 

Signs you might be a stressed student

Understanding what stress can look like may help you take action to manage it before it can negatively affect your mental and physical health. Signs of stress can look different in different people, but you may be a stressed student if: 

• You often feel restless, irritable, or “on edge.” 
• You feel overwhelmed by your responsibilities or assignments.
• You experience unexplained stomachaches, headaches, or pain.
• You’re having trouble sleeping, or you’re sleeping more than usual.
• You’re getting sick more often than usual.
• You often struggle to concentrate, make decisions, or remember information.
• You’re withdrawing from your relationships. 
• Other people have noticed changes in your mood or behavior. 

How to manage stress in school 

Not all stress can be avoided, but by being proactive, you may be able to better manage stress and reduce its effects on your well-being. If you’re a student, the strategies in this section may be helpful, whether you’re currently experiencing stress or you want to protect yourself from stress in the future. 

How to manage stress and support your mental health as a high school student

Stress in high school can be especially challenging due to the added uncertainty students may experience about college, work, and standardized tests like the SAT and ACT. If you’re experiencing stress in high school, consider the following tips: 

• Prioritize your assignments based on their importance, difficulty, and due dates.
• Find study techniques that work for you, such as flashcards, gamification, or mnemonic devices. 
• Turn off your phone before each class to ensure you’re fully present and engaged. 
• Build a block of free time into your schedule each day, even if you have a busy schedule. 
• Consider using a planner or other organization tool to manage your schoolwork. 
• Make time for regular exercise, especially if you aren’t taking any physical education classes.
• Get as much quality sleep as you can by following a consistent bedtime schedule and avoiding screens before bed. 
• Seek support from your friends, family, and teachers if you’re feeling overwhelmed. 

Stress management tips for college students

College students may also face unique stressors, such as the transition to independent living, tuition, and specialized coursework. Coping with these stressors may be easier with the following strategies:

• Take advantage of campus tutoring, your student success center, and other resources offered by your school.
• Build chores like laundry and cooking into your weekly routine. 
• Surround yourself with a social group that can offer advice and emotional support when you’re stressed. 
• Keep your workspace tidy and well-organized.
• Take advantage of your professors’ office hours if you’re having difficulty with class material. 
• Create a simple budget for tuition, living expenses, and entertainment. 
• Break larger assignments into smaller, more manageable chunks and do a little each day. 
• Join a club, study group, or campus organization where you can connect with others and decompress from your schoolwork.
• Avoid overscheduling yourself, especially if you also have an internship or part-time job. 

Mental health and stress management resources for students

In addition to the coping strategies mentioned above, students facing high levels of stress may benefit from mental health support. Below, you can find a list of resources for getting advice, managing school-related stress, and connecting with mental health professionals in high school and college:

• School psychologists: Many U.S. high schools have at least one psychologist on campus. Your school psychologist may be able to identify mental health concerns and connect you with appropriate mental health resources. 
• Guidance counselors: Guidance counselors don’t typically offer direct mental health support. However, your school counselor may be able to help you balance your schedule and find academic support like tutoring. 
• Campus mental health centers: Colleges often provide mental health counseling through their student health centers. Note that during busy academic seasons, you may want to make an appointment in advance to avoid long wait times. 
• Academic advising: Like high school guidance counselors, academic advisors may be able to help college students build a sustainable course load and manage academic stress.  
• Helplines: Mental health hotlines like the Crisis Text Line and 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can provide students with quick, short-term support. 

Online therapy for stress

You may find it harder to make time to get mental health support if you’re feeling overwhelmed by coursework. Online therapy lets you see a licensed therapist on your own schedule without having to leave the house. You can communicate with a therapist via voice call, video call, or live chat. This flexibility may make it easier to get stress management help when you need it. With online therapy, you can also contact your therapist any time through in-app messaging, and they’ll respond as soon as they can. 

Studies show that online therapy can be effective for reducing stress. In a 2022 paper, researchers reviewed data from 13 studies of internet-based therapy for people with elevated stress levels. They found that online therapy effectively reduced symptoms of stress and stress-related disorders . 

High school and college students may experience stress for a variety of academic, social, and financial reasons. Stress is a natural physical and mental response to challenging situations, but when stress becomes chronic, it can negatively affect mental and physical health. For this reason, students may benefit from becoming aware of common stress symptoms like muscle pain, irritability, and trouble concentrating. If you are a student experiencing stress, you may benefit from strategies like breaking tasks down, getting plenty of exercise, and taking advantage of school resources to get help. Online therapy is another option for additional mental health support. You can take the first step toward getting help with stress by reaching out to a licensed therapist.

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Education scholar Denise Pope has found that too much homework has negative effects on student well-being and behavioral engagement. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.

“Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good,” wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .

The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students’ views on homework.

Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.

Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.

“The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students’ advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being,” Pope wrote.

Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.

Their study found that too much homework is associated with:

* Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

* Reductions in health: In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.

* Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were “not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills,” according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.

A balancing act

The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as “pointless” or “mindless” in order to keep their grades up.

“This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points,” Pope said.

She said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.

“Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development,” wrote Pope.

High-performing paradox

In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. “Young people are spending more time alone,” they wrote, “which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities.”

Student perspectives

The researchers say that while their open-ended or “self-reporting” methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for “typical adolescent complaining” – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.

The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Media Contacts

Denise Pope, Stanford Graduate School of Education: (650) 725-7412, [email protected] Clifton B. Parker, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-0224, [email protected]

When Is Homework Stressful? Its Effects on Students’ Mental Health

Are you wondering when is homework stressful? Well, homework is a vital constituent in keeping students attentive to the course covered in a class. By applying the lessons, students learned in class, they can gain a mastery of the material by reflecting on it in greater detail and applying what they learned through homework. 

However, students get advantages from homework, as it improves soft skills like organisation and time management which are important after high school. However, the additional work usually causes anxiety for both the parents and the child. As their load of homework accumulates, some students may find themselves growing more and more bored.

Students may take assistance online and ask someone to do my online homework . As there are many platforms available for the students such as Chegg, Scholarly Help, and Quizlet offering academic services that can assist students in completing their homework on time. 

Negative impact of homework

There are the following reasons why is homework stressful and leads to depression for students and affect their mental health. As they work hard on their assignments for alarmingly long periods, students’ mental health is repeatedly put at risk. Here are some serious arguments against too much homework.

No uniqueness

Homework should be intended to encourage children to express themselves more creatively. Teachers must assign kids intriguing assignments that highlight their uniqueness. similar to writing an essay on a topic they enjoy.

Moreover, the key is encouraging the child instead of criticizing him for writing a poor essay so that he can express himself more creatively.

Lack of sleep

One of the most prevalent adverse effects of schoolwork is lack of sleep. The average student only gets about 5 hours of sleep per night since they stay up late to complete their homework, even though the body needs at least 7 hours of sleep every day. Lack of sleep has an impact on both mental and physical health.

No pleasure

Students learn more effectively while they are having fun. They typically learn things more quickly when their minds are not clouded by fear. However, the fear factor that most teachers introduce into homework causes kids to turn to unethical means of completing their assignments.

Excessive homework

The lack of coordination between teachers in the existing educational system is a concern. As a result, teachers frequently end up assigning children far more work than they can handle. In such circumstances, children turn to cheat on their schoolwork by either copying their friends’ work or using online resources that assist with homework.

Anxiety level

Homework stress can increase anxiety levels and that could hurt the blood pressure norms in young people . Do you know? Around 3.5% of young people in the USA have high blood pressure. So why is homework stressful for children when homework is meant to be enjoyable and something they look forward to doing? It is simple to reject this claim by asserting that schoolwork is never enjoyable, yet with some careful consideration and preparation, homework may become pleasurable.

No time for personal matters

Students that have an excessive amount of homework miss out on personal time. They can’t get enough enjoyment. There is little time left over for hobbies, interpersonal interaction with colleagues, and other activities. 

