excessive homework negatively impacts mental health causes unnecessary stress

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Education scholar Denise Pope has found that too much homework has negative effects on student well-being and behavioral engagement. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.

“Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good,” wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .

The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students’ views on homework.

Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.

Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.

“The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students’ advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being,” Pope wrote.

Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.

Their study found that too much homework is associated with:

* Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

* Reductions in health: In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.

* Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were “not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills,” according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.

A balancing act

The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as “pointless” or “mindless” in order to keep their grades up.

“This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points,” Pope said.

She said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.

“Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development,” wrote Pope.

High-performing paradox

In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. “Young people are spending more time alone,” they wrote, “which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities.”

Student perspectives

The researchers say that while their open-ended or “self-reporting” methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for “typical adolescent complaining” – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.

The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Media Contacts

Denise Pope, Stanford Graduate School of Education: (650) 725-7412, [email protected] Clifton B. Parker, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-0224, [email protected]

THE ALGONQUIN HARBINGER

• Excessive homework negatively impacts mental health, causes unnecessary stress

Caroline Lou

Opinion Editor Jula Utzschneider writes on the overwhelming chip on every student’s shoulder: homework.

Jula Utzschneider , Opinion Editor November 10, 2021

When the bell rings to end last period every day, I feel a sense of relief. However, this feeling soon wears off as I realize just how much work I have to do after the already-stressful school day ends.

While homework can be beneficial, more often than not, it is assigned excessively and unnecessarily. Teachers give a significant amount of homework, often due the next day. This causes students to spend far too much time doing such assignments and can be detrimental.

A 2013 study conducted at Stanford University found that students in top-performing school districts who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance in their lives and alienation from society. That study, published in The Journal of Experimental Education , suggested that any more than two hours of homework per night is counterproductive. However, students who participated in the study reported doing slightly more than three hours of homework every night.

And, yes, the amount of homework given to students depends on the course level they take. But, with increasingly competitive college acceptance rates (demanding more extracurriculars and college-level classes), many students feel forced to take these more challenging courses. This is a huge problem, especially as teachers give homework only thinking about their own class, not the five or six others students have.

Additionally, when it came to stress, more than 70% of students in the Stanford study said they were “often or always stressed over schoolwork,” with 56% listing homework as a primary stressor. More than 80% of students reported having at least one stress-related symptom (such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss, stomach problems and more) in the past month, and 44% said they had experienced three or more symptoms. 

Less than 1% of the students said homework was not a stressor, demonstrating that the vast majority feel overwhelmed and pressured by the amount of work they receive.

Not to mention, the time spent on these assignments could easily be spent doing something enjoyable. Many students feel forced or obligated to choose homework over practicing other talents or skills, which should never be the case. Teachers should be encouraging these extracurriculars, rather than making it impossible for students to partake in them.

In terms of what teachers can do, it’s quite simple, really. Homework is intended for students to either practice a subject further or to cover topics teachers couldn’t during the allotted class time. It should not be busywork that just wastes a student’s time. 

Teachers should be giving students work that is absolutely necessary (not busy work), and eliminate it altogether where they can. It is extremely important that students not only get through high school but thrive and enjoy it too.

How much time do you spend doing homework on an average school night?

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August 16, 2021

Is it time to get rid of homework? Mental health experts weigh in

by Sara M Moniuszko

It's no secret that kids hate homework. And as students grapple with an ongoing pandemic that has had a wide-range of mental health impacts, is it time schools start listening to their pleas over workloads?

Some teachers are turning to social media to take a stand against homework .

Tiktok user @misguided.teacher says he doesn't assign it because the "whole premise of homework is flawed."

For starters, he says he can't grade work on "even playing fields" when students' home environments can be vastly different.

"Even students who go home to a peaceful house, do they really want to spend their time on busy work? Because typically that's what a lot of homework is, it's busy work," he says in the video that has garnered 1.6 million likes. "You only get one year to be 7, you only got one year to be 10, you only get one year to be 16, 18."

Mental health experts agree heavy work loads have the potential do more harm than good for students, especially when taking into account the impacts of the pandemic. But they also say the answer may not be to eliminate homework altogether.

Emmy Kang, mental health counselor at Humantold, says studies have shown heavy workloads can be "detrimental" for students and cause a "big impact on their mental, physical and emotional health."

"More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies," she says, adding that staying up late to finish assignments also leads to disrupted sleep and exhaustion.

Cynthia Catchings, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist at Talkspace, says heavy workloads can also cause serious mental health problems in the long run, like anxiety and depression.

And for all the distress homework causes, it's not as useful as many may think, says Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, a psychologist and CEO of Omega Recovery treatment center.

"The research shows that there's really limited benefit of homework for elementary age students, that really the school work should be contained in the classroom," he says.

For older students, Kang says homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night.

"Most students, especially at these high-achieving schools, they're doing a minimum of three hours, and it's taking away time from their friends from their families, their extracurricular activities. And these are all very important things for a person's mental and emotional health."

Catchings, who also taught third to 12th graders for 12 years, says she's seen the positive effects of a no homework policy while working with students abroad.

"Not having homework was something that I always admired from the French students (and) the French schools, because that was helping the students to really have the time off and really disconnect from school ," she says.

The answer may not be to eliminate homework completely, but to be more mindful of the type of work students go home with, suggests Kang, who was a high-school teacher for 10 years.

"I don't think (we) should scrap homework, I think we should scrap meaningless, purposeless busy work-type homework. That's something that needs to be scrapped entirely," she says, encouraging teachers to be thoughtful and consider the amount of time it would take for students to complete assignments.

The pandemic made the conversation around homework more crucial

Mindfulness surrounding homework is especially important in the context of the last two years. Many students will be struggling with mental health issues that were brought on or worsened by the pandemic, making heavy workloads even harder to balance.

"COVID was just a disaster in terms of the lack of structure. Everything just deteriorated," Kardaras says, pointing to an increase in cognitive issues and decrease in attention spans among students. "School acts as an anchor for a lot of children, as a stabilizing force, and that disappeared."

But even if students transition back to the structure of in-person classes, Kardaras suspects students may still struggle after two school years of shifted schedules and disrupted sleeping habits.

"We've seen adults struggling to go back to in-person work environments from remote work environments. That effect is amplified with children because children have less resources to be able to cope with those transitions than adults do," he explains.

'Get organized' ahead of back-to-school

In order to make the transition back to in-person school easier, Kang encourages students to "get good sleep, exercise regularly (and) eat a healthy diet."

To help manage workloads, she suggests students "get organized."

"There's so much mental clutter up there when you're disorganized... sitting down and planning out their study schedules can really help manage their time," she says.

Breaking assignments up can also make things easier to tackle.

"I know that heavy workloads can be stressful, but if you sit down and you break down that studying into smaller chunks, they're much more manageable."

If workloads are still too much, Kang encourages students to advocate for themselves.

"They should tell their teachers when a homework assignment just took too much time or if it was too difficult for them to do on their own," she says. "It's good to speak up and ask those questions. Respectfully, of course, because these are your teachers. But still, I think sometimes teachers themselves need this feedback from their students."

©2021 USA Today Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Does Homework Cause Stress? Exploring the Impact on Students’ Mental Health

How much homework is too much?

Homework has become a matter of concern for educators, parents, and researchers due to its potential effects on students’ stress levels. It’s no secret students often find themselves grappling with high levels of stress and anxiety throughout their academic careers, so understanding the extent to which homework affects those stress levels is important. 

By delving into the latest research and understanding the underlying factors at play, we hope to curate insights for educators, parents, and students who are wondering whether homework causing stress in their lives?

The Link Between Homework and Stress: What the Research Says

Over the years, numerous studies investigated the relationship between homework and stress levels in students. 

One study published in the Journal of Experimental Education found that students who reported spending more than two hours per night on homework experienced higher stress levels and physical health issues . Those same students reported over three hours of homework a night on average.

This study, conducted by Stanford lecturer Denise Pope, has been heavily cited throughout the years, with WebMD producing the below video on the topic– part of their special report series on teens and stress : 

Additional studies published by Sleep Health Journal found that long hours on homework on may be a risk factor for depression , suggesting that reducing workload outside of class may benefit sleep and mental fitness .

Homework’s Potential Impact on Mental Health and Well-being

Homework-induced stress on students can involve both psychological and physiological side effects. 

1. Potential Psychological Effects of Homework-Induced Stress:

• Anxiety: The pressure to perform well academically and meet homework expectations can lead to heightened levels of anxiety in students. Constant worry about completing assignments on time and achieving high grades can be overwhelming.

• Sleep Disturbances : Homework-related stress can disrupt students’ sleep patterns, leading to sleep anxiety or sleep deprivation, both of which can negatively impact cognitive function and emotional regulation.

• Reduced Motivation: Excessive homework demands could drain students’ motivation, causing them to feel fatigued and disengaged from their studies. Reduced motivation may lead to a lack of interest in learning, hindering students’ overall academic performance.

2. Potential Physiological Effects of Homework-Induced Stress:

• Impaired Immune Function: Prolonged stress could weaken the immune system, making students more susceptible to illnesses and infections.

• Disrupted Hormonal Balance : The body’s stress response triggers the release of hormones like cortisol, which, when chronically elevated due to stress, can disrupt the delicate hormonal balance and lead to various health issues.

• Gastrointestinal Disturbances: Stress has been known to affect the gastrointestinal system, leading to symptoms such as stomachaches, nausea, and other digestive problems.

• Cardiovascular Impact: The increased heart rate and elevated blood pressure associated with stress can strain the cardiovascular system, potentially increasing the risk of heart-related issues in the long run.

• Brain impact: Prolonged exposure to stress hormones may impact the brain’s functioning , affecting memory, concentration, and other cognitive abilities.

The Benefits of Homework

It’s important to note that homework also offers many benefits that contribute to students’ academic growth and development, such as: 

• Development of Time Management Skills: Completing homework within specified deadlines encourages students to manage their time efficiently. This valuable skill extends beyond academics and becomes essential in various aspects of life.

• Preparation for Future Challenges : Homework helps prepare students for future academic challenges and responsibilities. It fosters a sense of discipline and responsibility, qualities that are crucial for success in higher education and professional life.

• Enhanced Problem-Solving Abilities: Homework often presents students with challenging problems to solve. Tackling these problems independently nurtures critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

While homework can foster discipline, time management, and self-directed learning, the middle ground may be to  strike a balance that promotes both academic growth and mental well-being .

How Much Homework Should Teachers Assign?

As a general guideline, educators suggest assigning a workload that allows students to grasp concepts effectively without overwhelming them . Quality over quantity is key, ensuring that homework assignments are purposeful, relevant, and targeted towards specific objectives. 

Advice for Students: How to balance Homework and Well-being

Finding a balance between academic responsibilities and well-being is crucial for students. Here are some practical tips and techniques to help manage homework-related stress and foster a healthier approach to learning:

• Effective Time Management : Encourage students to create a structured study schedule that allocates sufficient time for homework, breaks, and other activities. Prioritizing tasks and setting realistic goals can prevent last-minute rushes and reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed.

• Break Tasks into Smaller Chunks : Large assignments can be daunting and may contribute to stress. Students should break such tasks into smaller, manageable parts. This approach not only makes the workload seem less intimidating but also provides a sense of accomplishment as each section is completed.

• Find a Distraction-Free Zone : Establish a designated study area that is free from distractions like smartphones, television, or social media. This setting will improve focus and productivity, reducing time needed to complete homework.

• Be Active : Regular exercise is known to reduce stress and enhance mood. Encourage students to incorporate physical activity into their daily routine, whether it’s going for a walk, playing a sport, or doing yoga.

• Practice Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques : Encourage students to engage in mindfulness practices, such as deep breathing exercises or meditation, to alleviate stress and improve concentration. Taking short breaks to relax and clear the mind can enhance overall well-being and cognitive performance.

• Seek Support : Teachers, parents, and school counselors play an essential role in supporting students. Create an open and supportive environment where students feel comfortable expressing their concerns and seeking help when needed.

How Healium is Helping in Schools

Stress is caused by so many factors and not just the amount of work students are taking home.  Our company created a virtual reality stress management solution… a mental fitness tool called “Healium” that’s teaching students how to learn to self-regulate their stress and downshift in a drugless way. Schools implementing Healium have seen improvements from supporting dysregulated students and ADHD challenges to empowering students with body awareness and learning to self-regulate stress . Here’s one of their stories. 

