According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 32% of teens are estimated to have or have had anxiety. The National Institute of Health reports that, “Preteen suicide rates have increased by 8% annually since 2008.” These statistics show that anxiety has been on the rise nationally. So how are students at UPrep affected by anxiety?
Since 2008, anxiety rates among adolescents have been rising on a national level according to the Center for Disease Control. But what causes this increase?
“There’s more fear based content, and even our news is really scary. So I can’t imagine any human who’s on social media wouldn’t be picking that up,” school counselor Cindy Taketa said.
Given the importance of advisers in students’ life at UPrep, seventh grade dean Amy Pasterczyk weighed in on the topic.
“For any student feeling isolated can be really a struggle. I think, feeling overwhelmed and not knowing how to express that,” Pasterczyk said.
To get a better understanding of the student’s perspective, seventh grader Trixie Sanborn was interviewed.
“I think social media is a definite part of it because I am on social media more, but also school being like 20 times harder, and that was really stressful,” Sanborn said.
Sanborn also conveyed the necessity for teachers to coordinate homework more to reduce stress.
“You’ll get, like, a project by one teacher, and then another by another teacher, and then they’re due at the same time, and then it’s all really, really overwhelming,” Sanborn said.
Social isolation is another cause of anxiety, according to Tulane University. The extreme growth of social media coupled with COVID-19 greatly limited face to face interactions and completely changed social relationships.
What furthers the anxiety is the stigmatization of mental health. Many students told Puma Prints they had fears about the future, but didn’t share much more. While UPrep has had an increase in students seeking help either inside or outside school according to Taketa and Pasterczyk, for some it is very hard to take the first step or even understand and acknowledge that they need outside help.
One student expressed their reservations about talking to counselors at school.
“I can find it hard to talk to school counselors. It’s private, but at the same time you’re at school,” the student said “School doesn’t always feel like the place to talk about it.”
The Authentic Connections survey measures students’ levels of anxiety at UPrep, among other things.
“What we have noticed is that in 2021 to 2022 the rate of anxiety was advertised at 9.3% and since then, it’s decreased, and this year it’s decreased to the point of 5.1%,” Taketa said.
However students’ unwillingness to talk about anxiety could be a reason for the low rates of anxiety.
The authentic connections survey shows that UPrep anxiety rates have halved since COVID-19.
“I would say the pandemic highlighted the adolescent mental health crisis…there’s an increase in like, people who’ve actually come to, like, the counselors offices ever since COVID, … I think our culture of belonging. I think our school is very, very good at highlighting that, and I think it’s very important that every student is connected to at least one adult in our community,” Taketa said.
On the other hand, Pasterczyk Communicated the difficulty of dealing with students’ mental health in a limited amount of time.
“I think it’s a tough challenge. When I look at something like Community Time, there is only so much time, right? And so there are so many things that need to do, and then there are things that we want to do. And even if we want to do something that is like, focused on mental wellness or whatever it might be, it’s really going to feel like an isolated event,” Pasterczyk said.
“I think that our work is not done, but there’s a lot of hopefulness for the future,” Taketa said.