However, many students dislike doing their assignments since they don’t have enough time. As they grow to detest it, they can stop learning. In any case, it has a significant negative impact on their mental health.

Children are no different than everyone else in need of a break. Weekends with no homework should be considered by schools so that kids have time to unwind and prepare for the coming week. Without a break, doing homework all week long might be stressful.

How do parents help kids with homework?

Encouraging children’s well-being and health begins with parents being involved in their children’s lives. By taking part in their homework routine, you can see any issues your child may be having and offer them the necessary support.

Set up a routine

Your student will develop and maintain good study habits if you have a clear and organized homework regimen. If there is still a lot of schoolwork to finish, try putting a time limit. Students must obtain regular, good sleep every single night.

Observe carefully

The student is ultimately responsible for their homework. Because of this, parents should only focus on ensuring that their children are on track with their assignments and leave it to the teacher to determine what skills the students have and have not learned in class.

Listen to your child

One of the nicest things a parent can do for their kids is to ask open-ended questions and listen to their responses. Many kids are reluctant to acknowledge they are struggling with their homework because they fear being labelled as failures or lazy if they do.

However, every parent wants their child to succeed to the best of their ability, but it’s crucial to be prepared to ease the pressure if your child starts to show signs of being overburdened with homework.

Talk to your teachers

Also, make sure to contact the teacher with any problems regarding your homework by phone or email. Additionally, it demonstrates to your student that you and their teacher are working together to further their education.

Homework with friends

If you are still thinking is homework stressful then It’s better to do homework with buddies because it gives them these advantages. Their stress is reduced by collaborating, interacting, and sharing with peers.

Additionally, students are more relaxed when they work on homework with pals. It makes even having too much homework manageable by ensuring they receive the support they require when working on the assignment. Additionally, it improves their communication abilities.

However, doing homework with friends guarantees that one learns how to communicate well and express themselves. 

Review homework plan

Create a schedule for finishing schoolwork on time with your child. Every few weeks, review the strategy and make any necessary adjustments. Gratefully, more schools are making an effort to control the quantity of homework assigned to children to lessen the stress this produces.

Bottom line

Finally, be aware that homework-related stress is fairly prevalent and is likely to occasionally affect you or your student. Sometimes all you or your kid needs to calm down and get back on track is a brief moment of comfort. So if you are a student and wondering if is homework stressful then you must go through this blog.

While homework is a crucial component of a student’s education, when kids are overwhelmed by the amount of work they have to perform, the advantages of homework can be lost and grades can suffer. Finding a balance that ensures students understand the material covered in class without becoming overburdened is therefore essential.

Zuella Montemayor did her degree in psychology at the University of Toronto. She is interested in mental health, wellness, and lifestyle.

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I Can’t Concentrate

Depression and/or anxiety can severely impact our capacity to focus on the important things in our life, including our course. It is very easy to quickly fall behind with our studies, creating more problems for us to deal with.

One of the many great videos from www.itgetsbrighter.org

Student life tends to be hectic, with lots going on. If you are living in shared accommodation, it can be noisy, and difficult to avoid distraction from others. Likewise, if you are living on your own, feeling isolated or detached from others can also be problematic.

Problems with concentration will affect most students at one time or another, but depressed or anxious thinking habits set up a kind of internal ‘noise’ that can cause these problems to become intense or chronic. Take a look at the pages in the Making Changes and Self-Support section for more information.

Very few students sail through their degrees without a few study problems. Addressing issues sooner rather than later is vital in order to prevent study problems from getting you down. If we are experiencing depression or anxiety, it can feel so much harder, with everyday tasks presenting real challenges. If it feels too much to get out of bed or have a shower, focusing on academic work can sometimes feel impossible.

There are things we can do to help support ourselves at this time.

Problems With The C ourse

One of the commonest problems for students when they first start on a course is realising that it isn’t what they expected, or not suited to them in some way. Also, as people progress through their course, they may find it does not develop in the way they had hoped, or lose interest in their subject as time goes on. Depression and anxiety can also significantly, and falsely, contribute to people not enjoying or engaging with their studies.

Universities and colleges have an interest in students being on the right course for them, and will usually offer support in addressing problems of this nature. It is always important to speak with a Personal Tutor, or another member of staff in your department. We can often feel anxious about doing this, but people will usually find that approaching someone can be an important first step in dealing with problems.

Leaving Things to The Last Minute…

Procrastination is another very common student issue, which can be closely linked with any or all of the other issues discussed on this page. It is also a very common part of the depression habit spiral – the more things get put off, the more overwhelming they seem. Procrastination is particularly linked to the depressed thinking habits of perfectionism, self-bullying and all-or-nothing thinking.

There are a number of things we can do to support ourselves in getting things done. Have a look at the Making Changes information on this site for some ideas.

Time Management

Having to juggle a number of different demands can be extremely difficult; these might include study, work, family or other commitments, for example. Some university or college courses are quite structured, but many only specify a few lecture or seminar commitments a week, while expecting students to organise much of their own study independently. Making the mistake of seeing non-lecture time as ‘free’ time can leave students feeling lost and aimless, making space for depression to flourish. Alternatively, rushing around from one thing to the next without proper rest can suddenly lead to a depressed ‘burnout’.

There are a number of things we can do to support ourselves in managing the demands and expectations we encounter. Have a look at the Making Changes information on this site for some ideas.

Performance and Exam Anxiety

A little adrenaline helps performance, but over-worrying is a very good way to reduce efficiency and effectiveness, as well as exhausting ourselves. Depressed thinking habits and raised stress levels can get in the way of you doing your best in your studies. Getting your time management and concentration sorted is a good starting point. Use the study skills support and resources offered by your academic or student services department.

Planning and Practical Action

The most important first step for managing depression and anxiety is to focus on what you can practically do to support yourself. Basic planning and time management can help us feel more in control of things. There is a wealth of detailed advice provided by universities, colleges, and student organisations, for planning your student life effectively. Try these tips as a starting point:

• Get a good quality planner or diary with enough space to record all your commitments, or download from an app store a good quality ‘To-Do’ app and planner to use on your phone. These will often sync across to tablet and desktop computers too, meaning you have up-to-date information available across a number of sites.
• Use the planner to record all of your study commitments and deadlines, as well as other appointments or social events.
• Take some time to plan out your week effectively, so that you assign realistic and achievable blocks of time to study, leisure, work, and exercise. This is especially important if your course involves a lot of independent study and fewer organised contact hours. Remember that studying is not the only thing you need to be making time for!
• Plan your time for assignments, so you are realistic about what might be involved. Again, talking to a tutor about this might help. Starting is the hardest part, so plan to just make a very small step as your starting point (getting a book out of the library, for example).
• Or if the writing part is what you find hard to start, then jot down some random thoughts and sentences straight away without thinking too hard about it – once you have something down on the page, it is easier to shape a plan for going forward from there.
• Most universities will offer study skills courses or web resources. It is also worth talking to someone in your department, as departmental-specific resources may be available. These can be helpful, particularly when depression and/or anxiety are sapping your resources. Sometimes putting basic strategies in place can help considerably.

Tell Your Course Tutor About Your Difficulties

It is very important to tell your tutors about any struggles you are facing with your mental health, including depression and anxiety. Universities and colleges have a responsibility under law to ensure that students are appropriately supported and that, wherever possible, ‘reasonable adjustments’ can be made. Different institutions will do things slightly differently, but talk to your tutor and go to the Student Services centre (or equivalent in your institution) and explain the difficulties you are experiencing. They will treat your information confidentially and will talk to you about how you might be supported on your course. Support can include study skills, additional time in examinations or other deadlines, or more face-to-face support, for example.

What you will be offered will depend on your circumstances and what the institution has available. However, the important message here is to tell someone about what is happening.