By providing students with the tools they need to self-manage stress and anxiety, we represent a forward-looking approach to education that prioritizes the holistic development of every student. 

To learn more about how Healium works, watch the video below.

About the Author

Sarah Hill , a former interactive TV news journalist at NBC, ABC, and CBS affiliates in Missouri, gained recognition for pioneering interactive news broadcasting using Google Hangouts. She is now the CEO of Healium, the world’s first biometrically powered immersive media channel, helping those with stress, anxiety, insomnia, and other struggles through biofeedback storytelling. With patents, clinical validation, and over seven million views, she has reshaped the landscape of immersive media.

Is homework a necessary evil?

After decades of debate, researchers are still sorting out the truth about homework’s pros and cons. One point they can agree on: Quality assignments matter.

By Kirsten Weir

March 2016, Vol 47, No. 3

Print version: page 36

• Schools and Classrooms

Homework battles have raged for decades. For as long as kids have been whining about doing their homework, parents and education reformers have complained that homework's benefits are dubious. Meanwhile many teachers argue that take-home lessons are key to helping students learn. Now, as schools are shifting to the new (and hotly debated) Common Core curriculum standards, educators, administrators and researchers are turning a fresh eye toward the question of homework's value.

But when it comes to deciphering the research literature on the subject, homework is anything but an open book.

The 10-minute rule

In many ways, homework seems like common sense. Spend more time practicing multiplication or studying Spanish vocabulary and you should get better at math or Spanish. But it may not be that simple.

Homework can indeed produce academic benefits, such as increased understanding and retention of the material, says Duke University social psychologist Harris Cooper, PhD, one of the nation's leading homework researchers. But not all students benefit. In a review of studies published from 1987 to 2003, Cooper and his colleagues found that homework was linked to better test scores in high school and, to a lesser degree, in middle school. Yet they found only faint evidence that homework provided academic benefit in elementary school ( Review of Educational Research , 2006).

Then again, test scores aren't everything. Homework proponents also cite the nonacademic advantages it might confer, such as the development of personal responsibility, good study habits and time-management skills. But as to hard evidence of those benefits, "the jury is still out," says Mollie Galloway, PhD, associate professor of educational leadership at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. "I think there's a focus on assigning homework because [teachers] think it has these positive outcomes for study skills and habits. But we don't know for sure that's the case."

Even when homework is helpful, there can be too much of a good thing. "There is a limit to how much kids can benefit from home study," Cooper says. He agrees with an oft-cited rule of thumb that students should do no more than 10 minutes a night per grade level — from about 10 minutes in first grade up to a maximum of about two hours in high school. Both the National Education Association and National Parent Teacher Association support that limit.

Beyond that point, kids don't absorb much useful information, Cooper says. In fact, too much homework can do more harm than good. Researchers have cited drawbacks, including boredom and burnout toward academic material, less time for family and extracurricular activities, lack of sleep and increased stress.

In a recent study of Spanish students, Rubén Fernández-Alonso, PhD, and colleagues found that students who were regularly assigned math and science homework scored higher on standardized tests. But when kids reported having more than 90 to 100 minutes of homework per day, scores declined ( Journal of Educational Psychology , 2015).

"At all grade levels, doing other things after school can have positive effects," Cooper says. "To the extent that homework denies access to other leisure and community activities, it's not serving the child's best interest."

Children of all ages need down time in order to thrive, says Denise Pope, PhD, a professor of education at Stanford University and a co-founder of Challenge Success, a program that partners with secondary schools to implement policies that improve students' academic engagement and well-being.

"Little kids and big kids need unstructured time for play each day," she says. Certainly, time for physical activity is important for kids' health and well-being. But even time spent on social media can help give busy kids' brains a break, she says.

All over the map

But are teachers sticking to the 10-minute rule? Studies attempting to quantify time spent on homework are all over the map, in part because of wide variations in methodology, Pope says.

A 2014 report by the Brookings Institution examined the question of homework, comparing data from a variety of sources. That report cited findings from a 2012 survey of first-year college students in which 38.4 percent reported spending six hours or more per week on homework during their last year of high school. That was down from 49.5 percent in 1986 ( The Brown Center Report on American Education , 2014).

The Brookings report also explored survey data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which asked 9-, 13- and 17-year-old students how much homework they'd done the previous night. They found that between 1984 and 2012, there was a slight increase in homework for 9-year-olds, but homework amounts for 13- and 17-year-olds stayed roughly the same, or even decreased slightly.

Yet other evidence suggests that some kids might be taking home much more work than they can handle. Robert Pressman, PhD, and colleagues recently investigated the 10-minute rule among more than 1,100 students, and found that elementary-school kids were receiving up to three times as much homework as recommended. As homework load increased, so did family stress, the researchers found ( American Journal of Family Therapy , 2015).

Many high school students also seem to be exceeding the recommended amounts of homework. Pope and Galloway recently surveyed more than 4,300 students from 10 high-achieving high schools. Students reported bringing home an average of just over three hours of homework nightly ( Journal of Experiential Education , 2013).

On the positive side, students who spent more time on homework in that study did report being more behaviorally engaged in school — for instance, giving more effort and paying more attention in class, Galloway says. But they were not more invested in the homework itself. They also reported greater academic stress and less time to balance family, friends and extracurricular activities. They experienced more physical health problems as well, such as headaches, stomach troubles and sleep deprivation. "Three hours per night is too much," Galloway says.

In the high-achieving schools Pope and Galloway studied, more than 90 percent of the students go on to college. There's often intense pressure to succeed academically, from both parents and peers. On top of that, kids in these communities are often overloaded with extracurricular activities, including sports and clubs. "They're very busy," Pope says. "Some kids have up to 40 hours a week — a full-time job's worth — of extracurricular activities." And homework is yet one more commitment on top of all the others.

"Homework has perennially acted as a source of stress for students, so that piece of it is not new," Galloway says. "But especially in upper-middle-class communities, where the focus is on getting ahead, I think the pressure on students has been ratcheted up."

Yet homework can be a problem at the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum as well. Kids from wealthier homes are more likely to have resources such as computers, Internet connections, dedicated areas to do schoolwork and parents who tend to be more educated and more available to help them with tricky assignments. Kids from disadvantaged homes are more likely to work at afterschool jobs, or to be home without supervision in the evenings while their parents work multiple jobs, says Lea Theodore, PhD, a professor of school psychology at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. They are less likely to have computers or a quiet place to do homework in peace.

"Homework can highlight those inequities," she says.

Quantity vs. quality

One point researchers agree on is that for all students, homework quality matters. But too many kids are feeling a lack of engagement with their take-home assignments, many experts say. In Pope and Galloway's research, only 20 percent to 30 percent of students said they felt their homework was useful or meaningful.

"Students are assigned a lot of busywork. They're naming it as a primary stressor, but they don't feel it's supporting their learning," Galloway says.

"Homework that's busywork is not good for anyone," Cooper agrees. Still, he says, different subjects call for different kinds of assignments. "Things like vocabulary and spelling are learned through practice. Other kinds of courses require more integration of material and drawing on different skills."

But critics say those skills can be developed with many fewer hours of homework each week. Why assign 50 math problems, Pope asks, when 10 would be just as constructive? One Advanced Placement biology teacher she worked with through Challenge Success experimented with cutting his homework assignments by a third, and then by half. "Test scores didn't go down," she says. "You can have a rigorous course and not have a crazy homework load."

Still, changing the culture of homework won't be easy. Teachers-to-be get little instruction in homework during their training, Pope says. And despite some vocal parents arguing that kids bring home too much homework, many others get nervous if they think their child doesn't have enough. "Teachers feel pressured to give homework because parents expect it to come home," says Galloway. "When it doesn't, there's this idea that the school might not be doing its job."

Galloway argues teachers and school administrators need to set clear goals when it comes to homework — and parents and students should be in on the discussion, too. "It should be a broader conversation within the community, asking what's the purpose of homework? Why are we giving it? Who is it serving? Who is it not serving?"

Until schools and communities agree to take a hard look at those questions, those backpacks full of take-home assignments will probably keep stirring up more feelings than facts.

Further reading

• Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987-2003. Review of Educational Research, 76 (1), 1–62. doi: 10.3102/00346543076001001
• Galloway, M., Connor, J., & Pope, D. (2013). Nonacademic effects of homework in privileged, high-performing high schools. The Journal of Experimental Education, 81 (4), 490–510. doi: 10.1080/00220973.2012.745469
• Pope, D., Brown, M., & Miles, S. (2015). Overloaded and underprepared: Strategies for stronger schools and healthy, successful kids . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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School Stress Takes A Toll On Health, Teens And Parents Say

Patti Neighmond

Colleen Frainey, 16, of Tualatin, Ore., cut back on advanced placement classes in her junior year because the stress was making her physically ill. Toni Greaves for NPR hide caption

Colleen Frainey, 16, of Tualatin, Ore., cut back on advanced placement classes in her junior year because the stress was making her physically ill.

When high school junior Nora Huynh got her report card, she was devastated to see that she didn't get a perfect 4.0.

Nora "had a total meltdown, cried for hours," her mother, Jennie Huynh of Alameda, Calif., says. "I couldn't believe her reaction."

Nora is doing college-level work, her mother says, but many of her friends are taking enough advanced classes to boost their grade-point averages above 4.0. "It breaks my heart to see her upset when she's doing so awesome and going above and beyond."

And the pressure is taking a physical toll, too. At age 16, Nora is tired, is increasingly irritated with her siblings and often suffers headaches, her mother says.

Teens Talk Stress

When NPR asked on Facebook if stress is an issue for teenagers, they spoke loud and clear:

• "Academic stress has been a part of my life ever since I can remember," wrote Bretta McCall, 16, of Seattle. "This year I spend about 12 hours a day on schoolwork. I'm home right now because I was feeling so sick from stress I couldn't be at school. So as you can tell, it's a big part of my life!"
• "At the time of writing this, my weekend assignments include two papers, a PowerPoint to go with a 10-minute presentation, studying for a test and two quizzes, and an entire chapter (approximately 40 pages) of notes in a college textbook," wrote Connor West of New Jersey.
• "It's a problem that's basically brushed off by most people," wrote Kelly Farrell in Delaware. "There's this mentality of, 'You're doing well, so why are you complaining?' " She says she started experiencing symptoms of stress in middle school, and was diagnosed with panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder in high school.
• "Parents are the worst about all of this," writes Colin Hughes of Illinois. "All I hear is, 'Work harder, you're a smart kid, I know you have it in you, and if you want to go to college you need to work harder.' It's a pain."

Parents are right to be worried about stress and their children's health, says Mary Alvord , a clinical psychologist in Maryland and public education coordinator for the American Psychological Association.

"A little stress is a good thing," Alvord says. "It can motivate students to be organized. But too much stress can backfire."

Almost 40 percent of parents say their high-schooler is experiencing a lot of stress from school, according to a new NPR poll conducted with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. In most cases, that stress is from academics, not social issues or bullying, the poll found. (See the full results here .)

Homework was a leading cause of stress, with 24 percent of parents saying it's an issue.

Teenagers say they're suffering, too. A survey by the American Psychological Association found that nearly half of all teens — 45 percent — said they were stressed by school pressures.

Chronic stress can cause a sense of panic and paralysis, Alvord says. The child feels stuck, which only adds to the feeling of stress.

Parents can help put the child's distress in perspective, particularly when they get into what Alvord calls catastrophic "what if" thinking: "What if I get a bad grade, then what if that means I fail the course, then I'll never get into college."

Then move beyond talking and do something about it.

Colleen pets her horse, Bishop. They had been missing out on rides together because of homework. Toni Greaves for NPR hide caption

Colleen pets her horse, Bishop. They had been missing out on rides together because of homework.

That's what 16-year-old Colleen Frainey of Tualatin, Ore., did. As a sophomore last year, she was taking all advanced courses. The pressure was making her sick. "I didn't feel good, and when I didn't feel good I felt like I couldn't do my work, which would stress me out more," she says.

Mom Abigail Frainey says, "It was more than we could handle as a family."

