US Education: Here Are the 3 Most Stressed States When It Comes to Studying [Analysis]

Recent analysis has identified the top three states in the United States for education-related stress. PlushCare, an online telemedicine service, revealed that residents of Montana, South Dakota, and Massachusetts had the highest levels of educational stress.

According to a report from Boston.com, four million geotagged tweets from 340 American cities were included in PlushCare's study. These tweets matched search phrases in the following categories: money, careers, relationships, education, social media, and the news.

US Middle Schoolers Experience Severe Stress

The researchers used Wolverhampton University's TensiStrength stress detection program to compute the percentage of stressed tweets in each condition and category. Most tweets about education stress were posted in Montana (48.65%), followed by South Dakota (47.31%) and Massachusetts (45.60%).

The study found that students were stressed out by a wide range of educational factors, from the need to maintain high marks to the suspense of waiting to hear if they had been accepted to their preferred college. Meanwhile, a separate study indicated that before the worldwide pandemic, students were already showing signs of heightened stress due to their college experience.

The study used data from 2018 to show that the number of students applying to US universities went up by 4% from 2017 to 2018, but only 65% were accepted. While 24% of American students worry about finding work after graduation, as per a report from Research.com.

Middle school children may encounter somewhat different kinds of stress than college students, but it does not imply that their lives are any less stressful. Managing academics is simply the surface for students with dual enrollment, in which high school and college courses are taken concurrently for credit. Another source of stress is the expanding circle of friends and the changes in their maturing bodies.

The study stated that 7 out of 10 US youths aged 13 to 17 say their friends suffer from anxiety or depression; 75% of high school students in the United States said they experienced boredom, rage, despair, fear, or stress during school.

Moreover, high school students in the United States reported an average stress level of 5.8 on a 10-point scale, while adults typically report a stress level of 3.8. Schoolwork strains 75% of American high school learners and 50% of middle school kids, based on the study.

Helping School Kids Cope Up

A middle school in Washington state implemented a program to provide pupils with emotional assistance to help them deal with the pressures of school.

Twenty-two students in Washington Middle School's 8th-grade Health class took part in "Mindful Teen: From Surviving to Thriving in a Busy World," a social and emotional enrichment program based on a book authored by Dr. Dzung Vo, an adolescent medicine expert and clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia. It concluded at the end of Term 1.

The goal of the Mindful Teen workshop series is to minimize stress and the likelihood of developing mental illness by encouraging the development of mindfulness skills and reflective thinking, per The Southeast Iowa Union. According to experts, mindfulness improves relationships, sleep, school, job, and extracurricular performance, attention and concentration, self-awareness, empathy, and stress and anxiety.

A National 4-H Council study in 2020 showed that 82% of youth wanted America to communicate more openly about mental health. The 2021 Iowa Youth Survey found that 21% of 8th-graders and 24% of 11th-graders had considered suicide in the last year.

Amy Green, the youth coordinator for Washington County Extension & Outreach, noted that several tragic mental health numbers hit close to home for them, prompting a desire to collaborate with others who share a concern for the children's future. She remarked that they are "grateful to be able to provide youth with opportunities to learn healthy coping strategies and tools they can practice and apply in their current lives and as future adults" and help them establish "some social connection."