Focus on

Student Stress + Academic Pressure

Well-being is more than the absence of stress — it’s about whether students have the habits, support, and balance they need to thrive. When stress levels exceed a person’s capacity to handle it, their well-being can be in jeopardy. And, research consistently links student well-being to academic outcomes: students who are struggling emotionally or physically are less able to engage in learning, maintain relationships, and reach their potential (Ryan and Deci, 2009). Unfortunately for many students, chronic stress, poor sleep, and academic pressure have become the norm rather than the exception. This page brings together what our research at Stanford shows about where student stress and academic pressure come from and what school leaders can actually do about it.

What causes stress for kids and teens?

Adults often assume that young people are primarily stressed by their peer relationships or social pressure to fit in or look a certain way. And, while comparison culture is ever present in a teen’s world, when we ask students to tell us what their major sources of stress are, many of them are actually school-related, and surprisingly consistent across grade levels.

Top five sources of stress for high schoolers:

Grades, tests, quizzes, finals, or other assessments (68%)
Overall workload and homework (56%)
Future plans (53%)
Procrastination or time management (52%)
Lack of sleep (48%)

Top five sources of stress for middle schoolers:

Grades, tests, quizzes, finals, or other assessments (62%)
Overall workload and homework (47%)
Lack of sleep (36%)
A lack of time to play, relax, or be with friends and family (34%)
Procrastination or time management (32%)

Download Our Free Tip Sheet: 10 Ways Schools Can
Reduce Academic Stress + Worry

How many students are stressed out by schoolwork?

Challenge Success is grounded in the belief that students should not have to choose between academic achievement and well-being. Yet for many young people, school continues to feel like a tradeoff: working harder while sleeping less, pushing through stress without adequate support, and pursuing grades or test scores at the expense of health, engagement, belonging, or sense of self.

Physical symptoms of student stress

During the 2025-26 school year, we surveyed tens of thousands of students, and found that the vast majority of students reported experiencing a physical symptoms of stress in the past month:

83% of high schoolers
74% of middle schoolers
62% of 3rd-5th graders

The most common reported physical stress symptoms reported by students are exhaustion, difficulty sleeping, headaches, stomach problems, tightness in chest/difficulty breathing, and significant weight gain/loss.

We also noted differences in physical symptoms of stress by demographic characteristics, including gender identity and race/ethnicity:

A student hidden behind a stack of books, symbolizing academic stress and study challenges.

Middle and high school students who identify as girl/woman, transgender, or non-binary are more likely to report physical symptoms of stress than those who identify as boys/men

Students of color are more likely than students who identify as White to report physical symptoms of stress.

Academic pressure and worry in middle and high school

What we’ve learned over more than a decade of surveying students is that they consistently describe specific, concrete features of their school days and routines as sources of stress. Taken together, these pressures build up, weighing heavily on students’ well-being. There are only so many hours in the day, and for many students the sheer quantity of work, for example, how much homework was assigned across all their classes on the same night, overloads them. While some stress associated with tests, quizzes, and finals is to be expected, students note that they are especially stressed when several high-stakes assessments land in the same week. On top of it all, students are tired. Lack of sleep, time management, and procrastination are real stressors for teens, including how early the first bell rings, whether there is any unstructured time during the school day. The pressure students feel is relentless. While these rates are lower in middle school, they are still concerningly high for adolescents:

69% of high schoolers and 48% of middle schoolers often or always feel stressed by schoolwork

73% of high schoolers and 57% of middle schoolers feel quite a bit or a lot of pressure to do well in school

How schools can address student stress

Based on more than 20 years of work with more than 750 schools, we have organized our learnings into a framework called S.P.A.C.E.™, with each letter representing one area of the student experience a school can adjust. Here is what three key elements look like when stress is the problem you are solving:

Supportive Schedule and Use of Time

Early start times, back-to-back periods with no break, and a school day with no unstructured time all compound. Adolescent sleep biology does not adjust to bell schedules. Consider later start times, protected advisory periods, and built-in downtime.

