STUDENT STRESS AT LEXINGTON HIGH SCHOOL Serena Luo and Charlotte Wong Labow

BACKGROUND This presentation is an preliminary overview of a student-written and organized survey, distributed to the class of 2015 at Lexington High School. The survey data has not been statistically analyzed, and thus cannot be held to the same standards of reliability as those of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, distributed biennially by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

SURVEY RESPONSE DEMOGRAPHICS* 430 respondents -Caucasian: 53% -Asian**: 21% -Indian: 7% -Multiracial: 6% -African American: 4% -Unknown: 4% -Hispanic: 3% -Middle-Eastern: 2% note in presentation: question was worded as an open response, so after results were gathered, each student was sorted (by Charlotte) into these general groups *applies only to students surveyed: mostly juniors **Self-identified as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese, etc.

Stress Level – Gender Difference Your current level of stress is… A. Extremely high B. High C. Manageable D. Low E. Negligible

STRESS LEVEL – ETHNICITY DIFFERENCE Your current level of stress is… A. Extremely high B. High C. Manageable D. Low E. Negligible

PERCEIVED PARENTAL STRICTNESS Would you say that your parent(s)/guardians(s) are: A. More strict than other parents B. Just as strict as other parents C. Less strict than other parents

PARENTAL EFFECTS ON ACADEMIC STRESS I feel… I am pressured by my parents to perform well in school. Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don’t Know or Care

Parental Effects on Academic Stress - Male

Parental Effects on Academic Stress - feMale

Gender Comparison Male Data Female Data

REACHING OUT Who do you feel comfortable talking to? Yes B. No C. Unsure Friends Parents Guidance Counselor Teachers Other _______

Summary and Conclusions What have we learned? Students from different ethnic backgrounds express different levels of stress: Indian>all other groups Female LHS juniors express feeling more stressed than male students Female Indian LHS juniors strongly agree that their parents pressure them to perform well in school LHS juniors primarily rely on friends for stress help. Many also go to parents Our data agrees with 2009 YRBS data from LHS, but analysis is required.

NEXT STEPs We would modify the survey to focus on: Other resources students would talk to about stress and other personal problems Expanding survey to cover how students relieve stress The data set on LHS freshmen has now been collected, so a longitudinal study is possible if this survey is applied when they enter junior year.

Acknowledgements Ms. Jen Wolfrum and the Lexington High School Health Department Members of the Lexington Asian Mental Health Initiative Lexington Youth and Family Services (LYFS) Dr. Gwen Wong and Dr. Wenjie Cheng