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We recently came across an informative interview with Jim Taylor Ph.D., a psychologist in San Francisco, that we thought our readers would enjoy. With such high percentages of students feeling stress and anxiety, and the competition for college admission increasing every year, many parents have questions they want answered: Why do so many students feel stress? What can parents do to help their children feel less stress? How can parents help their children experience the highest level of success possible? How can parents be actively involved in their children’s lives without being meddlesome? 

Dr. Taylor answers these questions and sheds light on many interesting topics. We’ve broken the interview up into sections and will be posting a few of the questions and answers every day. So stay tuned… 

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How are pressures school-age children face today different than what they may have faced 10 years or 20 years ago?  

Dr. Taylor: A lot has changed in the last 10 or 20 years because I think the stakes are a lot higher. It used to be that parents were happy if their kids were good students, above average students. But now average is like 80-percent or above. And so for students to really excel, they need to be getting straight As. They need to basically have resumes for their academics. They need to be saving the world on weekends. They need to be involved in the student government. And so in order to get into even lower level schools, they have to have very high GPAs, very good SATs and so on. 

How has this problem come about?  

Dr. Taylor: As more people have risen in the economic strata, then there are more opportunities for kids to go to school. So it’s simply more competitive to get into the schools. Plus there has become, in our culture, this idea of being good at something is simply not enough — that kids need to be great. They need to excel. They need to be perfect. And so that puts a lot of pressure on parents. Also there’s a tremendous amount of economic uncertainty. So parents feel the need to, for pushing their children so hard to get good grades, get into a good college, have a good career, so they won’t end up living with them when they’re adults. 

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/. Dr. Jim Taylor is internationally recognized for his work in the psychology of performance in business, parenting, and sport. Jim is an author of ten books, including Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child and Your Children are Under Attack: How Popular Culture is Destroying Your Kids’ Values, and How You Can Protect Them. For more information on Dr. Taylor, visit: http://www.drjimtaylor.com/