Student Stress Part III
Mar 25th, 2008 by Academics Plus Tutoring
Here is the continuation of the interview with Jim Taylor Ph.D.
Dr. Taylor answers a multitude of questions on a variety of topics including teen stress, academic successs and successful parenting techniques. 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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Talk a little more about the psychological risks that pressure poses for kids.
Dr. Taylor: One of the problems that I see in trial in the country, there’s an epidemic of fear of failure. Kids are afraid to fail. And what happens is their self-esteem becomes connected to how well they perform. And if they don’t get those As, if they don’t win in sports, if they’re not stars in their schools, then they simply feel bad about themselves. They lose motivation. They give up. Often these kinds of issues can lead to tremendous anxiety, depression and drug use and suicide and you go down the line.
Have there been any studies linked to this or any documented cases?
Dr. Taylor: Absolutely. There’s been a lot of work on fear of failure, on perfectionism, on the pressures that kids are under these days. And we’re seeing more and more incidence of kids who are struggling in many ways. At the same time we do see a lot of kids who are very successful. But what I see so much as I travel around the country speaking to kids is what I call unhappy successes. Kids who might be getting straight As and doing extremely well and heading down the right path, but they’re just really unhappy because they’re following a path that’s not of their choosing. And they’re following the path of popular culture or the path that their parents want them to go down.
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/
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