Alternative + Authentic
Assessment

Schools can think about how they are assessing student learning–not everything has to be assessed through a high-stakes exam. We also encourage looking at the timing of major assessments. For example, three major tests or projects in one week produces far more stress than the same three spread across three weeks, with no learning benefit from the compression. When it comes to homework, individual teachers assign what seems reasonable for their own course, but no one is looking at the total. Students experience the sum, not the parts, so we really want to look at the whole system.

Education
for Everyone

When students believe that taking the maximum number of advanced courses is the only path to a good outcome, they build schedules they cannot sustain. Class rank, weighted GPA, and how counselors frame course selection all feed unnecessary stress. When schools bring families into the conversation about creating more balanced schedules and course loads and broaden how they define and celebrate success, it can really have an impact on students’ well-being. Schools have more influence here than they often assume, through how they talk about college and postsecondary options, which outcomes they celebrate publicly, and what they communicate to families.

Explore the full S.P.A.C.E. Framework™

Start by finding out what is actually driving stress at your school

The research shows that bringing the community along in school change is absolutely critical to its sustainability, and that starts with truly understanding the unique circumstances at each school. The Challenge Success-Stanford Surveys collect data from students in grades 3 through 12, along with staff and families, and our research team works with schools to interpret what comes back. Because of our longstanding relationship as an affiliate of the Stanford Graduate School of Education, our surveys are overseen by the university’s Institutional Review Board and held to the highest ethical standards.

Survey data is a starting point, not an answer. What makes the difference is what happens next: bringing students into the conversation about what the data means and what should change. Our guide to 8 questions school leaders can ask to elevate student voice is a practical place to begin, and our school change process describes how we structure that work over time.

What change looks like in practice

Kalamazoo Area Math
& Science Center

This Michigan math and science program reduced academic overload without sacrificing rigor.

Concord Carlisle
High School

This large high school in Massachusetts improved sleep, balance, and engagement while decreasing the physical impacts of stress.

Browse all school spotlights.

Questions school leaders ask us about academic stress and pressure

Does reducing academic stress mean lowering our standards?

No. In our research with schools we often find a significant amount of “unnecessary stress” stemming from factors such as unreasonably heavy course and extra curricular loads, high levels of pressure around admittance to elite universities, and high stakes assessment practices. We characterize these stressors as “unnecessary” as they can be avoided without diminishing the quality and depth of the student educational experience. Schools that reduce unnecessary load make it possible for students to have the capacity to go deeper on work that matters. The change is in what gets assigned and how it is assessed, not in what students are expected to learn.

Where should we start if we only have capacity for one change this year?

Start by understanding your own data rather than choosing an intervention. Once you know what your students are actually pointing to, the highest-yield first move for most schools may be a homework audit or an assessment calendar.

How long does meaningful change take?

Schools typically see measurable movement over multiple school years rather than months. Policy and practice changes take a full cycle to take hold, and student experience data needs a second administration to show a trend.

How do we bring families along?

Family expectations are part of what students are responding to, and changes to homework or grading practice often generate more questions from parents than from students. Our community education workshops exist for this reason, and our Playtime, Downtime, and Family Time tips are a useful thing to put in a family newsletter.

Talk with us about your school

If you are weighing where to start, we can talk through what you are seeing, whether survey data would help, and what a partnership would involve for a school your size.

Schedule a meeting | Learn about services for K-12 schools

Challenge Success is an affiliate of the Stanford Graduate School of Education and has worked with more than 750 schools worldwide.

Student stress and academic pressure references

Challenge Success-Stanford Survey of Student Experiences, 2025-26; HS n=33,164; MS n=11,085.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2009). Promoting self-determined school engagement: Motivation, learning, and well-being. In K. R. Wenzel & A. Wigfield (Eds.), Handbook of motivation at school (pp. 171-195). Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.