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Family and Academic Stress and Their Impact on Students' Depression Level and Academic Performance

1 School of Mechatronics Engineering, Daqing Normal University, Daqing, China

2 School of Marxism, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, China

Jacob Cherian

3 College of Business, Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Noor Un Nisa Khan

4 Faculty of Business Administration, Iqra University Karachi Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan

Kalpina Kumari

5 Faculty of Department of Business Administration, Greenwich University Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan

Muhammad Safdar Sial

6 Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Islamabad, Pakistan

Ubaldo Comite

7 Department of Business Sciences, University Giustino Fortunato, Benevento, Italy

Beata Gavurova

8 Faculty of Mining, Ecology, Process Control and Geotechnologies, Technical University of Kosice, Kosice, Slovakia

József Popp

9 Hungarian National Bank–Research Center, John von Neumann University, Kecskemét, Hungary

10 College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

Associated Data

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Current research examines the impact of academic and familial stress on students' depression levels and the subsequent impact on their academic performance based on Lazarus' cognitive appraisal theory of stress. The non-probability convenience sampling technique has been used to collect data from undergraduate and postgraduate students using a modified questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale. This study used the SEM method to examine the link between stress, depression, and academic performance. It was confirmed that academic and family stress leads to depression among students, negatively affecting their academic performance and learning outcomes. This research provides valuable information to parents, educators, and other stakeholders concerned about their childrens' education and performance.

Introduction

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are believed to be one of the strongest pillars in the growth of any nation ( 1 ). Being the principal stakeholder, the performance of HEIs mainly relies on the success of its students ( 2 ). To successfully compete in the prevailing dynamic industrial environment, students are not only supposed to develop their knowledge but are also expected to have imperative skills and abilities ( 3 ). In the current highly competitive academic environment, students' performance is largely affected by several factors, such as social media, academic quality, family and social bonding, etc. ( 4 ). Aafreen et al. ( 2 ) stated that students continuously experience pressure from different sources during academic life, which ultimately causes stress among students.

Stress is a common factor that largely diminishes individual morale ( 5 ). It develops when a person cannot handle their inner and outer feelings. When the stress becomes chronic or exceeds a certain level, it affects an individual's mental health and may lead to different psychological disorders, such as depression ( 6 ). Depression is a worldwide illness marked by feelings of sadness and the inability to feel happy or satisfied ( 7 ). Nowadays, it is a common disorder, increasing day by day. According to the World Health Organization ( 8 , 9 ), depression was ranked third among the global burden of disease and predicted to take over first place by 2030.

Depression leads to decreased energy, difficulty thinking, concentrating, and making career decisions ( 6 ). Students are a pillar of the future in building an educated society. For them, academic achievement is a big goal of life and can severely be affected if the students fall prey to depression ( 10 , 11 ). There can be several reasons for this: family issues, exposure to a new lifestyle in colleges and universities, poor academic grades, favoritism by teachers, etc. Never-ending stress or academic pressure of studies can also be a chief reason leading to depression in students ( 12 ). There is a high occurrence of depression in emerging countries, and low mental health literacy has been theorized as one of the key causes of escalating rates of mental illness ( 13 ).

Several researchers, such as ( 6 , 14 , 15 ) have studied stress and depression elements from a performance perspective and reported that stress and depression negatively affect the academic performance of students. However, Aafreen et al. ( 2 ) reported contradictory results and stated that stress sharpens the individual's mind and reflexes and enables workers to perform better in taxing situations. Ardalan ( 16 ) conducted a study in the United States (US). They reported that depression is a common issue among students in the US, and 20 percent of them may have a depressive disorder spanning 12 months or more. It affects students' mental and physical health and limits their social relationships and professional career.

However, the current literature provides mixed results on the relationship between stress and performance. Therefore, the current research investigates stress among students from family and academic perspectives using Lazaru's theory which describes stress as a relation between an individual and his environment and examines how it impacts students' depression level, leading to their academic performance. Most of the available studies on stress and depression are from industrial perspectives, and limited attention is paid to stress from family and institutional perspectives and examines its impact on students' depression level, leading to their academic performance, particularly in Pakistan, the place of the study. Besides, the present study follows a multivariate statistical technique, followed by structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the relationship between stated variables which is also a study's uniqueness.

This paper is divided into five main sections. The current section provided introduction, theoretical perspective, and background of the study. In the second section, a theoretical framework, a detailed literature review and research hypotheses of the underlying relationships are being proposed. In the third and fourth section, methodology and analysis have been discussed. Finally, in the last section, the conclusion, limitations, implications, and recommendations for future research have been proposed.

Theory and Literature

The idea of cognitive appraisal theory was presented in 1966 by psychologist Richard Lazarus in Psychological Stress and Coping Process. According to this theory, appraisal and coping are two concepts that are central to any psychological stress theory. Both are interrelated. According to the theory, stress is the disparity between stipulations placed on the individuals and their coping resources ( 17 ). Since its first introduction as a comprehensive theory ( 18 ), a few modifications have been experienced in theory later. The recent adaptation states that stress is not defined as a specific incitement or psychological, behavioral, or subjective response. Rather, stress is seen as a relation between an individual and his environment ( 19 ). Individuals appraise the environment as significant for their well-being and try to cope with the exceeding demands and challenges.

Cognitive appraisal is a model based on the idea that stress and other emotional processes depend on a person's expectancies regarding the significance and outcome of an event, encounter, or function. This explains why there are differences in intensity, duration, and quality of emotions elicited in people in response to the environment, which objectively, are equal for all ( 18 ). These appraisals may be influenced by various factors, including a person's goals, values, motivations, etc., and are divided into primary and secondary appraisals, specific patterns of which lead to different kinds of stress ( 20 ). On the other hand, coping is defined as the efforts made by a person to minimize, tolerate, or master the internal and external demands placed on them, a concept intimately related to cognitive appraisal and, therefore, to the stress-relevant person-environment transactions.

Individuals experience different mental and physiological changes when encountering pressure, such as stress ( 21 , 22 ). The feelings of stress can be either due to factors in the external environment or subjective emotions of individuals, which can even lead to psychological disorders such as anxiety and depression. Excess stress can cause health problems. A particularly negative impact has been seen in students due to the high level of stress they endure, affecting their learning outcomes. Various methods are used to tackle stress. One of the methods is trying to pinpoint the causes of stress, which leads us to different terms such as family stress and academic stress. The two factors, stress and depression, have greatly impacted the students' academic performances. This research follows the Lazarus theory based on stress to examine the variables. See the conceptual framework of the study in Figure 1 .

Conceptual framework.

Academic Stress

Academic issues are thought to be the most prevalent source of stress for college students ( 23 ). For example, according to Yang et al. ( 24 ), students claimed that academic-related pressures such as ongoing study, writing papers, preparing for tests, and boring professors were the most important daily problems. Exams and test preparation, grade level competitiveness, and gaining a big quantity of knowledge in a short period of time all contribute to academic pressure. Perceived stress refers to a condition of physical or psychological arousal in reaction to stressors ( 25 , 26 ). When college students face excessive or negative stress, they suffer physical and psychological consequences. Excessive stress can cause health difficulties such as fatigue, loss of appetite, headaches, and gastrointestinal issues. Academic stress has been linked to a variety of negative effects, including ill health, anxiety, depression, and poor academic performance. Travis et al. ( 27 ), in particular, discovered strong links between academic stress and psychological and physical health.

Family Stress

Parental participation and learning effect how parents treat their children, as well as how they handle their children's habits and cognitive processes ( 28 ). This, in turn, shapes their children's performance and behaviors toward them. As a result, the parent-child relationship is dependent on the parents' attitudes, understanding, and perspectives. When parents have positive views, the relationship between them and their children will be considerably better than when they have negative attitudes. Parents respond to unpleasant emotions in a variety of ways, which can be classified as supportive or non-supportive ( 29 ). Parents' supportive reactions encourage children to explore their emotions by encouraging them to express them or by assisting them in understanding and coping with an emotion-eliciting scenario. Non-supportive behaviors, such as downplaying the kid's emotional experience, disciplining the child, or getting concerned by the child's display, transmit the child the message that expressing unpleasant emotions is inappropriate and unacceptable. Supportive parental reactions to unpleasant emotions in children have been linked to dimensions of emotional and social competence, such as emotion comprehension and friendship quality. Non-supportive or repressive parental reactions, on the other hand, have been connected to a child's stored negative affect and disordered behaviors during emotion-evoking events, probably due to an inability or unwillingness to communicate unpleasant sentiments ( 30 , 31 ).