With encouragement from her parents, Colleen dropped one of her advanced courses. The family's decision generated disbelief from other parents. "Why would I let her take the easy way out?" Abigail Frainey heard.

But she says dialing down on academics was absolutely the right decision for her child. Colleen no longer suffers headaches or stomachaches. She's still in honors courses, but the workload this year is manageable.

Even better, Colleen now has time to do things she never would have considered last year, like going out to dinner with the family on a weeknight, or going to the barn to ride her horse, Bishop.

Psychologist Alvord says a balanced life should be the goal for all families. If a child is having trouble getting things done, parents can help plan the week, deciding what's important and what's optional. "Just basic time management — that will help reduce the stress."

• Children's Health

When Is Homework Stressful? Its Effects on Students’ Mental Health

Are you wondering when is homework stressful? Well, homework is a vital constituent in keeping students attentive to the course covered in a class. By applying the lessons, students learned in class, they can gain a mastery of the material by reflecting on it in greater detail and applying what they learned through homework. 

However, students get advantages from homework, as it improves soft skills like organisation and time management which are important after high school. However, the additional work usually causes anxiety for both the parents and the child. As their load of homework accumulates, some students may find themselves growing more and more bored.

Students may take assistance online and ask someone to do my online homework . As there are many platforms available for the students such as Chegg, Scholarly Help, and Quizlet offering academic services that can assist students in completing their homework on time. 

Negative impact of homework

There are the following reasons why is homework stressful and leads to depression for students and affect their mental health. As they work hard on their assignments for alarmingly long periods, students’ mental health is repeatedly put at risk. Here are some serious arguments against too much homework.

No uniqueness

Homework should be intended to encourage children to express themselves more creatively. Teachers must assign kids intriguing assignments that highlight their uniqueness. similar to writing an essay on a topic they enjoy.

Moreover, the key is encouraging the child instead of criticizing him for writing a poor essay so that he can express himself more creatively.

Lack of sleep

One of the most prevalent adverse effects of schoolwork is lack of sleep. The average student only gets about 5 hours of sleep per night since they stay up late to complete their homework, even though the body needs at least 7 hours of sleep every day. Lack of sleep has an impact on both mental and physical health.

No pleasure

Students learn more effectively while they are having fun. They typically learn things more quickly when their minds are not clouded by fear. However, the fear factor that most teachers introduce into homework causes kids to turn to unethical means of completing their assignments.

Excessive homework

The lack of coordination between teachers in the existing educational system is a concern. As a result, teachers frequently end up assigning children far more work than they can handle. In such circumstances, children turn to cheat on their schoolwork by either copying their friends’ work or using online resources that assist with homework.

Anxiety level

Homework stress can increase anxiety levels and that could hurt the blood pressure norms in young people . Do you know? Around 3.5% of young people in the USA have high blood pressure. So why is homework stressful for children when homework is meant to be enjoyable and something they look forward to doing? It is simple to reject this claim by asserting that schoolwork is never enjoyable, yet with some careful consideration and preparation, homework may become pleasurable.

No time for personal matters

Students that have an excessive amount of homework miss out on personal time. They can’t get enough enjoyment. There is little time left over for hobbies, interpersonal interaction with colleagues, and other activities. 

However, many students dislike doing their assignments since they don’t have enough time. As they grow to detest it, they can stop learning. In any case, it has a significant negative impact on their mental health.

Children are no different than everyone else in need of a break. Weekends with no homework should be considered by schools so that kids have time to unwind and prepare for the coming week. Without a break, doing homework all week long might be stressful.

How do parents help kids with homework?

Encouraging children’s well-being and health begins with parents being involved in their children’s lives. By taking part in their homework routine, you can see any issues your child may be having and offer them the necessary support.

Set up a routine

Your student will develop and maintain good study habits if you have a clear and organized homework regimen. If there is still a lot of schoolwork to finish, try putting a time limit. Students must obtain regular, good sleep every single night.

Observe carefully

The student is ultimately responsible for their homework. Because of this, parents should only focus on ensuring that their children are on track with their assignments and leave it to the teacher to determine what skills the students have and have not learned in class.

Listen to your child

One of the nicest things a parent can do for their kids is to ask open-ended questions and listen to their responses. Many kids are reluctant to acknowledge they are struggling with their homework because they fear being labelled as failures or lazy if they do.

However, every parent wants their child to succeed to the best of their ability, but it’s crucial to be prepared to ease the pressure if your child starts to show signs of being overburdened with homework.

Talk to your teachers

Also, make sure to contact the teacher with any problems regarding your homework by phone or email. Additionally, it demonstrates to your student that you and their teacher are working together to further their education.

Homework with friends

If you are still thinking is homework stressful then It’s better to do homework with buddies because it gives them these advantages. Their stress is reduced by collaborating, interacting, and sharing with peers.

Additionally, students are more relaxed when they work on homework with pals. It makes even having too much homework manageable by ensuring they receive the support they require when working on the assignment. Additionally, it improves their communication abilities.

However, doing homework with friends guarantees that one learns how to communicate well and express themselves. 

Review homework plan

Create a schedule for finishing schoolwork on time with your child. Every few weeks, review the strategy and make any necessary adjustments. Gratefully, more schools are making an effort to control the quantity of homework assigned to children to lessen the stress this produces.

Bottom line

Finally, be aware that homework-related stress is fairly prevalent and is likely to occasionally affect you or your student. Sometimes all you or your kid needs to calm down and get back on track is a brief moment of comfort. So if you are a student and wondering if is homework stressful then you must go through this blog.

While homework is a crucial component of a student’s education, when kids are overwhelmed by the amount of work they have to perform, the advantages of homework can be lost and grades can suffer. Finding a balance that ensures students understand the material covered in class without becoming overburdened is therefore essential.

Zuella Montemayor did her degree in psychology at the University of Toronto. She is interested in mental health, wellness, and lifestyle.

Psychreg is a digital media company and not a clinical company. Our content does not constitute a medical or psychological consultation. See a certified medical or mental health professional for diagnosis.

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More than two hours of homework may be counterproductive, research suggests.

A Stanford education researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.   "Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .   The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.   Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.   Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.   "The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.   Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.   Their study found that too much homework is associated with:   • Greater stress : 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.   • Reductions in health : In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.   • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits : Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.   A balancing act   The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.   Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.   "This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," said Pope, who is also a co-founder of Challenge Success , a nonprofit organization affiliated with the GSE that conducts research and works with schools and parents to improve students' educational experiences..   Pope said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.   "Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.   High-performing paradox   In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."   Student perspectives   The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.   The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Clifton B. Parker is a writer at the Stanford News Service .

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Homework and Mental Health: Striking the Right Balance

In today’s fast-paced and competitive education landscape, students are often faced with overwhelming academic expectations that can significantly impact their mental health. The pressure to excel academically, coupled with the demands of homework, can lead to excessive stress, anxiety, and burnout. It is crucial to find the right balance between academic responsibilities and mental well-being to ensure that students thrive both academically and emotionally.

In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the research surrounding homework and its effects on students’ stress levels and mental health. We will explore the link between homework and stress, examine the impact of excessive homework on students’ well-being, and, for those seeking relief, offer practical strategies to manage homework effectively or find support to do my homework for me . These insights are intended to help students, parents, and educators strike a balance that promotes both academic success and mental well-being.

The Link Between Homework and Stress

Numerous studies have investigated the relationship between homework and stress levels in students. One notable study conducted by Stanford lecturer Denise Pope found that students who reported spending more than two hours per night on homework experienced higher stress levels and physical health issues. This research highlighted the potential negative effects of excessive homework on students’ well-being.

Another study published in the Sleep Health Journal found that long hours of homework may be a risk factor for depression. This research suggests that reducing homework workload outside of class may benefit sleep quality and mental fitness. Additionally, a study presented by Frontiers in Psychology emphasized the significant health implications for high school students facing chronic stress, including emotional exhaustion and substance use.

These studies collectively indicate that excessive homework can contribute to increased stress levels among students, potentially leading to a range of negative psychological and physiological effects. It is crucial for educators and parents to be mindful of the workload they assign to students and prioritize their well-being.

The Impact of Homework on Mental Health and Well-being

Excessive homework can have far-reaching effects on students’ mental health and well-being. Understanding these effects is essential for developing strategies to mitigate the potential negative consequences. Let’s examine the psychological and physical effects of homework-induced stress on students:

Psychological Effects of Homework-Induced Stress

• Anxiety: The pressure to perform academically and meet homework expectations can lead to heightened levels of anxiety in students. Constant worry about completing assignments on time and achieving high grades can be overwhelming.
• Sleep Disturbances: Homework-related stress can disrupt students’ sleep patterns, leading to sleep anxiety or sleep deprivation. Lack of quality sleep negatively impacts cognitive function and emotional regulation.
• Reduced Motivation: Excessive homework demands can drain students’ motivation, causing them to feel fatigued and disengaged from their studies. Reduced motivation may lead to a lack of interest in learning, hindering overall academic performance.

Physical Effects of Homework-Induced Stress

• Impaired Immune Function: Prolonged stress from overwhelming homework loads can weaken the immune system, making students more susceptible to illnesses and infections.
• Disrupted Hormonal Balance: Chronic stress triggers the release of hormones like cortisol, which can disrupt the delicate hormonal balance and lead to various health issues.
• Gastrointestinal Disturbances: Stress affects the gastrointestinal system, resulting in symptoms such as stomachaches, nausea, and other digestive problems.
• Cardiovascular Impact: The increased heart rate and elevated blood pressure associated with stress can strain the cardiovascular system, potentially increasing the risk of heart-related issues in the long run.
• Brain Impact: Prolonged exposure to stress hormones may impact the brain’s functioning, affecting memory, concentration, and cognitive abilities.

It is evident that excessive homework can have detrimental effects on students’ mental and physical well-being. Balancing academic responsibilities with self-care and mental health is crucial for fostering a healthy and productive learning environment.

The Benefits of Homework

While the potential negative effects of excessive homework cannot be ignored, it is essential to recognize that homework also offers several benefits that contribute to students’ academic growth and development. Some of these benefits include:

• Development of Time Management Skills: Completing homework within specified deadlines encourages students to manage their time efficiently. This skill extends beyond academics and becomes essential in various aspects of life.
• Preparation for Future Challenges: Homework helps prepare students for future academic challenges and responsibilities. It fosters a sense of discipline and responsibility, qualities crucial for success in higher education and professional life.
• Enhanced Problem-Solving Abilities: Homework often presents students with challenging problems to solve. Tackling these problems independently nurtures critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

While acknowledging these benefits, it is crucial to strike a balance between assigning meaningful homework and ensuring students’ overall well-being.

Striking the Right Balance: Strategies for Students, Parents, and Educators

Finding a balance between academic responsibilities and mental well-being is crucial for students’ overall success and happiness. Here are some practical strategies that students, parents, and educators can implement to strike the right balance:

For Students:

Effective Time Management: Create a structured study schedule that allocates sufficient time for homework, breaks, and other activities. Prioritize tasks and set realistic goals to prevent last-minute rushes and reduce feelings of overwhelm.

Break Tasks into Smaller Chunks: Large assignments can be daunting and contribute to stress. Break them into smaller, manageable parts. This approach makes the workload seem less intimidating and provides a sense of accomplishment as each section is completed.

Designate a Distraction-Free Zone: Establish a designated study area that is free from distractions like smartphones, television, or social media. This setting improves focus and productivity, reducing the time needed to complete homework.

Engage in Physical Activity: Regular exercise is known to reduce stress and enhance mood. Incorporate physical activity into your daily routine, whether it’s going for a walk, playing a sport, or practicing yoga.

Practice Relaxation Techniques: Engage in mindfulness practices such as deep breathing exercises or meditation to alleviate stress and improve concentration. Taking short breaks to relax and clear the mind enhances overall well-being and cognitive performance.

Seek Support: Reach out to teachers, parents, or school counselors when feeling overwhelmed or in need of assistance. Establish an open and supportive environment where you feel comfortable expressing concerns and seeking help.

For Parents:

Foster Open Communication: Create an environment where your child feels comfortable discussing their academic challenges and stressors. Encourage open communication about workload and provide support and guidance when needed.