Academic Stress and Students' Depression Levels

Generally, it is believed that mental health improves as we enter into adulthood, and depression disorder starts to decline between the age of 18 and 25. On the other hand, excessive depression rates are the highest pervasiveness during this evolution ( 15 ), and many university students in the particular screen above clinical cut-off scores for huge depression ( 14 , 32 ). Afreen et al. ( 2 ) stated that 30% of high school students experience depression from different perspectives. This means a major chunk of fresh high school graduates are more likely to confront depression or are more vulnerable to encountering depression while enrolling in the university. As the students promote to a higher level of education, there are many factors while calculating the stress like, for example, the syllabus is tough to comprehend, assignments are quite challenging with unrealistic deadlines, and accommodation problems for the students who are shifted from other cities, etc. ( 33 ). Experiences related to university can also contribute while studying depression. The important thing to consider is depression symptoms vary from time to time throughout the academic years ( 34 ); subjective and objective experiences are directly connected to the depression disorder ( 6 ), stress inherent in the university situation likely donates to the difference in university students' depressing experiences.

Stress negatively impacts students' mental peace, and 42.3% of students of Canadian university respondents testified devastating levels of anxiety and stress ( 35 , 36 ). Moreover, there were (58.1%) students who stated academic projects are too tough to handle for them. In Germany, Bulgaria, and Poland, a huge sample of respondents consider assignments a burden on their lives that cannot stand compared to relationships or any other concern in life ( 14 ).

In several countries, university students were studied concerning stress, and results show that depression disorder and apparent anxiety are correlated to educational needs and demands ( 37 ). In their cross-sectional study conducted on a sample of 900 Canadian students, Lörz et al. ( 38 ) concluded that strain confronted due to academic workload relatively has high bleak symptoms even after controlling 13 different risk affecting factors for depression (e.g., demographic features, abusive past, intellectual way, and personality, currently experienced stressful trials in life, societal support). Few have exhibited that students who are tired of educational workload or the students who name them traumatic tend to have more depressing disorders ( 15 ).

These relations can be described by examining the stress and coping behaviors that highlight the role of positive judgments in the stress times ( 39 ), containing the Pancer and colleagues' university modification framework ( 40 , 41 ). The evaluation concept includes examining the circumstances against the available resources, for instance, the effectiveness of coping behavior and societal support. As per these frameworks, if demand is considered unapproachable and resources are lacking, confronted stress and interrelated adverse effects will be high, conceivably giving birth to difficulties in an adjustment like mental instability. Stress triggering situations and the resources in the educational area led to excessive workload, abilities, and study and enhanced time managing skills.

Sketching the overall evaluation frameworks, Pancer et al. ( 40 ) established their framework to exhibit the constructive and damaging adjustment results for the university students dealing with the academic challenges. They stated that while students enroll in the university, they evaluate all the stress-related factors that students confront. They consider them manageable as long as they have sufficient resources. On the other hand, if the available resources do not match the stress factors, it will surely result in a negative relationship, which will lead students to experience depression for sure. Based on the given arguments, the researcher formulates the following hypothesis:

• H1: Increased academic stress results in increased depression levels in students.

Family Stress and Students' Depression Levels

According to Topuzoglu et al. ( 42 ), 3% to 16.9% of individuals are affected by depression worldwide. There are fewer chances for general people to confront depression than university students ( 43 , 44 ). In Mirza et al.'s ( 45 ) study, 1/3 of students encounter stress and depression (a subjective mean occurrence of 30.6%) of all participant students, which suggests students have a 9% higher rate of experiencing depression than general people. Depression can destroy life; it greatly impacts living a balanced life. It can impact students' personal and social relationships, educational efficiency, quality of life, affecting their social and family relationships, academic productivity, and bodily operations ( 46 , 47 ). This declines their abilities, and they get demotivated to learn new things, resulting in unsatisfactory performances, and it can even result in university dropouts ( 48 ). Depression is a continuous substantial risk aspect for committing suicide for university students ( 49 ); thus, it is obliged to discover the factors that can give rise to students' depression.

Seventy-five percentage of students in China of an intermediate school are lucky enough to enroll in higher education. The more students pursue higher education, the more they upsurge for depression (in 2002, the depression rate was 5 to 10%, 2011 it rises 24 to 38%) ( 5 ). Generally, University students' age range is late teens to early twenties, i.e., 18–23 years. Abbas ( 50 ) named the era of university students as “post-adolescence. Risk factors for teenage depression have several and complicated problems of individual characteristics and family and educational life ( 51 ). Amongst the huge depression factors, relationship building with family demands a major chunk of attention and time since factors like parenting and family building play an important role in children's development ( 52 , 53 ). Halonen et al. ( 54 ) concluded that factors like family binding play a major role in development, preservation, and driving adolescent depression. Generally speaking, depressed teenagers tend to have a weaker family relationship with their parents than non-depressed teenagers.

There are two types of family risk factors, soft and hard. Hard factors are encountered in families with a weak family building structure, parents are little to no educated at all, and of course, the family status (economically). Several studies have proved that students of hard risk factors are more likely to encounter depression. Firstly, students from broken families have low confidence in every aspect of life, and they are weak at handling emotional breakdowns compared to students from complete and happy families ( 55 – 57 ). Secondly, the university students born in educated families, especially mothers (at least a college degree or higher degree), are less likely to confront depression than the university students born in families with little to no educated families. Secondly, children born with educated mothers or mothers who at least have a college degree tend to be less depressive than the children of less-educated mothers ( 58 ). However, Parker et al. and Mahmood et al. ( 59 , 60 ) stated a strong relationship between depression and mothers with low literacy levels.

On the other hand, Chang et al. ( 46 ) couldn't prove the authentication of this relationship in university students. Thirdly, university students who belong to lower class families tend to have more unstable mental states and are more likely to witness depression than middle or upper-class families ( 61 ). Jadoon et al. and Abbas et al. ( 62 , 63 ) said that there is no link between depression and economic status. Their irrelevance can be because medical students often come from educated and wealthy families and know their jobs are guaranteed as soon as they graduate. Therefore, the relationship between the hard family environment and depression can be known by targeting a huge audience, and there are several factors to consider while gauging this relationship.

The soft family environment is divided into clear factors (parenting style example, family guidelines, rules, the parent with academic knowledge, etc.) and implied factors (family norm, parent-child relationship, communication within the family, etc.). The soft factor is the key factor within the family that cannot be neglected while studying the teenagers' mental state or depression. Families make microsystems within the families, and families are the reason to build and maintain dysfunctional behavior by multiple functional procedures ( 64 ). Amongst the soft family environmental factors, consistency and struggles can be helpful while forecasting the mental health of teenagers. The youth of broken families, family conflict, weak family relationships, and marital issues, especially unhappy married life, are major factors for youth depression ( 65 ). Ruchkin et al. ( 66 ) stated that African Americans usually have weak family bonding, and their teenagers suffer from depression even when controlling for source bias. Whereas, few researchers have stated, family unity is the most serious factor while foreseeing teenagers' depression. Eaton noted that extreme broken family expressions might hurt emotionality and emotional regulation ( 67 , 68 ).