Set Realistic Expectations: Recognize that each child is unique and has different capacities for handling academic pressures. Set realistic expectations for homework completion, considering their individual needs and responsibilities.

Encourage Healthy Habits: Promote a balanced lifestyle that includes sufficient sleep, physical activity, and relaxation. Encourage breaks and downtime to prevent burnout.

Collaborate with Educators: Maintain open lines of communication with teachers to stay informed about the workload and address any concerns regarding excessive homework. Advocate for a balanced approach to homework.

For Educators:

Assign Purposeful Homework: Ensure that homework assignments are purposeful, relevant, and targeted towards specific learning objectives. Emphasize quality over quantity and avoid assigning excessive workloads.

Provide Clear Instructions: Clearly communicate assignment expectations and deadlines to students. This clarity helps students plan their time effectively and reduces stress related to uncertainty.

Offer Support and Resources: Provide students with resources and support systems, such as study guides, online materials, or access to tutoring, to help them navigate their homework effectively.

Encourage Self-Care: Educate students about the importance of self-care and stress management. Incorporate discussions and activities related to mental health and well-being into the curriculum.

By implementing these strategies, students, parents, and educators can work collaboratively to strike a balance between academic responsibilities and mental well-being, fostering a positive learning environment that promotes both academic success and emotional well-being.

Finding the right balance between homework and mental health is crucial for students’ overall well-being and academic success. Excessive homework can lead to increased stress levels, negatively impacting students’ mental and physical health. By understanding the potential effects of homework-induced stress, implementing practical strategies, and fostering open communication between students, parents, and educators, we can create a supportive learning environment that prioritizes both academic growth and mental well-being. Let’s work together to ensure that students thrive academically and emotionally.

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Workload negatively affects mental health

Matthias Sandoval argues that Masters students struggle with a heavy workload which negatively impacts their mental health.

Matthias Jaylen Sandoval , Social Media Manager/ Distribution Manager November 19, 2021

The school year only started two months ago and students are already overwhelmed. That’s not a good sign for what’s to come.

In a survey conducted by Tower , in which 148 upper school students participated, 43.2% say they have more work than expected, and 20.9% said they have too much work. 31.8% of students say they have a fair amount of work and 4.1% of them say they have less work than expected. 64.1% of students think they have more than a “fair” amount of work which is very upsetting and in my opinion, outrageous. 

Having too much work could really have negative implications on a students mental health. Having too much work adds unnecessary stress, limits students’ social life, and can limit students’ time for leisure. With the school day being 9 hours long (8:30-5:30 assuming students have co-curriculars) then having to travel home to do 2-5 hours of work, it barely gives students time to sit and enjoy a meal or spend time with loved ones. If students want to make time for leisure, they have to sacrifice their sleep and stay up till almost 1-2 in the morning. Sacrificing sleep is in no way a small issue. Sleep is absolutely crucial to the health and well-being of a teenager as The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has recommended that teenagers should get 8-10 hours of sleep a night. There is no way that any Masters student could get 8-10 hours of sleep with the amount of work we get.

Senior Caleb Jakes is a very active member in the community. He is the Co-chair of the school and is the founder and Co-chair of SCEEM and ONYX. Jakes believes that the workload this year has taken a toll on his mental health. It’s currently college application season, and many seniors like him are stressed over their college applications on top of the added work they have to do right now. 

Jakes said, “I feel like it definitely did [affect my mental health]. I feel like at the beginning of the year, especially getting started with stuff, starting to get the workload, and then like trying to get my shoes into this co-chair role. It added an immense amount of stress, trying to balance both trying to stay on my toes and not crash before October.”

 Jakes also noted that the switch from being online last year to being in school fully in-person now has added to lots of students’ stress. 

He said, “Think about it. You have a school day that’s set up from 8 to 3:35. Then you go do something else that’s required from 3:45 to 5:45. And then I feel bad for the people who have to travel back home and can’t have time with family or talk to a friend and then they have to do their homework, eat dinner. And if it’s two-plus hours on homework, then what are they really having left after the school day?”. 

Jakes is right as students have had to adjust from being online and participating in shortened and inconsistent co-curriculars. The adjustment to having in-person school and consistent co-curriculars has made this year even more difficult for students who have had trouble with getting too many hours of work even during “normal” school years in the past.

Junior Josh Markowitz, is also another active community member as he’s on the boys varsity soccer team. He shared the same sentiments as Jakes. He also feels overwhelmed by the amount of work. Markowitz gets anywhere from 2-5 hours of work a night. Markowitz feels that teachers don’t take into consideration the fact that students have work for other classes to complete and other activities and obligations students need to attend both in and out of school everyday. 

Markowitz said, “Every teacher thinks that you are on top of balancing work, co-curriculars, and having a normal life outside of school. Every teacher assigns assignments like that’s the only class you take and that’s the only homework you have to do but in reality you have 6-7 teachers doing that and it all piles up on top of each other and it gets really out of hand.”

Markowitz feels that getting lots of work is affecting his mental health as well. He said that the way school is going for him determines how his mental health is. Markowitz said, “school would just be the biggest factor of my mental health. If school was going well, my mental health would generally be higher, but if school was going worse, with more pressure or more work, it would generally go lower”.

The National Education Association and the National PTA both support the 10 minute rule. The 10 minute rule states that for each grade level you should get about 10 minutes of homework a day. According to their recommendations, seniors shouldn’t receive more than 2 hours of homework a night but a lot of Masters students, ranging anywhere from grades 9-12 are getting 2+ hours of homework a night. That alone is proof enough that Masters is overworking and overstressing their students.

School Counselor, Stefanie Carbone believes that this is very much a systematic issue. Carbone said, “While I am not in the classroom full time, nor am I an administrator, I believe this conversation needs to occur beyond the walls of the Counseling Center.  For a change in stress levels as well as addressing the mental health needs of our students to occur, I think this needs to be presented as a systemic concern to be approached and solved on all levels including teachers, department chairs, and administrators in collaboration with the Counseling Center and the Mental Health at Masters Club leaders.”  

Carbone is absolutely correct. This is a systemic issue. It’s a type of issue that needs to be addressed publicly with open and honest dialogue between students, parents, teachers, and administration. Should this issue be addressed properly with real change, we can all help contribute to Masters being a healthier work environment, inside and outside the classroom for all of its students in years to come.

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August 22, 2024

Student Opinion and Resources Newspaper

The Negative Effects of Homework

Last updated on July 27, 2022

It’s easy to villainize homework, a common stress factor in our daily lives. Numerous teachers assign a simple ten minutes of homework a day, usually more. However, entering middle and high school, the six to seven classes quickly add up. Soon, drowning in hours of endless work becomes routine. This cuts into extracurriculars, and personal free time, and dictates how we spend our day. Homework is not necessary because of the negative impacts on mental health it helps develop, such as burn-out, and only benefits the non-disadvantaged families. 

Homework was originally invented by an Italian teacher in 1905 and used to punish misbehaving students. The version of homework we complete every day is far from that. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that the typical high schooler spends 6.8 hours of homework per week, perhaps longer. What used to be discipline has now become a plethora of pressure. “That means that by asking our children to put in an hour or more per day of dedicated homework time, we are not only not helping them, but according to the aforementioned studies — we are hurting them, both physically and emotionally.” Being an eighth-grader with non-academic commitments and a touch of insomnia, homework is a huge anxiety factor in my daily life. Although I’m still thriving in the school environment, it is an unnecessary distraction when I could be preparing for a final or different commitment. One of the leading causes of sleep deprivation in teens is homework, which [in middle and high school at least], can easily be limited to a small subset.

With a lack of relaxation and an abundance of work, the body shuts down, physically and mentally. Burnout, depression, and anxiety are all present when the anticipated overload occurs. What is burnout? “A stressful lifestyle can put people under extreme pressure, to the point that they feel exhausted, empty, burned out, and unable to cope.” The term “burnout” was coined by American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger in the 1970s. For students with a competitive sport, other activity-filled schedules, or AP/honor classes, this has been proven true. It has been proven that areas of work cause this, not to be confused with exhaustion or depression, which can be life-threatening negative thoughts, low self-esteem, and hopelessness. It’s important to understand balance. If homework cannot be completely eliminated from the curriculum, it should at least be ensured a cut in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. 

In addition to unkept stress, many students do not have the proper access to technology and homework help. Less affluent families have children that may work jobs, take care of family members when the parents are working multiple shifts, and generally don’t have internet connections/technology. “It highlights Inequalities” is the term the University of Sandiego uses. In addition, the American Psychological Association also observes, “Adding homework into the mix is one more thing to deal with — and if the student is struggling, the task of completing homework can be too much to consider at the end of an already long school day”. Although most students simply whine and complain about the extra work, it can be a true disadvantage for children in struggling home environments.

Many would argue, “Homework is essential to the school’s curriculum. How else would the students polish up the learning material, get extra practice, and teach time management?”. While these are all fair points, extended school hours could solve this problem. Accessibility to help after school, as mentioned previously, is difficult for many students. Extending the school session by even an hour or less, which will also benefit parents’ working schedules, lets the teacher have more time to grade assignments done in class and deliver help to the students. Teachers should ensure that students understand the material while in class. When the extra practice is then supplied, the teacher has an opportunity to work with the pupil. A study hall would be advantageous as well, as opposed to leaving students to fend for themselves after school. 

Although homework has both positives and negatives, the strain it places on students is not healthy and outweighs the benefits. Learners already spend six to seven hours five days a week in a tense environment, and as the name implies, work after school shouldn’t be standard. Many workplaces are experimenting with five-hour workdays, such as Tower Paddle Boards because a study by the APA showed Americans can only be fully productive for two to three hours in a row. In the future, I hope that schools will be able to do the same in order to prevent mental and physical overworking, level the playing field for unequipped families, and allow students to spend more time with friends, and family, and pursue non-academic activities. 

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Cozette is a middle school guest writer.

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How Homework Is Destroying Teens’ Health

Jessica Amabile '24 , Staff Writer March 25, 2022

“[Students] average about 3.1 hours of homework each night,” according to an article published by Stanford .  Teens across the country come home from school, exhausted from a long day, only to do more schoolwork.  They sit at their computers, working on homework assignments for hours on end.  To say the relentless amount of work they have to do is overwhelming would be an understatement.  The sheer amount of homework given has many negative impacts on teenagers.

Students have had homework for decades, but in more recent years it has become increasingly more demanding.  Multiple studies have shown that students average about three hours of homework per night.  The Atlantic mentioned that students now have twice as much homework as students did in the 1990s.  This is extremely detrimental to teens’ mental health and levels of stress.  Students have a lot to do after school, such as spending time with family, extracurricular activities, taking care of siblings or other family members, hanging out with friends, or all of the above.  Having to juggle all of this as well as hours on end of homework is unreasonable because teenagers already have enough to think or worry about.   

According to a student- run survey conducted in Cherry Hill West, students reported that they received the most homework in math, history, and language arts classes.  They receive anywhere from 1 to 4 or more hours of homework every day, but only about 22.7% somewhat or strongly agree that it helps them learn.  Of the students who participated, 63.6% think schools should continue to give out homework sometimes, while 27.3% said they should not give out homework at all.  In an open-ended response section, students had a lot to say.  One student wrote, “I think we should get homework to practice work if we are seen struggling, or didn’t finish work in class. But if we get homework, I think it just shows that the teacher needs more time to teach and instead of speeding up, gives us more work.”  Another added,  “Homework is important to learn the material. However, too much may lead to the student not learning that much, or it may become stressful to do homework everyday.”  Others wrote, “The work I get in chemistry doesn’t help me learn at all if anything it confuses me more,” and “I think math is the only class I could use homework as that helps me learn while world language is supposed to help me learn but feels more like a time waste.”   A student admitted, “I think homework is beneficial for students but the amount of homework teachers give us each day is very overwhelming and puts a lot of stress on kids. I always have my work done but all of the homework I have really changes my emotions and it effects me.”  Another pointed out, “you are at school for most of your day waking up before the sun and still after all of that they send you home each day with work you need to do before the next day. Does that really make sense[?]”