Social circle is also considered while studying depression in teenagers ( 69 – 71 ). The traditional Pakistani culture emphasizes collectivism and peace and focuses on blood relations and sensitive sentiments. Adolescents with this type of culture opt to get inspired by family, but students who live in hostels or share the room with other students lose this family inspiration. This transformation can be a big risk to encounter depression ( 72 ). Furthermore, in Pakistan securing employment is a big concern for university students. If they want a good job in the future, they have to score good grades and maintain GPA from the beginning. They have to face different challenges all at once, like aggressive educational competition, relationships with peers and family, and of course the biggest employment stress all alone. The only source for coping with these pressures is the family that can be helpful for fundings. If the students do not get ample support the chances are of extreme depression. The following hypothesis is suggested:

• H2: Increased family stress level results in increased depression levels in students.

Students' Depression Levels and Students' Academic Performance

University students denote many people experiencing a crucial conversion from teenagers to adulthood: a time that is generally considered the most traumatic time in one's ( 73 ). This then gets accumulated with other challenges like changes in social circle and exams tension, which possibly puts students' mental health at stake. It has been concluded that one-third of students experience moderate to severe depression in their entire student life ( 74 ). This is the rate that can be increased compared to the general people ( 75 , 76 ). Students with limited social-class resources tend to be more helpless. Additionally, depressed students in attainable-focused environments (for instance, higher academic institutes) are likely to score lower grades with a sense of failure and more insufficient self-assurance because they consider themselves failures, find the world unfair, and have future uncertainties. Furthermore, students with low self-esteem are rigid to take on challenging assignments and projects, hence they are damaging their educational career ( 77 ).

Depression can be defined as a blend of physical, mental, bodily processes, and benightedness which can make themselves obvious by symptoms like, for example, poor sleep schedule, lack of concentration, ill thoughts, and state of remorse ( 78 , 79 ). But, even after such a huge number of depressions in students and the poor academic system, research has not explored the effect of depression on educational performance. A study has shown that the relationship between emotional stability and academic performance in university students and financial status directly results in poor exam performance. As the study further concluded, it was verified depression is an independent factor ( 80 ). Likewise, students suffering from depression score poor grades, but this relationship vanished if their depression got treated. Apart from confidence breaking, depression is a big failure for their academic life. Students with depression symptoms bunk more classes, assessments, and assignments. They drop courses if they find them challenging than non-depressed peers, and they are more likely to drop out of university completely ( 81 ). Students suffering from depression can become ruthless, ultimately affecting their educational performance and making them moody ( 82 ).

However, it has been stated that the association between anxiety and educational performance is even worse and ambiguous. At the same time, some comprehensive research has noted that the greater the anxiousness, the greater the student's performance. On the other hand, few types of research have shown results where there is no apparent relationship between anxiety and poorer academic grades ( 83 ). Ironically, few studies have proposed that a higher anxiety level may improve academic performance ( 84 , 85 ). Current research by Khan et al. ( 86 ) on the undergraduate medical students stated that even though the high occurrence of huge depression between the students, the students GPA is unharmed. Therefore, based on given differences in various research findings, this research is supposed to find a more specific and clear answer to the shared relationship between students' depression levels and academic performance. Based on the given arguments, the researcher formulates the following hypothesis:

• H3: Students' depression level has a significant negative effect on their academic performance.

Methodology

Target population and sampling procedure.

The target audience of this study contains all male and female students studying in the public, private, or semi-government higher education institutions located in Rawalpindi/Islamabad. The researchers collected data from undergraduate and postgraduate students from the management sciences, engineering, and computer science departments. The sampling technique which has been used is the non-probability sampling technique. A questionnaire was given to the students, and they were requested to fill it and give their opinion independently. The questionnaire is based on five points Likert scale.

However, stress and depression are the most common issue among the students, which affects their learning outcomes adversely. A non-probability sampling technique gathered the data from February 2020 to May 2020. The total questionnaires distributed among students were 220, and 186 responses were useful. Of which 119 respondents were females, 66 males, and 1 preferred not to disclose. See Table 1 for detailed demographic information of respondents.

Respondent's demographic profile.

Measurement Scales

We have divided this instrument into two portions. In the first section, there is demographic information of respondents. The second section includes 14 items based on family stress, academic stress, students' depression levels, and students' academic performance. Academic and family stress were measured by 3 item scale for each construct, and students' depression level and academic performance were measured by 4 item scale for each separate construct. The five-point Likert scale is used to measure the items, in which one signifies strongly disagree (S.D), second signifies disagree (D.A), third signifies neither agree nor disagree (N), fourth signifies agree (A.G), and the fifth signifies strongly agree (S.A). The questionnaire has been taken from Gold Berg ( 87 ), which is modified and used in the given questionnaire.

Data Analysis and Results

The researchers used the SEM technique to determine the correlation between stress, depression, and academic performance. According to Prajogo and Cooper ( 88 ), it can remove biased effects triggered by the measurement faults and shape a hierarchy of latent constructs. SPSS v.23 and AMOS v.23 have been used to analyze the collected data. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test is used to test the competence of the sample. The value obtained is 0.868, which fulfills the Kaiser et al. ( 89 ), a minimum requirement of 0.6. The multicollinearity factor was analyzed through the variance inflation factor (VIF). It shows the value of 3.648 and meets the requirement of Hair et al. ( 90 ), which is < 4. It also indicates the absence of multicollinearity. According to Schwarz et al. ( 91 ), common method bias (CMB) is quite complex in quantitative studies. Harman's test of a single factor has been used to analyze CMB. The result obtained for the single factor is 38.63%. As stated by Podsakoff et al. ( 92 ), if any of the factors gives value < 50% of the total variance, it is adequate and does not influence the CMB. Therefore, we can say that there is no issue with CMB. Considering the above results are adequate among the measurement and structural model, we ensure that the data is valued enough to analyze the relation.

Assessment of the Measurement and Structural Model

The association between the manifest factors and their elements is examined by measuring model and verified by the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). CFA guarantees legitimacy and the unidimensional of the measurement model ( 93 ). Peterson ( 94 ) stated that the least required, i.e., 0.8 for the measurement model, fully complies with its Cronbach's alpha value, i.e., 0.802. Therefore, it can confidently be deduced that this measurement model holds satisfactory reliability. As for the psychological legitimacy can be analyzed through factor loading, where the ideal loading is above 0.6 for already established items ( 95 ). Also, according to the recommendation of Molina et al. ( 96 ), the minimum value of the average variance extracted (AVE) for all results is supposed to be >0.5. Table 2 gives detail of the variables and their quantity of things, factor loading, merged consistency, and AVE values.

Instrument reliability and validity.

A discriminant validity test was performed to ensure the empirical difference of all constructs. For this, it was proposed by Fornell and Larcker ( 97 ) that the variance of the results is supposed to be greater than other constructs. The second indicator of discriminant validity is that the square root values of AVE have a greater correlation between the two indicators. Hair et al. ( 90 ) suggested that the correlation between the pair of predictor variables should not be higher than 0.9. Table 3 shows that discriminant validity recommended by Hair et al. ( 90 ) and Fornell and Larcker ( 97 ) was proved clearly that both conditions are fulfilled and indicates that the constructs have adequate discriminant validity.

Discriminant validity analysis.

Acd. Strs, Academic Stress; Fam. Strs, Family Stress; Std. Dep. Lev, Student's Depression Level; Std. Acd. Perf, Student's Academic Performance .

Kaynak ( 98 ) described seven indicators that ensure that the measurement model fits correctly. These indicators include standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR), root means a square error of approximation (RMSEA), comparative fit index (CFI), normative fit index (NFI), adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI), the goodness of fit index (GFI) and chi-square to a degree of freedom (x 2 /DF). Tucker-Lewis's index (TLI) is also included to ensure the measurement and structural model's fitness. In the measurement model, the obtained result shows that the value of x 2 /DF is 1.898, which should be lower than 2 suggested by Byrne ( 99 ), and this value also meets the requirement of Bagozzi and Yi ( 100 ), i.e., <3. The RMSEA has the value 0.049, which fully meets the requirement of 0.08, as stated by Browne and Cudeck ( 101 ). Furthermore, the SRMR acquired value is 0.0596, which assemble with the required need of < 0.1 by Hu and Bentler ( 102 ). Moreover, according to Bentler and Bonett ( 103 ), McDonald and Marsh ( 104 ), and Bagozzi and Yi ( 100 ), the ideal value is 0.9, and the values obtained from NFI, GFI, AGFI, CFI, and TLI are above the ideal value.