As an article from Healthline mentioned, “Researchers asked students whether they experienced physical symptoms of stress… More than 80 percent of students reported having at least one stress-related symptom in the past month, and 44 percent said they had experienced three or more symptoms.”  If school is causing students physical symptoms of stress, it needs to re-evaluate whether or not homework is beneficial to students, especially teenagers.  Students aren’t learning anything if they have hours of “busy work” every night, so much so that it gives them symptoms of stress, such as headaches, weight loss, sleep deprivation, and so on.  The continuous hours of work are doing nothing but harming students mentally and physically.

The mental effects of homework can be harmful as well.  Mental health issues are often ignored, even when schools can be the root of the problem.  An article from USA Today contained a quote from a licensed therapist and social worker named Cynthia Catchings, which reads, “ heavy workloads can also cause serious mental health problems in the long run, like anxiety and depression.”  Mental health problems are not beneficial in any way to education.  In fact, it makes it more difficult for students to focus and learn.  

Some studies have suggested that students should receive less homework.  To an extent, homework can help students in certain areas, such as math.  However, too much has detrimental impacts on their mental and physical health.  Emmy Kang, a mental health counselor, has a suggestion.  She mentioned, “I don’t think (we) should scrap homework; I think we should scrap meaningless, purposeless busy work-type homework. That’s something that needs to be scrapped entirely,” she says, encouraging teachers to be thoughtful and consider the amount of time it would take for students to complete assignments,” according to USA Today .  Students don’t have much control over the homework they receive, but if enough people could explain to teachers the negative impacts it has on them, they might be convinced.  Teachers need to realize that their students have other classes and other assignments to do.  While this may not work for everything, it would at least be a start, which would be beneficial to students.

The sole purpose of schools is to educate children and young adults to help them later on in life.  However, school curriculums have gone too far if hours of homework for each class are seen as necessary and beneficial to learning.  Many studies have shown that homework has harmful effects on students, so how does it make sense to keep assigning it?  At this rate, the amount of time spent on homework will increase in years to come, along with the effects of poor mental and physical health.  Currently, students do an average of 3 hours of homework, according to the Washington Post, and the estimated amount of teenagers suffering from at least one mental illness is 1 in 5, as Polaris Teen Center stated.  This is already bad enough–it’s worrisome to think it could get much worse.  Homework is not more important than physical or mental health, by any standards.

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Knight Life

A source of stress: why homework needs to go away.

Hank Perkins , Staff Writer December 17, 2021

When Owen Davis goes home after a long day of school at Loy Norrix and KAMSC, all he wants to do is relax and spend time with friends and family, but he realizes he has loads of homework to complete for the next day. Davis is in difficult classes, including Geology, AP Statistics, and Advanced Computer Science, which all give him a lot of homework. 

Homework is a burden for students, as they usually have substantial amounts of homework every day after school where they do not have a sufficient amount of time to complete it due to other priorities they have, such as extracurriculars and family obligations. Homework is supposed to be beneficial for students, yet it is the complete opposite as all it does is increase student’s levels of stress dramatically and makes their life harder. 

According to When Homework Causes Stress , “In 2013, research conducted by Stanford University demonstrated that students from high-achieving communities experience stress, physical health problems, an imbalance in their lives, and alienation from society as a result of spending too much time on homework. According to the survey data, 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress. The remaining students viewed tests and the pressure to get good grades as the primary stressors. Notably, less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.”

Many students at Loy Norrix feel tremendous stress due to the large amount of homework they get every night as they would like to relax after a long day at school, yet they need to continue their diligent studies at home. 

From a survey of 124 students, about 100 agreed that homework is unnecessary and students feel overwhelmed from it due to their extracurriculars outside of school. 

A majority of students claim to spend 2+ hours on doing homework every night.

One third of students surveyed are in AP classes or are in KAMSC and claim these types of classes assign them a lot of homework, causing them stress. 

Students in regular classes claim to have less homework than those in honors and AP classes, yet these students in regular classes still believe their homework is unnecessary. 

Senior Ari’el Abbott who is taking AP classes at Loy Norrix mentioned her disapproval of homework’s effects on her mental strength.

“ Sometimes homework goes to the point where you are doing so much it’s harder to retain what you are learning compared to what is needed to know,” Abbott said. “I can be working for 4 hours in a class, and by the time I finish with the one class, I am too tired to even attempt to do another class which could cause one of two things: me working hard overdoing myself and possibly getting a bad grade on the assignments or mentally exhausting myself and then becoming behind in multiple classes. Either way the assignments are taking too long to complete which causes me to overwork myself.”

According to Kalamazoo Public Schools sets districtwide homework policy , the KPS District suggests that teachers give 10 minutes of homework per night for students in kindergarten and first grade and increase the amount by 10 minutes per night as grade levels go up. This means that seniors in high school are recommended to have roughly two hours of homework per night. 

Students in high school get way too much homework every night as they also have extracurricular activities and other duties to do, and the last thing they want to do after a hard day of school is to continue learning what they have already covered in school. 

Many students feel the amount of homework they receive influences their lives in a way where they cannot do the things they love. Senior Matthew Gray said how homework has affected his life during virtual learning.

“Online, I’d be getting huge projects and essays to do, so I would just be on my computer all day and miss out on other things I could be doing, such as hanging out with friends and family, since I have things to get done,” Gray said.

Another person that doesn’t see the positives of homework is AP Spanish teacher Christina Holmes.

“I try to keep homework to a minimum,” Holmes said. “I feel like homework should only continue something that has been worked on in class. I would never assign new material as homework. Homework, if given, is one of two things, an opportunity to complete an assignment that was worked on in class or an opportunity to use the language in a real life setting, such as watching a TV show in Spanish or talking to someone in Spanish,” Holmes said. 

While some students and teachers do not admire and agree with homework, other students and teachers do see the necessity of homework. AP Calculus teacher Adam Hosler is a proponent in favor of homework. 

“Homework is especially important for math as you have to practice the skills on your own to internalize it, to know what you’re doing,” Hosler said, “I think the amount of homework students should do is dependent on the student’s level, so AP kids would have more homework than kids in Algebra II, so I think there’s a feel on how much homework students should do. I base homework on quality over quantity: as long as you understand the topics, instead of how much homework you do. Students do need more practice based on their levels on certain topics though.”

According to Is Homework Beneficial? – Top 3 Pros and Cons , students who do homework for 30 to 90 minutes a day score 40 points higher on the SAT Math portion than students who do no homework a day. 

Additionally, in relation to standardized tests and grades, students who do homework perform better than 69% of students who do not have homework. 

Statistical research from the High School Journal on the impact of homework showed that 64% of students in one study and 72% of students in another study, improved academic achievement due to having homework.

Homework’s so-called purpose is to be beneficial to students, yet it appears to be the direct opposite, as homework usually causes negative effects for students. 

If teachers are to give students homework, it should be homework that is relevant to the real world. It should contain skills that are realistic to the skills you would use in real life. Homework should not be worksheets that are irrelevant to the world outside of their classes. 

Teachers should be more mindful of students’ lives outside of school as teachers often load students with immense amounts of homework that students are not capable of completing, which makes their lives even more difficult on top of other obligations outside of school. 

A change needs to be made on the homework policy. Homework should be relevant to the real world and not just monotonous daily worksheets that don’t seem to serve a purpose to the real world. 

Less amounts of homework need to be given to allow students to relax outside of school and enjoy their lives, instead of constantly being stressed due to their homework duties. 

• adam hosler
• Ari'el Abbott
• Christina Holmes
• hank perkins
• Matthew Gray

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• Find Your Calm: Managing Stress & Anxiety

Stress Symptoms

What Is Stress?

Stress is your body's response to a challenging or demanding situation. When you feel stressed, your body releases certain hormones. Your hormones are chemical signals your body uses to tell your body systems what to do. The hormones your body releases when you're stressed get you ready to meet the challenge or demand in your environment. During the stress response, your body gets ready to flee or fight by increasing your heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure.

Not all stress is bad. In small doses, stress can help you accomplish tasks or prevent you from getting hurt. For example, stress is what makes you slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a suddenly stopped car in front of you. That's a good thing.

But people handle stressful situations differently. What stresses you out may be of little concern to someone else. 

Stress can be a short-term response to something that happens once or only a few times or a long-term response to something that keeps happening. Our bodies can usually handle short-term stress without long-term effects. But long-term or chronic stress can make you sick, both mentally and physically.

The first step to managing your stress is to know the symptoms. But recognizing stress symptoms may be harder than you think. Many of us are so used to feeling stressed that we may not know it until we get sick. Read on to learn more about the various symptoms you may have when you're stressed.

Difference between stress and distress

Stress is a normal reaction to challenges in your physical environment or in your perceptions of what's happening around you. Experts consider distress to be stress that is severe, prolonged, or both. Distress is when you feel you’re under more stress than you can handle.

Emotional Stress Symptoms

Mental symptoms of emotional stress include:

• Feeling more emotional than usual, especially feeling grumpy, teary, or angry
• Feeling anxious, overwhelmed, nervous, or on edge
• Feeling sad or depressed
• Feeling restless
• Trouble keeping track of or remembering things
• Trouble getting your work done, solving problems, making decisions, or concentrating 

Physical Stress Symptoms

Symptoms of stress that you might feel in your body include:

• Clenching your jaw and grinding your teeth
• Shoulder, neck, or back pain; general body aches, pains, and tense muscles
• Chest pain, increased heart rate, heaviness in your chest
• Shortness of breath
• Feeling more tired than usual (fatigue)
• Sleeping more or less than usual
• Upset stomach , including diarrhea , constipation , and nausea
• Loss of sexual desire and/or ability
• Getting sick more easily, such as getting colds and infections often

Respiratory distress

This is when you aren't getting enough oxygen or are having to work really hard to breathe. If you or a loved one has symptoms of respiratory distress, you need to call 911 and get to the ER as soon as possible. Signs include:

• Breathing faster than usual
• Color changes of your skin, mouth, lips, or fingernails. A blue color around your mouth, lips, or fingernails usually shows you aren't getting enough oxygen. Your skin may also look pale or gray.
• Grunting when you breath out
• A whistling with each breath (wheezing)
• Nose flaring
• Chest sinking below your neck or under your breastbone with each breath (retractions)
• Increased sweating, especially cold, clammy skin on your forehead
• Leaning forward while sitting to help take deeper breaths

Cognitive Stress Symptoms

Symptoms of stress that affect your mental performance include:

• Trouble getting your work done, solving problems, making decisions, or concentrating
• Feeling less commitment to your work
• Lack of motivation
• Negative thinking

Behavioral Stress Symptoms

Symptoms of behavioral stress include:

• Changes in your eating habits; losing or gaining weight
• Procrastinating and avoiding responsibilities
• Using alcohol, tobacco, or drugs to feel better
• Avoiding your friends and family; isolating yourself from others
• Failing to meet your deadlines
• Increased absences at school or work
• Doing your work more slowly
• Exercising less often

Symptoms of Chronic Stress

Chronic stress is when you experience stress over an extended time. This can have negative effects on your body and your mental state, and it can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease, anxiety, and depression.

In general, the symptoms of chronic stress are the same as those for shorter-term stress. You may not have all these symptoms, but if you have more than three symptoms and they last for a few weeks, you may have chronic stress. Potential symptoms to look for include:

• Aches and pains
• Changes in your sleeping patterns, such as insomnia or sleepiness
• Changes in your social behavior, such as avoiding other people
• Changes in your emotional response to others
• Emotional withdrawal
• Low energy, fatigue
• Unfocused or cloudy thinking
• Changes in your appetite
• Increased alcohol or drug use
• Getting sick more often than usual

Is It Stress or Something Else?

You may be dealing with something more serious than day-to-day stress if you have symptoms over a period of time even though you've tried to cope using healthy mechanisms. Long-term stress is linked to number of mental health disorders, such as:

• Chronic stress
• Substance use disorder
• Disordered eating

It may be time to visit your doctor if you're struggling to cope with the stress in your life or you have mental health problems from long-term stress. They can help you figure out ways of coping in a healthy way or refer you to a mental health professional who can help you.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is mental health condition that you may have after you have or witness a traumatic event, such as a natural disaster, accident, or violence. PTSD overwhelms your ability to cope with new stress. PTSD can lead to symptoms such as intrusive memories, avoidance behaviors, and hyperarousal. 

These symptoms can cause significant problems in your work or relationships. T alk to your doctor or a mental health professional if you've had or witnessed a traumatic event and have disturbing thoughts and feelings about it for more than a month, if your thoughts and feelings are severe, or if you feel like you're having trouble getting your life back on track.

What Are the Consequences of Long-Term Stress?

Ongoing, chronic stress can trigger or worsen many serious health problems, including:

• Mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and personality disorders
• Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease , high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms, heart attacks, and strokes
• Obesity and other eating disorders
• Menstrual problems
• Sexual dysfunction, such as impotence and premature ejaculation in men and loss of sexual desire in men and women
• Skin and hair problems , such as acne, psoriasis, and eczema, and permanent hair loss
• Gastrointestinal problems, such as GERD, gastritis , ulcerative colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome

Help Is Available for Stress

Stress is a part of life. What matters most is how you handle it. The best thing you can do to prevent stress overload and the health consequences that come with it is to know your stress symptoms.

If you or a loved one is feeling overwhelmed by stress, talk to your doctor. Many symptoms of stress can also be signs of other health problems. Your doctor can evaluate your symptoms and rule out other conditions. If stress is to blame, your doctor can recommend a therapist or counselor to help you better handle your stress.

Stress Takeaways

Stress is your body's response to a challenging or demanding situation. It can affect you physically, mentally, and behaviorally, especially when you have chronic stress. Chronic stress is when you are stressed for an extended time. Chronic stress can make it more likely for you to develop other mental health disorders, such as anxiety or depression. It can also affect your heart health and digestive health. If you're stressed and having trouble coping, it may be time for you to see your doctor or a mental health professional.

Stress FAQs

What can extreme stress cause?

Extreme stress, especially if it's prolonged, can cause emotional distress. And stress from a traumatic event, which is usually extreme, can cause posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These are more serious cases of stress that overwhelm your ability to manage on your own. You may need to get a professional's help to get back on track. If you feel like you're having trouble managing your emotions, talk to your doctor. They can help you or direct you to someone who can help you.

Can stress make you throw up?

Yes, stress can make you throw up. Your digestive system is one of the many systems that stress can affect. In fact, you may have a whole range of other digestive symptoms, such as nausea, pain, and constipation or diarrhea. Not everyone has stress nausea or vomiting, but you may be more prone to it if you have a gastrointestinal condition, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), or you have anxiety or depression.

You may be able to tell if you're stress vomiting if your episode passes when the stress goes away. If it doesn't, then your episode may be caused by something else. It's time to get checked out by your doctor if you have more than a couple of episodes or you can't figure out what's causing them.

Show Sources

Chu, B. Physiology, Stress Reaction , StatPearls Publishing, 2024.

American Psychological Association: "Stress effects on the body."

MedlinePlus: "Stress."

Mayo Clinic: "Stress management," "Emotional exhaustion: When your feelings feel overwhelming," "Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)."

Cleveland Clinic: "Emotional Stress: Warning Signs, Management, When to Get Help," "Stress Nausea: Why It Happens and How To Deal. "

Johns Hopkins Medicine: "Signs of Respiratory Distress."

Helpguide.org: "Stress Symptoms, Signs, and Causes," "Understanding Stress."

Yale Medicine: "Chronic Stress."

Department of Health and Human Services: "Stress and Your Health."

American Institute of Stress: "Effects of Stress."

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Work stress, mental health, and employee performance

1 School of Business, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

Weixing Liu

2 Henan Research Platform Service Center, Zhengzhou, China

Associated Data

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak—as a typical emergency event—significantly has impacted employees' psychological status and thus has negatively affected their performance. Hence, along with focusing on the mechanisms and solutions to alleviate the impact of work stress on employee performance, we also examine the relationship between work stress, mental health, and employee performance. Furthermore, we analyzed the moderating role of servant leadership in the relationship between work stress and mental health, but the result was not significant. The results contribute to providing practical guidance for enterprises to improve employee performance in the context of major emergencies.

Introduction

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the key drivers of economic development as they contribute >50, 60, 70, 80, and 90% of tax revenue, GDP, technological innovation, labor employment, and the number of enterprises, respectively. However, owing to the disadvantages of small-scale and insufficient resources (Cai et al., 2017 ; Flynn, 2017 ), these enterprises are more vulnerable to being influenced by emergency events. The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak—as a typical emergency event—has negatively affected survival and growth of SMEs (Eggers, 2020 ). Some SMEs have faced a relatively higher risk of salary reduction, layoffs, or corporate bankruptcy (Adam and Alarifi, 2021 ). Consequently, it has made employees in the SMEs face the following stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic: First, employees' income, promotion, and career development opportunities have declined (Shimazu et al., 2020 ). Second, as most employees had to work from home, family conflicts have increased and family satisfaction has decreased (Green et al., 2020 ; Xu et al., 2020 ). Finally, as work tasks and positions have changed, the new work environment has made employees less engaged and less fulfilled at work (Olugbade and Karatepe, 2019 ; Chen and Fellenz, 2020 ).

For SMEs, employees are their core assets and are crucial to their survival and growth (Shan et al., 2022 ). Employee work stress may precipitate burnout (Choi et al., 2019 ; Barello et al., 2020 ), which manifests as fatigue and frustration (Mansour and Tremblay, 2018 ), and is associated with various negative reactions, including job dissatisfaction, low organizational commitment, and a high propensity to resign (Lu and Gursoy, 2016 ; Uchmanowicz et al., 2020 ). Ultimately, it negatively impacts employee performance (Prasad and Vaidya, 2020 ). The problem of employee work stress has become an important topic for researchers and practitioners alike. In this regard, it is timely to explore the impact of work stress on SME problems of survival and growth during emergency events like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although recent studies have demonstrated the relationship between work stress and employee performance, some insufficiencies persist, which must be resolved. Research on how work stress affects employee performance has remained fragmented and limited. First, the research into how work stress affects employee performance is still insufficient. Some researchers have explored the effects of work stress on employee performance during COVID-19 (Saleem et al., 2021 ; Tu et al., 2021 ). However, they have not explained the intermediate path, which limits our understanding of effects of work stress. As work stress causes psychological pain to employees, in response, they exhibit lower performance levels (Song et al., 2020 ; Yu et al., 2022 ). Thus, employees' mental health becomes an important path to explain the relationship mechanism between work stress and employee performance, which is revealed in this study using a stress–psychological state–performance framework. Second, resolving the mental health problems caused by work stress has become a key issue for SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the core of the enterprise (Ahn et al., 2018 ), the behavior of leaders significantly influences employees. Especially for SMEs, intensive interactive communication transpires between the leader and employees (Li et al., 2019 ; Tiedtke et al., 2020 ). Servant leadership, as a typical leader's behavior, is considered an important determinant of employee mental health (Haslam et al., 2020 ). Hence, to improve employees' mental health, we introduce servant leadership as a moderating variable and explore its contingency effect on relieving work stress and mental health.

This study predominantly tries to answer the question of how work stress influences employee performance and explores the mediating impact of mental health and the moderating impact of servant leadership in this relationship. Mainly, this study contributes to the existing literature in the following three ways: First, this research analyzes the influence of work stress on employee performance in SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic, which complements previous studies and theories related to work stress. Second, this study regards mental health as a psychological state and examines its mediating impact on the relationship between work stress and employee performance, which complements the research path on how work stress affects employee performance. Third, we explore the moderating impact of servant leadership, which has been ignored in previous research, thus extending the understanding of the relationship between the work stress and mental health of employees in SMEs.

To accomplish the aforementioned tasks, the remainder of this article is structured as follows: First, based on the literature review, we propose our hypotheses. Thereafter, we present our research method, including the processes of data collection, sample characteristics, measurement of variables, and sample validity. Subsequently, we provide the data analysis and report the results. Finally, we discuss the results and present the study limitations.

Theoretical background and hypotheses

Work stress and employee performance.

From a psychological perspective, work stress influences employees' psychological states, which, in turn, affects their effort levels at work (Lu, 1997 ; Richardson and Rothstein, 2008 ; Lai et al., 2022 ). Employee performance is the result of the individual's efforts at work (Robbins, 2005 ) and thus is significantly impacted by work stress. However, previous research has provided no consistent conclusion regarding the relationship between work stress and employee performance. One view is that a significant positive relationship exists between work stress and employee performance (Ismail et al., 2015 ; Soomro et al., 2019 ), suggesting that stress is a motivational force that encourages employees to work hard and improve work efficiency. Another view is that work stress negatively impacts employee performance (Yunus et al., 2018 ; Nawaz Kalyar et al., 2019 ; Purnomo et al., 2021 ), suggesting that employees need to spend time and energy to cope with stress, which increases their burden and decreases their work efficiency. A third view is that the impact of work stress on employee performance is non-linear and may exhibit an inverted U-shaped relationship (McClenahan et al., 2007 ; Hamidi and Eivazi, 2010 ); reportedly, when work stress is relatively low or high, employee performance is low. Hence, if work stress reaches a moderate level, employee performance will peak. However, this conclusion is derived from theoretical analyses and is not supported by empirical data. Finally, another view suggests that no relationship exists between them (Tănăsescu and Ramona-Diana, 2019 ). Indubitably, it presupposes that employees are rational beings (Lebesby and Benders, 2020 ). Per this view, work stress cannot motivate employees or influence their psychology and thus cannot impact their performance.

To further explain the aforementioned diverse views, positive psychology proposes that work stress includes two main categories: challenge stress and hindrance stress (Cavanaugh et al., 2000 ; LePine et al., 2005 ). Based on their views, challenge stress represents stress that positively affects employees' work attitudes and behaviors, which improves employee performance by increasing work responsibility; by contrast, hindrance stress negatively affects employees' work attitudes and behaviors, which reduces employee performance by increasing role ambiguity (Hon and Chan, 2013 ; Deng et al., 2019 ).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, SMEs have faced a relatively higher risk of salary reductions, layoffs, or corporate bankruptcy (Adam and Alarifi, 2021 ). Hence, the competition among enterprises has intensified; managers may transfer some stress to employees, who, in turn, need to bear this to maintain and seek current and future career prospects, respectively (Lai et al., 2015 ). In this context, employee work stress stems from increased survival problems of SMEs, and such an external shock precipitates greater stress among employees than ever before (Gao, 2021 ). Stress more frequently manifests as hindrance stress (LePine et al., 2004 ), which negatively affects employees' wellbeing and quality of life (Orfei et al., 2022 ). It imposes a burden on employees, who need to spend time and energy coping with the stress. From the perspective of stressors, SMEs have faced serious survival problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, and consequently, employees have faced greater hindrance stress, thereby decreasing their performance. Hence, we propose the following hypothesis:

• H1 . Work stress negatively influences employee performance in SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Work stress and mental health

According to the demand–control–support (DCS) model (Karasek and Theorell, 1990 ), high-stress work—such as high job demands, low job control, and low social support at work—may trigger health problems in employees over time (e.g., mental health problems; Chou et al., 2015 ; Park et al., 2016 ; Lu et al., 2020 ). The DCS model considers stress as an individual's response to perceiving high-intensity work (Houtman et al., 2007 ), which precipitates a change in the employee's cognitive, physical, mental, and emotional status. Of these, mental health problems including irritability, nervousness, aggressive behavior, inattention, sleep, and memory disturbances are a typical response to work stress (Mayerl et al., 2016 ; Neupane and Nygard, 2017 ). If the response persists for a considerable period, mental health problems such as anxiety or depression may occur (Bhui et al., 2012 ; Eskilsson et al., 2017 ). As coping with work stress requires an employee to exert continuous effort and apply relevant skills, it may be closely related to certain psychological problems (Poms et al., 2016 ; Harrison and Stephens, 2019 ).