Afterward, the structural model was analyzed and achieved the findings, which give the value of x 2 /DF 1.986. According to Browne and Cudeck ( 101 ), the RMSEA value should not be greater than 0.08, and the obtained value of RMSEA is 0.052, which meets the requirement perfectly. The minimum requirement of Hu and Bentler ( 102 ) should be <0.1, for the structural model fully complies with the SRMR value 0.0616. According to a recommendation of McDonald and Marsh ( 104 ) and Bagozzi and Yi ( 100 ), the ideal value must be up to 0.9, and Table 4 also shows that the values of NFI, GFI, AGFI, CFI, and TLI, which are above than the ideal value and meets the requirement. The above results show that both the measurement and structural models are ideally satisfied with the requirements and the collected data fits correctly.

Analysis of measurement and structural model.

Testing of Hypotheses

The SEM technique is used to examine the hypotheses. Each structural parameter goes along with the hypothesis. The academic stress (Acd. Strs) with the value β = 0.293 while the p -value is 0.003. These outcomes show a significant positive relationship between academic stress (Acd. Strs) and students' depression levels (Std. Dep. Lev). With the β = 0.358 and p = 0.001 values, the data analysis discloses that the family stress (Fam. Strs) has a significant positive effect on the students' depression level (Std. Dep. Lev). However, the student's depression level (Std. Dep. Lev) also has a significant negative effect on their academic performance (Std. Acd. Perf) with the values of β = −0.319 and p = 0.001. Therefore, the results supported the following hypotheses H 1 , H 2 , and H 3 . The sub-hypotheses analysis shows that the results are statistically significant and accepted. In Table 5 , the details of the sub-hypotheses and the principals are explained precisely. Please see Table 6 to review items with their mean and standard deviation values. Moreover, Figure 2 represents the structural model.

Examining the hypotheses.

Description of items, mean, and standard deviation.

Structural model.

Discussion and Conclusion

These findings add to our knowledge of how teenage depression is predicted by academic and familial stress, leading to poor academic performance, and they have practical implications for preventative and intervention programs to safeguard adolescents' mental health in the school context. The outcomes imply that extended academic stress positively impacts students' depression levels with a β of 0.293 and a p -value sof 0.003. However, according to Wang et al. ( 5 ), a higher level of academic stress is linked to a larger level of school burnout, which leads to a higher degree of depression. Satinsky et al. ( 105 ) also claimed that university officials and mental health specialists have expressed worry about depression and anxiety among Ph.D. students, and that his research indicated that depression and anxiety are quite common among Ph.D. students. Deb et al. ( 106 ) found the same results and concluded that depression, anxiety, behavioral difficulties, irritability, and other issues are common among students who are under a lot of academic stress. Similarly, Kokou-Kpolou et al. ( 107 ) revealed that depressive symptoms are common among university students in France. They also demonstrate that socioeconomic and demographic characteristics have a role.

However, Wang et al. ( 5 ) asserted that a higher level of academic stress is associated with a higher level of school burnout, which in return, leads to a higher level of depression. Furthermore, Satinsky et al. ( 105 ) also reported that university administrators and mental health clinicians have raised concerns about depression and anxiety and concluded in his research that depression and anxiety are highly prevalent among Ph.D. students. Deb et al. ( 106 ) also reported the same results and concluded that Depression, anxiety, behavioral problems, irritability, etc. are few of the many problems reported in students with high academic stress. Similary, Kokou-Kpolou et al. ( 107 ) confirmed that university students in France have a high prevalence of depressive symptoms. They also confirm that socio-demographic factors and perceived stress play a predictive role in depressive symptoms among university students. As a result, academic stress has spread across all countries, civilizations, and ethnic groups. Academic stress continues to be a serious problem impacting a student's mental health and well-being, according to the findings of this study.

With the β= 0.358 and p = 0.001 values, the data analysis discloses that the family stress (Fam. Strs) has a significant positive effect on the students' depression level (Std. Dep. Lev). Aleksic ( 108 ) observed similar findings and concluded that many and complicated concerns of personal traits, as well as both home and school contexts, are risk factors for teenage depression. Similarly, Wang et al. ( 109 ) indicated that, among the possible risk factors for depression, family relationships need special consideration since elements like parenting styles and family dynamics influence how children grow. Family variables influence the onset, maintenance, and course of juvenile depression, according to another study ( 110 ). Depressed adolescents are more likely than normal teenagers to have bad family and parent–child connections.

Conversely, students' depression level has a significantly negative impact on their academic performance with β and p -values of −0.319 and 0.001. According ( 111 ), anxiety and melancholy have a negative influence on a student's academic performance. Adolescents and young adults suffer from depression, which is a common and dangerous mental illness. It's linked to an increase in family issues, school failure, especially among teenagers, suicide, drug addiction, and absenteeism. While the transition to adulthood is a high-risk period for depression in general ( 5 ), young people starting college may face extra social and intellectual challenges that increase their risk of melancholy, anxiety, and stress ( 112 ). Students' high rates of depression, anxiety, and stress have serious consequences. Not only may psychological morbidity have a negative impact on a student's academic performance and quality of life, but it may also disturb family and institutional life ( 107 ). Therefore, long-term untreated depression, anxiety, or stress can have a negative influence on people's ability to operate and produce, posing a public health risk ( 113 ).

Theoretical Implications

The current study makes various contributions to the existing literature on servant leadership. Firstly, it enriches the limited literature on the role of family and academic stress and their impact on students' depression levels. Although, a few studies have investigated stress and depression and its impact on Students' academic performance ( 14 , 114 ), however, their background i.e., family and institutions are largely ignored.

Secondly, it explains how the depression level impacts students' academic learning, specifically in the Asian developing countries region. Though a substantial body of empirical research has been produced in the last decade on the relationship between students' depression levels and its impact on their academic achievements, however, the studies conducted in the Pakistani context are scarce ( 111 , 115 ). Thus, this study adds further evidence to prior studies conducted in different cultural contexts and validates the assumption that family and academic stress are key sources depression and anxiety among students which can lead toward their low academic grades and their overall performance.

This argument is in line with our proposed theory in the current research i.e., cognitive appraisal theory which was presented in 1966 by psychologist Richard Lazarus. Lazarus's theory is called the appraisal theory of stress, or the transactional theory of stress because the way a person appraises the situation affects how they feel about it and consequently it's going to affect his overall quality of life. In line with the theory, it suggests that events are not good or bad, but the way we think about them is positive or negative, and therefore has an impact on our stress levels.

Practical Implications

According to the findings of this study, high levels of depressive symptoms among college students should be brought to the attention of relevant departments. To prevent college student depression, relevant departments should improve the study and life environment for students, try to reduce the generation of negative life events, provide adequate social support for students, and improve their cognitive and coping capacities to improve their mental qualities.

Stress and depression, on the other hand, may be managed with good therapy, teacher direction, and family support. The outcomes of this study provide an opportunity for academic institutions to address students' psychological well-being and requirements. Emotional well-being support services for students at Pakistan's higher education institutions are lacking in many of these institutions, which place a low priority on the psychological requirements of these students. As a result, initiatives that consistently monitor and enhance kids' mental health are critical. Furthermore, stress-reduction treatments such as biofeedback, yoga, life-skills training, mindfulness meditation, and psychotherapy have been demonstrated to be useful among students. Professionals in the sector would be able to adapt interventions for pupils by understanding the sources from many spheres.

Counseling clinics should be established at colleges to teach students about stress and sadness. Counselors should instill in pupils the importance of positive conduct and decision-making. The administration of the school should work to create a good and safe atmosphere. Furthermore, teachers should assume responsibility for assisting and guiding sad pupils, since this will aid in their learning and performance. Support from family members might also help you get through difficult times.