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the normal operating order of enterprises as well as employees' work rhythm. Consequently, employees might have faced greater challenges during this period (Piccarozzi et al., 2021 ). In this context, work stress includes stress related to health and safety risk, impaired performance, work adjustment, and negative emotions, for instance, such work stress can lead to unhealthy mental problems. Hence, we propose the following hypothesis:

• H2 . Work stress negatively influences mental health in SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mediating role of mental health

Previous research has found that employees' mental health status significantly affects their performance (Bubonya et al., 2017 ; Cohen et al., 2019 ; Soeker et al., 2019 ), the main reasons of which are as follows: First, mental health problems reduce employees' focus on their work, which is potentially detrimental to their performance (Hennekam et al., 2020 ). Second, mental health problems may render employees unable to work (Heffernan and Pilkington, 2011 ), which indirectly reduces work efficiency owing to increased sick leaves (Levinson et al., 2010 ). Finally, in the stress context, employees need to exert additional effort to adapt to the environment, which, consequently, make them feel emotionally exhausted. Hence, as their demands remain unfulfilled, their work satisfaction and performance decrease (Khamisa et al., 2016 ).

Hence, we propose that work stress negatively impacts mental health, which, in turn, positively affects employee performance. In other words, we argue that mental health mediates the relationship between work stress and employee performance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, work stress—owing to changes in the external environment—might have caused nervous and anxious psychological states in employees (Tan et al., 2020 ). Consequently, it might have rendered employees unable to devote their full attention to their work, and hence, their work performance might have decreased. Meanwhile, due to the pandemic, employees have faced the challenges of unclear job prospects and reduced income. Therefore, mental health problems manifest as moods characterized by depression and worry (Karatepe et al., 2020 ). Negative emotions negatively impact employee performance. Per the aforementioned arguments and hypothesis 2, we propose the following hypothesis:

• H3 . Mental health mediates the relationship between work stress and employee performance in SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moderating role of servant leadership

According to the upper echelons theory, leaders significantly influence organizational activities, and their leadership behavior influences the thinking and understanding of tasks among employees in enterprises (Hambrick and Mason, 1984 ). Servant leadership is a typical leadership behavior that refers to leaders exhibiting humility, lending power to employees, raising the moral level of subordinates, and placing the interests of employees above their own (Sendjaya, 2015 ; Eva et al., 2019 ). This leadership behavior provides emotional support to employees and increase their personal confidence and self-esteem and thus reduce negative effects of work stress. In our study, we propose that servant leadership reduces the negative effects of work stress on mental health in SMEs.

Servant leadership can reduce negative effects of work stress on mental health in the following ways: Servant leaders exhibit empathy and compassion (Lu et al., 2019 ), which help alleviate employees' emotional pain caused by work stress. Song et al. ( 2020 ) highlighted that work stress can cause psychological pain among employees. However, servant leaders are willing to listen to their employees and become acquainted with them, which facilitates communication between the leader and the employee (Spears, 2010 ). Hence, servant leadership may reduce employees' psychological pain through effective communication. Finally, servant leaders lend employees power, which makes the employees feel trusted. Employees—owing to their trust in the leaders—trust the enterprises as well, which reduces the insecurity caused by work stress (Phong et al., 2018 ). In conclusion, servant leadership serves as a coping resource that reduces the impact of losing social support and thus curbs negative employee emotions (Ahmed et al., 2021 ). Based on the aforementioned analysis, we find that servant leaders can reduce the mental health problems caused by work stress. Hence, we propose the following hypothesis:

• H4 . Servant leadership reduces the negative relationship between work stress and mental health in SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methodology

Data collection and samples.

To assess our theoretical hypotheses, we collected data by administering a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was administered anonymously, and the respondents were informed regarding the purpose of the study. Owing to the impact of the pandemic, we distributed and collected the questionnaires by email. Specifically, we utilized the network relationships of our research group with the corporate campus and group members to distribute the questionnaires. In addition, to ensure the quality of the questionnaires, typically senior employees who had worked for at least 2 years at their enterprises were chosen as the respondents.

Before the formal survey, we conducted a pilot test. Thereafter, we revised the questionnaire based on the results of the trial investigation. Subsequently, we randomly administered the questionnaires to the target enterprises. Hence, 450 questionnaires were administered via email, and 196 valid questionnaires were returned—an effective rate of 43.6%. Table 1 presents the profiles of the samples.

Profiles of the samples.

Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of the sample. Based on the firm size, respondents who worked in a company with 1–20 employees accounted for 9.2%, those in a company with 21–50 employees accounted for 40.8%, those in a company with 51–200 employees accounted for 38.8%, and those in a company with 201–500 employees accounted for 11.2%. Regarding industry, the majority of the respondents (63.8%) worked for non-high-technology industry and 36.2% of the respondents worked for high-technology industry. Regarding work age, the participants with a work experience of 3 years or less accounted for 32.1%, those with work experience of 3–10 years accounted for 32.7%, and those with a work experience of more than 10 years accounted for 35.2%.

Core variables in this study include English-version measures that have been well tested in prior studies; some modifications were implemented during the translation process. As the objective of our study is SMEs in China, we translated the English version to Chinese; this translation was carried out by two professionals to ensure accuracy. Thereafter, we administered the questionnaires to the respondents. Hence, as the measures of our variables were revised based on the trial investigation, we asked two professionals to translate the Chinese version of the responses to English to enable publishing this work in English. We evaluated all the items pertaining to the main variables using a seven-point Likert scale (7 = very high/strongly agree, 1 = very low/strongly disagree). The variable measures are presented subsequently.

Work stress (WS)

Following the studies of Parker and DeCotiis ( 1983 ) and Shah et al. ( 2021 ), we used 12 items to measure work stress, such as “I get irritated or nervous because of work” and “Work takes a lot of my energy, but the reward is less than the effort.”

Mental health (MH)

The GHQ-12 is a widely used tool developed to assess the mental health status (Liu et al., 2022 ). However, we revised the questionnaire by combining the research needs and results of the pilot test. We used seven items to measure mental health, such as “I feel that I am unable (or completely unable) to overcome difficulties in my work or life.” In the final calculation, the scoring questions for mental health were converted; higher scores indicated higher levels of mental health.

Servant leadership (SL)

Following the studies by Ehrhart ( 2004 ) and Sendjaya et al. ( 2019 ), we used nine items to measure servant leadership, including “My leader makes time to build good relationships with employees” and “My leader is willing to listen to subordinates during decision-making.”

Employee performance (EP)

We draw on the measurement method provided by Chen et al. ( 2002 ) and Khorakian and Sharifirad ( 2019 ); we used four items to represent employee performance. An example item is as follows: “I can make a contribution to the overall performance of our enterprise.”

Control variables

We controlled several variables that may influence employee performance, including firm size, industry, and work age. Firm size was measured by the number of employees. For industry, we coded them into two dummy variables (high-technology industry = 1, non-high-technology industry = 0). We calculated work experience by the number of years the employee has worked for the enterprise.

Common method bias

Common method bias may exist because each questionnaire was completed independently by each respondent (Cai et al., 2017 ). We conducted a Harman one-factor test to examine whether common method bias significantly affected our data (Podsakoff and Organ, 1986 ); the results revealed that the largest factor in our data accounted for only 36.219% of the entire variance. Hence, common method bias did not significantly affect on our study findings.

Reliability and validity

We analyzed the reliability and validity of our data for further data processing, the results of which are presented in Table 2 . Based on these results, we found that Cronbach's alpha coefficient of each variable was >0.8, thus meeting the requirements for reliability of the variables. To assess the validity of each construct, we conducted four separate confirmatory factor analyses. All the factor loadings exceeded 0.5. Overall, the reliability and validity results met the requirements for further data processing.

Results of confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha coefficients.

To verify our hypotheses, we used a hierarchical linear regression method. Before conducting the regression analysis, we performed a Pearson correlation analysis, the results of which are presented in Table 3 .

Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis.

* p < 0.05,

** p < 0.01,

*** p < 0.001.

In the regression analysis, we calculated the variance inflation factor (VIF) of each variable and found that the VIF value of each variable was <3. Hence, the effect of multiple co-linearity is not significant. The results of regression analysis are presented in Tables 4 , ​ ,5 5 .

Results of linear regression analysis (models 1–6).

Results of linear regression analysis (models 7–9).

Table 4 shows that model 1 is the basic model assessing the effects of control variables on employee performance. In model 2, we added an independent variable (work stress) to examine its effect on employee performance. The results revealed that work stress negatively affects employee performance (β = −0.193, p < 0.01). Therefore, hypothesis 1 is supported. Model 5 is the basic model that examines the effects of control variables on mental health. In model 6, we added an independent variable (work stress) to assess its effect on mental health. We found that work stress negatively affects mental health (β = −0.517, p < 0.001). Therefore, hypothesis 2 is supported.

To verify the mediating effect of mental health on the relationship between work stress and employee performance, we used the method introduced by Kenny et al. ( 1998 ), which is described as follows: (1) The independent variable is significantly related to the dependent variable. (2) The independent variable is significantly related to the mediating variable. (3) The mediating variable is significantly related to the dependent variable after controlling for the independent variable. (4) If the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable becomes smaller, it indicates a partial mediating effect. (5) If the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable is no longer significant, it indicates a full mediating effect. Based on this method, in model 4, mental health is significantly positively related to employee performance (β = 0.343, p < 0.001), and no significant correlation exists between work stress and employee performance (β = −0.016, p > 0.05). Hence, mental health fully mediates the relationship between work stress and employee performance. Therefore, hypothesis 3 is supported.

To verify the moderating effect of servant leadership on the relationship between work stress and mental health, we gradually added independent variables, a moderator variable, and interaction between the independent variables and moderator variable to the analysis, the results of which are presented in Table 5 . In model 9, the moderating effect of servant leadership is not supported (β = 0.030, p > 0.05). Therefore, hypothesis 4 is not supported.

For SMEs, employees are core assets and crucial to their survival and growth (Shan et al., 2022 ). Specifically, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, employees' work stress may precipitate burnout (Choi et al., 2019 ; Barello et al., 2020 ), which influences their performance. Researchers and practitioners have significantly focused on resolving the challenge of work stress (Karatepe et al., 2020 ; Tan et al., 2020 ; Gao, 2021 ). However, previous research has not clearly elucidated the relationship among work stress, mental health, servant leadership, and employee performance. Through this study, we found the following results:

Employees in SMEs face work stress owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, which reduces their performance. Facing these external shocks, survival and growth of SMEs may become increasingly uncertain (Adam and Alarifi, 2021 ). Employees' career prospects are negatively impacted. Meanwhile, the pandemic has precipitated a change in the way employees work, their workspace, and work timings. Moreover, their work is now intertwined with family life. Hence, employees experience greater stress at work than ever before (Gao, 2021 ), which, in turn, affects their productivity and deteriorates their performance.

Furthermore, we found that mental health plays a mediating role in the relationship between work stress and employee performance; this suggests that employees' mental status is influenced by work stress, which, in turn, lowers job performance. Per our findings, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, employees experience nervous and anxious psychological states (Tan et al., 2020 ), which renders them unable to devote their full attention to their work; hence, their work performance is likely to decrease.

Finally, we found that leaders are the core of any enterprise (Ahn et al., 2018 ). Hence, their leadership behavior significantly influences employees. Per previous research, servant leadership is considered a typical leadership behavior characterized by exhibiting humility, delegating power to employees, raising the morale of subordinates, and placing the interests of employees above their own (Sendjaya, 2015 ; Eva et al., 2019 ). Through theoretical analysis, we found that servant leadership mitigates the negative effect of work stress on mental health. However, the empirical results are not significant possibly because work stress of employees in SMEs is rooted in worries regarding the future of the macroeconomic environment, and the resulting mental health problems cannot be cured merely by a leader.

Hence, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, employees experience work stress, which precipitates mental health problems and poor employee performance. To solve the problem of work stress, SMEs should pay more attention to fostering servant leadership. Meanwhile, organizational culture is also important in alleviating employees' mental health problems and thus reducing negative effects of work stress on employee performance.

Implications

This study findings have several theoretical and managerial implications.

Theoretical implications

First, per previous research, no consistent conclusion exists regarding the relationship between work stress and employee performance, including positive relationships (Ismail et al., 2015 ; Soomro et al., 2019 ), negative relationships (Yunus et al., 2018 ; Nawaz Kalyar et al., 2019 ; Purnomo et al., 2021 ), inverted U-shaped relationships (McClenahan et al., 2007 ; Hamidi and Eivazi, 2010 ), and no relationship (Tănăsescu and Ramona-Diana, 2019 ). We report that work stress negatively affects employee performance in SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic; thus, this study contributes to the understanding of the situational nature of work stress and provides enriching insights pertaining to positive psychology.