Furthermore, these findings support the importance of the home environment as a source of depression risk factors among university students, implying that family-based treatments and improvements are critical in reducing depression among university students.

Limitations and Future Research Implications

The current study has a few limitations. The researcher gathered data from the higher education level of university students studying in Islamabad and Rawalpindi institutions. In the future, researchers are required to widen their region and gather information from other cities of Pakistan, for instance, Lahore, Karachi, etc. Another weakness of the study is that it is cross-sectional in nature. We need to do longitudinal research in the future to authoritatively assert the cause-and-effect link between academic and familial stress and their effects on students' academic performance since cross-sectional studies cannot establish significant cause and effect relationships. Finally, the study's relatively small sample size is a significant weakness. Due to time and budget constraints, it appears that the capacity to perform in-depth research of all firms in Pakistan's pharmaceutical business has been limited. Even though the findings are substantial and meaningful, the small sample size is predicted to limit generalizability and statistical power. This problem can be properly solved by increasing the size of the sample by the researchers, in future researches.

Data Availability Statement

Ethics statement.

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent for participation was not required for this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.

Author Contributions

All authors contributed to conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing and editing of the original draft, and read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This work was funded by the 2020 Heilongjiang Province Philosophy and Social Science Research Planning Project on Civic and Political Science in Universities (Grant No. 20SZB01). This work is supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research, and Sport of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy Sciences as part of the research project VEGA 1/0797/20: Quantification of Environmental Burden Impacts of the Slovak Regions on Health, Social and Economic System of the Slovak Republic.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

Authors would like to thank all persons who directly or indirectly participated in the completion of this manuscript.

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Associations of time spent on homework or studying with nocturnal sleep behavior and depression symptoms in adolescents from Singapore

• Sing Chen Yeo, MSc Sing Chen Yeo Affiliations Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Program in Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore Search for articles by this author
• Jacinda Tan, BSc Jacinda Tan Affiliations Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Program in Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore Search for articles by this author
• Joshua J. Gooley, PhD Joshua J. Gooley Correspondence Corresponding author: Joshua J. Gooley, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program, Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore, 8 College Road, Singapore 117549, Singapore Contact Affiliations Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Program in Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore Search for articles by this author

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2020.04.011

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How does homework cause depression and anxiety?

Galloway’s study indicated that students who spent more than 3 hours on homework per night, experienced greater behavioral engagement in school but also more academic stress , physical health problems and lack of balance in their lives. The study described homework as a stressor causing anxiety in students’ lives.

Table of Contents

How does homework affect the brain?

The Stressed Brain Children who have more than one hour of homework each night overwhelmingly report that they feel stressed about their ability to complete their work. Over time, this stress can create real problems for a developing brain.

Does homework cause stress and depression?

Their study found that too much homework is associated with: Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category.

How homework increases stress?

Spending too much time on homework can lead to not meeting other physical and social needs, like staying active and interacting with peers. Without an opportunity to socialize, relax, and connect with their support systems, students can become increasingly burnt out.

Why is homework a waste of time?

Homework is taking up a large chunk of their time, too — around 15-plus hours a week, with about one-third of teens reporting that it’s closer to 20-plus hours. The stress and excessive homework adds up to lost sleep, the BSC says.

Is homework harmful or helpful?

Quality homework is engaging and relevant to kids’ lives. It gives them autonomy and engages them in the community and with their families. In some subjects, like math, worksheets can be very helpful. It has to do with the value of practicing over and over.

How much is too much homework?

How much is too much? According to the National PTA and the National Education Association, students should only be doing about 10 minutes of homework per night per grade level. But teens are doing a lot more than that, according to a poll of high school students by the organization Statistic Brain.

Does homework actually help?

Homework improves student achievement. Studies have shown that homework improved student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college. Research published in the High School Journal indicated…

How many students get depression from homework?

On our own Student Life in America survey, over 50% of students reported feeling stressed, 25% reported that homework was their biggest source of stress, and on average teens are spending one-third of their study time feeling stressed, anxious, or stuck.

What do psychologists say about homework?

The Journal of Experimental Education published research indicating that when high school students were assigned too much homework, they were more susceptible to serious mental and physical health problems, high-stress levels, and sleep deprivation.

Why does homework cause anxiety?

Perfectionism: Some kids who do really well in a subject may worry that their work “won’t be good enough.” Trouble managing emotions: For kids who easily get flooded by emotions, homework can be a trigger for anxiety. Too much homework: Sometimes kids are anxious because they have more work than they can handle.

Why homework does more harm than good?

In fact, too much homework can do more harm than good. Researchers have cited drawbacks, including boredom and burnout toward academic material, less time for family and extracurricular activities, lack of sleep and increased stress.

Why students should have less homework?

By assigning less homework, you’ll likely find that students will love learning, get more sleep, enjoy themselves more with outside activities, be less overworked, and have more time to spend with family.

How much homework do teens get?

According to the Washington Post, a study conducted by Challenge Success from 2018 to 2020 concluded that on average, high schoolers did about 2.7 hours of homework per weeknight.

Does no homework improve grades?

Contrary to much of the published research, a regression analysis of time spent on homework and the final class grade found no substantive difference in grades between students who complete homework and those who do not.

Do you think homework is necessary?

Homework teaches students how to problem solve. Homework gives student another opportunity to review class material. Homework gives parents a chance to see what is being learned in school. Homework teaches students how to take responsibility for their part in the educational process.

Does homework cause stress and anxiety?

In 2013, research conducted at Stanford University found that students in high-achieving communities who spend too much time on homework experience more stress , physical health problems, a lack of balance in their lives, and alienation from society.

What is a fact about homework?

Homework Causes Stress A study by Stanford University found that 56% of students see homework as their primary source of stress. Many students develop somatic symptoms, mainly headaches, when they get too much homework to do. They feel pressured by their teachers and parents to do this homework.

What is the 10 minute rule homework?

He recommends following a “10 minute rule”: students should receive 10 minutes of homework per day in first grade, and 10 additional minutes each subsequent year, so that by twelfth grade they are completing 120 minutes of homework daily.

Why do teachers give us so much homework?

They give out many assignments to make sure that kids are actually comprehending the material. Teachers want their students to be able to fully understand the topics they are learning. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were a lot more ways to understand what was being taught when students were actually at school.

What is a failing grade?

F – this is a failing grade.

What percent of stress is caused by homework?

A new study says that the biggest cause of stress for children is too much homework. It topped bullying, parental expectations and self-esteem. The study by the Better Sleep Council said that 74 percent of teens are stressed out from the demands of homework.

What is the fear of homework called?

Devwahrphobia is the fear of doing homework. Such a fear is common among children in school. People with this fear will get anxiety when their teachers announce that they will have homework to do.

Should we not ban homework?

Grades and scores on tests are improved. Doing homework provides you with a lot of extra practice, which benefits your learning. If you practice a lot at home, you can enhance your test scores and grades. You know that homework is compulsory, you will have to do that, and as a result, it will improve your grades.

What is the fear of teachers called?

Ergophobia has both physical and psychological symptoms, such as anxiousness, fear and avoidance of the work environment. A study focused on burnout among teachers concluded that those experiencing ergophobia performed significantly worse on a physical health index compared to their colleagues.

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Does Homework Cause Stress? Exploring the Impact on Students’ Mental Health

How much homework is too much?

Homework has become a matter of concern for educators, parents, and researchers due to its potential effects on students’ stress levels. It’s no secret students often find themselves grappling with high levels of stress and anxiety throughout their academic careers, so understanding the extent to which homework affects those stress levels is important. 

By delving into the latest research and understanding the underlying factors at play, we hope to curate insights for educators, parents, and students who are wondering whether homework causing stress in their lives?

The Link Between Homework and Stress: What the Research Says

Over the years, numerous studies investigated the relationship between homework and stress levels in students. 

One study published in the Journal of Experimental Education found that students who reported spending more than two hours per night on homework experienced higher stress levels and physical health issues . Those same students reported over three hours of homework a night on average.

This study, conducted by Stanford lecturer Denise Pope, has been heavily cited throughout the years, with WebMD producing the below video on the topic– part of their special report series on teens and stress : 

Additional studies published by Sleep Health Journal found that long hours on homework on may be a risk factor for depression , suggesting that reducing workload outside of class may benefit sleep and mental fitness .

Homework’s Potential Impact on Mental Health and Well-being

Homework-induced stress on students can involve both psychological and physiological side effects. 

1. Potential Psychological Effects of Homework-Induced Stress:

• Anxiety: The pressure to perform well academically and meet homework expectations can lead to heightened levels of anxiety in students. Constant worry about completing assignments on time and achieving high grades can be overwhelming.

• Sleep Disturbances : Homework-related stress can disrupt students’ sleep patterns, leading to sleep anxiety or sleep deprivation, both of which can negatively impact cognitive function and emotional regulation.

• Reduced Motivation: Excessive homework demands could drain students’ motivation, causing them to feel fatigued and disengaged from their studies. Reduced motivation may lead to a lack of interest in learning, hindering students’ overall academic performance.

2. Potential Physiological Effects of Homework-Induced Stress:

• Impaired Immune Function: Prolonged stress could weaken the immune system, making students more susceptible to illnesses and infections.

• Disrupted Hormonal Balance : The body’s stress response triggers the release of hormones like cortisol, which, when chronically elevated due to stress, can disrupt the delicate hormonal balance and lead to various health issues.

• Gastrointestinal Disturbances: Stress has been known to affect the gastrointestinal system, leading to symptoms such as stomachaches, nausea, and other digestive problems.

• Cardiovascular Impact: The increased heart rate and elevated blood pressure associated with stress can strain the cardiovascular system, potentially increasing the risk of heart-related issues in the long run.

• Brain impact: Prolonged exposure to stress hormones may impact the brain’s functioning , affecting memory, concentration, and other cognitive abilities.

The Benefits of Homework

It’s important to note that homework also offers many benefits that contribute to students’ academic growth and development, such as: 

• Development of Time Management Skills: Completing homework within specified deadlines encourages students to manage their time efficiently. This valuable skill extends beyond academics and becomes essential in various aspects of life.

• Preparation for Future Challenges : Homework helps prepare students for future academic challenges and responsibilities. It fosters a sense of discipline and responsibility, qualities that are crucial for success in higher education and professional life.

• Enhanced Problem-Solving Abilities: Homework often presents students with challenging problems to solve. Tackling these problems independently nurtures critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

While homework can foster discipline, time management, and self-directed learning, the middle ground may be to  strike a balance that promotes both academic growth and mental well-being .

How Much Homework Should Teachers Assign?

As a general guideline, educators suggest assigning a workload that allows students to grasp concepts effectively without overwhelming them . Quality over quantity is key, ensuring that homework assignments are purposeful, relevant, and targeted towards specific objectives. 

Advice for Students: How to balance Homework and Well-being

Finding a balance between academic responsibilities and well-being is crucial for students. Here are some practical tips and techniques to help manage homework-related stress and foster a healthier approach to learning:

• Effective Time Management : Encourage students to create a structured study schedule that allocates sufficient time for homework, breaks, and other activities. Prioritizing tasks and setting realistic goals can prevent last-minute rushes and reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed.

• Break Tasks into Smaller Chunks : Large assignments can be daunting and may contribute to stress. Students should break such tasks into smaller, manageable parts. This approach not only makes the workload seem less intimidating but also provides a sense of accomplishment as each section is completed.

• Find a Distraction-Free Zone : Establish a designated study area that is free from distractions like smartphones, television, or social media. This setting will improve focus and productivity, reducing time needed to complete homework.

• Be Active : Regular exercise is known to reduce stress and enhance mood. Encourage students to incorporate physical activity into their daily routine, whether it’s going for a walk, playing a sport, or doing yoga.

• Practice Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques : Encourage students to engage in mindfulness practices, such as deep breathing exercises or meditation, to alleviate stress and improve concentration. Taking short breaks to relax and clear the mind can enhance overall well-being and cognitive performance.

• Seek Support : Teachers, parents, and school counselors play an essential role in supporting students. Create an open and supportive environment where students feel comfortable expressing their concerns and seeking help when needed.

How Healium is Helping in Schools

Stress is caused by so many factors and not just the amount of work students are taking home.  Our company created a virtual reality stress management solution… a mental fitness tool called “Healium” that’s teaching students how to learn to self-regulate their stress and downshift in a drugless way. Schools implementing Healium have seen improvements from supporting dysregulated students and ADHD challenges to empowering students with body awareness and learning to self-regulate stress . Here’s one of their stories. 

By providing students with the tools they need to self-manage stress and anxiety, we represent a forward-looking approach to education that prioritizes the holistic development of every student. 

To learn more about how Healium works, watch the video below.

About the Author

Sarah Hill , a former interactive TV news journalist at NBC, ABC, and CBS affiliates in Missouri, gained recognition for pioneering interactive news broadcasting using Google Hangouts. She is now the CEO of Healium, the world’s first biometrically powered immersive media channel, helping those with stress, anxiety, insomnia, and other struggles through biofeedback storytelling. With patents, clinical validation, and over seven million views, she has reshaped the landscape of immersive media.

Mental Health

5 ways teachers should support students with anxiety and depression.

Having anxiety and depression can be hard. But having anxiety and depression while in school can be almost impossible. Getting out of bed is hard enough, but getting up and going to school is a entirely different feat.

Going to school could be easier if someone understood how I felt and how hard I’m trying.

Teachers can help to make it easier for students with mental health issues in the following ways:

1. Participation.

If I’m not raising my hand, that doesn’t mean I’m not learning. It doesn’t mean I don’t understand. It means I’m too anxious to participate. Even if the answer is obvious and I know my answer is right, thoughts still circle in my head. What if I’m wrong? What will people think? They’ll think I’m stupid. They’ll laugh at me. They’ll hate me. Don’t downgrade me on participation because my mental health prevents me from raising my hand and answering.

2. Homework.

When the school day is impossible enough to get through, going home to do homework makes the hell last even longer. I will try my best. I will try to get it done. But if I don’t, please don’t be mad. Give me an extra day and I’ll have it done.

3. Group work.

Assigning me a group to work with is not always going to end well. If you think you’re mixing up the people I’m usually with so I can make new friends, that doesn’t help. The problem with assigned groups is the people I’ll be working with don’t always work well with me. This leads to more problems, such as me doing all the work by myself. I’d rather work with people I’m comfortable with rather than people that cause me to be more anxious.

4. Ask me how I’m doing.

School is such a difficult time for most kids, including me. And for people struggling with mental illness, it just adds to the difficulty of school. I probably won’t feel mentally or physically well most days. And no one cares. Because school is necessary. But if someone, even you, a teacher, asks me how I’m doing, I might just feel like someone cares. Make me feel like I matter, like my voice matters. Ask me how I am.

5. Be patient.

If I’m not doing well academically, don’t make me feel worse about it than I already do. I’m sorry I’m not doing well, but I don’t feel well. Don’t get upset over missed assignments or failed tests. Talk to me about it. Find out what made me do so poorly. There are other reasons than a lack of intelligence. Be patient with me and I’ll feel like I matter and I should keep trying to do well.

In the end, school is hard for most kids. So remember, for students with mental health issues, it’s probably 10 times worse. Try to understand what we’re going through to the best of your ability. I’m sure it’s hard for you to see us struggle, so ask us why we’re struggling. Listening and patience will make us feel so much more understood. Remember, we used all the energy we had to come to school, so we are trying.

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Thinkstock photo via Jack Hollingsworth

Lucy is passionate about animal advocacy and issues related to mental health. She is beginning to find words to describe her experiences and realizing sometimes the hardest pieces to write turn out to be the most beautiful.