Second, we established the research path that work stress affects employee performance. Mental health is a psychological state that may influence an individual's work efficiency. In this study, we explored its mediating role, which opens the black box of the relationship between work stress and employee performance; thus, this study contributes to a greater understanding of the role of work stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finally, this study sheds light on the moderating effect of servant leadership, which is useful for understanding why some SMEs exhibit greater difficulty in achieving success than others during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous research has explained the negative effect of work stress (Yunus et al., 2018 ; Nawaz Kalyar et al., 2019 ; Purnomo et al., 2021 ). However, few studies have focused on how to resolve the problem. We identify servant leadership as the moderating factor providing theoretical support for solving the problem of work stress. This study expands the explanatory scope of the upper echelons theory.

Practice implications

First, this study elucidates the sources and mechanisms of work stress in SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees should continuously acquire new skills to improve themselves and thus reduce their replaceability. Meanwhile, they should enhance their time management and emotional regulation skills to prevent the emergence of adverse psychological problems.

Second, leaders in SMEs should pay more attention to employees' mental health to prevent the emergence of hindrance stress. Employees are primarily exposed to stress from health and safety risks, impaired performance, and negative emotions. Hence, leaders should communicate with employees in a timely manner to understand their true needs, which can help avoid mental health problems due to work stress among employees.

Third, policymakers should realize that a key cause of employee work stress in SMEs is attributable to concerns regarding the macroeconomic environment. Hence, they should formulate reasonable support policies to improve the confidence of the whole society in SMEs, which helps mitigate SME employees' work stress during emergency events like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finally, as work stress causes mental health problems, SME owners should focus on their employees' physical as well as mental health. Society should establish a psychological construction platform for SME employees to help them address their psychological problems.

Limitations and future research

This study has limitations, which should be addressed by further research. First, differences exist in the impact of the pandemic on different industries. Future research should focus on the impact of work stress on employee performance in different industries. Second, this study only explored the moderating role of servant leadership. Other leadership behaviors of leaders may also affect work stress. Future research can use case study methods to explore the role of other leadership behaviors.

This study explored the relationship between work stress and employee performance in SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a sample of 196 SMEs from China, we found that as a typical result of emergency events, work stress negatively affects employees' performance, particularly by affecting employees' mental health. Furthermore, we found that servant leadership provides a friendly internal environment to mitigate negative effects of work stress on employees working in SMEs.

Data availability statement

Ethics statement.

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent from the patients/participants or patients/participants legal guardian/next of kin was not required to participate in this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.

Author contributions

BC: conceptualization, methodology, writing—original draft, and visualization. LW: formal analysis. BL: investigation, funding acquisition, and writing—review and editing. WL: resources, project administration, and supervision. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This research was supported by the major project of Henan Province Key R&D and Promotion Special Project (Soft Science) Current Situation, Realization Path and Guarantee Measures for Digital Transformation Development of SMEs in Henan Province under the New Development Pattern (Grant No. 222400410159).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Does Homework Cause Unnecessary Stress

A 2013 study conducted at Stanford University found that students in top-performing school districts who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance in their lives and alienation from society.

The researchers found that excessive homework means students are not able to meet their developmental needs or cultivate other critical life …

Research shows that some students regularly receive higher amounts of homework than experts recommend, which may cause stress and negative …

Does homework really cause stress?

Their study found that too much homework is associated with: Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category.

Does homework cause more stress than good?

“The findings were troubling: Research showed that excessive homework is associated with high stress levels, physical health problems and lack of balance in children’s lives; 56% of the students in the study cited homework as a primary stressor in their lives,” according to the CNN story.

Can homework give you anxiety?

Homework can often feel like an overwhelming, never-ending pile of stress. Homework stress can cause frustration and anxiety and ultimately prevent you from achieving your best results. However, this feeling of not being in control can be avoided by simply adjusting your study habits.

Does homework cause stress anxiety and depression?

Galloway’s study indicated that students who spent more than 3 hours on homework per night, experienced greater behavioral engagement in school but also more academic stress, physical health problems and lack of balance in their lives. The study described homework as a stressor causing anxiety in students’ lives.

Does homework give kids depression?

Homework has been seen both beneficial and detrimental in association with time. Homework over a certain time limit can cause stress, depression, anxiety, lack of sleep, and more.

Does homework hurt mental health?

How many students get depression from homework.

On our own Student Life in America survey, over 50% of students reported feeling stressed, 25% reported that homework was their biggest source of stress, and on average teens are spending one-third of their study time feeling stressed, anxious, or stuck.

Is it normal to cry from homework?

Sometimes, homework upsets our children. Executive function deficits, learning disabilities, or difficult subjects can make children cry or lash out during homework time.

More Answers On Does Homework Cause Unnecessary Stress

The truth about homework stress: what you need to know.

It just adds unnecessary stress. Effects of homework stress at home Both parents and students tend to get stressed out at the beginning of a new school year due to the impending arrival of homework. Nightly battles centered on finishing assignments are a household routine in houses with students.

Why Homework is Bad: Stress and Consequences – Healthline

Research shows that some students regularly receive higher amounts of homework than experts recommend, which may cause stress and negative health effects. Research suggests that when students are…

How Does Homework Cause Stress? | PerfectEssay

Apr 13, 2021If the student’s time is consumed only in completing homework tasks, it causes unnecessary stress as the student cannot play his/her favourite game or spend time with family. Poor Sleep and Dietary Habits Sleep deprivation is a serious problem that has far-reaching effects.

A teacher says homework causes unnecessary stress. – Mamamia

Nov 9, 2020A teacher says homework causes unnecessary stress. school Teacher opinion: ’It’s time to acknowledge that homework is a waste of time.’ Homework. The mere mention of the word petrifies and infuriates the ears and minds of today’s youth.

How Too Much Homework Causes Too Much Stress

Dec 16, 2021The struggle to find a balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time is insane. As a result, this stress creates unnecessary anxiety and contrary to popular belief, worsens academic performance. Thus it can be assumed that homework is the number one cause of stress for the majority of high school students.

Homework: Unnecessary stress or useful learning tool? – The iNews Network

If a student receives too much homework, they can become overly stressed. With too little homework, students’ learning becomes stagnant and test scores drop. The mastery system can help students who don’t take advantage of it – as long as you study, you should do fine on a test.

Is homework an unnecessary burden? | IB Community Blog

For PYP-aged students, even 30 minutes of homework a night, if combined with other sources of academic stress, can have a negative impact on mental health. Researchers in China have linked homework of two or more hours per night with sleep disruption. A top school in the UK is in the midst of a five-year review of homework.

Stanford research shows pitfalls of homework

Stanford research shows pitfalls of homework A Stanford researcher found that students in high-achieving communities who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance and even alienation from society. More than two hours of homework a night may be counterproductive, according to the study.

Homework Pros and Cons | Advantages of Homework

Oct 26, 2021Causes unnecessary stress Students can feel anxious, stressed, and unmotivated just by uttering the word “homework.” Likewise, if students are overburdened with work and tasks become increasingly challenging, this can cause anxiety, stress, and unmotivated among them.

Homework Causes Unnecessary Stress

You can quickly get better grades if you learn to avoid homework stress For some people homework is a very important aspect of learning, whereas some others think that homework is unnecessary stress that a child does not need.6 Reasons Why Students Need Homework.

Reasons why homework is not necessary – Tutlance

Aug 30, 2021Homework is often redundant and unnecessary. This leads into the second reason why homework is bad: it causes too much stress for children.

Does homework cause unnecessary stress : Baltimore School of The Bible

It does homework they can even more unnecessary stress. Stressors, arguments at school causes unnecessary. Meditation techniques for many stressful for the parents and simplify their lack so does homework can cause anxiety relief, in charge.

Homework: An Unnecessary Evil? | Psychology Today

Third, when homework is related to test scores, the connection tends to be strongest — or, actually, least tenuous — with math. If homework turns out to be unnecessary for students to succeed in…

Does Homework Cause Unnecessary Stress – kenoxis.net

These universities are prime locations to start integrating diplomacy skills and leadership into global health curricula does homework cause unnecessary stress in a manner that reflects the necessary shared competencies Brown et al. By looking through the glass of time and comparing the past to the present we come to the realization of the universality and endurance of some concepts and the …

12 Pros and Cons of Homework

A sedentary lifestyle can be dangerous and can cause health problems such as obesity. 2. Causes Unnecessary Stress. With a large workload and difficult tasks, homework causes students to feel anxious and stressed. Unnecessary stress causes demotivation. In some cases, homework may even be assigned over term breaks or the summer holidays.

Is homework a necessary evil? – American Psychological Association

In fact, too much homework can do more harm than good. Researchers have cited drawbacks, including boredom and burnout toward academic material, less time for family and extracurricular activities, lack of sleep and increased stress.

Too much homework leading to stressed out families – health enews

For many families, the nightly struggle to get homework done while juggling family commitments and extra-curricular activities leaves kids and parents stressed out, causing many to wonder if all this homework is actually necessary.. A study published in the American Journal of Family Therapy concluded that kids are getting too much homework. The study surveyed 1,173 parents who had children in …

Why Homework is Bad for Students? 3 Reasons and 5 Facts!

So does homework cause stress or not? Too many tasks may also lead to slowing up the learning speed, which influences active participation in school or college academic life. Active learning contributes to analysis and processing of information and lack of it may influence every sphere of students’ life. Common facts about homework claim that lack of active learning skills always leads to …

Negative Effects of Homework May Surprise You – CreditDonkey

Dec 27, 2020Too much homework can cause students to experience stress, anxiety, depression, physical ailments, and even cause lower test scores. How much homework is too much? The National PTA and the National Education Association agree that homework that takes longer than 10 minutes per grade period is excessive.

Essays Page 7 Does homework cause unnecessary stress Free Essays …

Homework causes kids to get very stressed out’ it causes stress in their families’ and studies show that it doesn’t improve test scores. It actually shows the opposite: Duke University’s Harris Cooper found out that’ “doing more than 60 to 90 min. a night in middle school and more than 2hr. in high school is

Does Homework Cause Stress in Children? – OutofStress.com

According to research conducted by Education scholar, Denise Pope, excessive homework is definitely associated with increase in stress levels. In addition, Pope found that excessive homework creates a lack of balance in children’s lives and can cause various health problems like headaches, ulcers, sleep deprivation and weight loss to name a few.

Infographic: How Does Homework Actually Affect Students?

Homework can affect both students’ physical and mental health. According to a study by Stanford University, 56 per cent of students considered homework a primary source of stress. Too much homework can result in lack of sleep, headaches, exhaustion and weight loss. Excessive homework can also result in poor eating habits, with families …

Study Finds Homework Is the Biggest Cause of Teen Stress – PEOPLE.com

The stress and excessive homework adds up to lost sleep, the BSC says. According to the survey, 57 percent of teenagers said that they don’t get enough sleep, with 67 reporting that they get just…

Essays Page 17 Does homework cause unnecessary stress Free Essays …

“Does homework cause unnecessary stress” Essays and Research Papers Page 17 of 50 – About 500 Essays Stress. is the nature of this problem? Stress is always a complex issue but will be even more complex if it is left unattended (Wan Hussin’ 2007). According to Redhwan’ et al (2009)’ stress is defined as a condition of …

How does homework cause stress? – Quora

Answer (1 of 11): I will present you with this and allow you to draw your own conclusions: An English teacher may expect their students to do 2 hours of homework a night. Awesome. A biology teacher may want 2 hours a night, a math teacher might want 2. We’ll throw in a chemistry teacher who want…

Health Hazards of Homework – Stanford Children’s Health Blog

March 18, 2014 | Julie Greicius. Pediatrics. A new study by the Stanford Graduate School of Education and colleagues found that students in high-performing schools who did excessive hours of homework “experienced greater behavioral engagement in school but also more academic stress, physical health problems, and lack of balance in their lives

Is Excessive Homework the Cause of Many Teen Issues?

Homework over a certain time limit can cause stress, depression, anxiety, lack of sleep, and more. Homework distracts from extracurriculars and sports as well, something colleges often look for. Homework is ultimately leading students to resent school as a whole. According to a study done by Stanford University, 56 percent of students …

Why does doing homework give me anxiety? – AskingLot.com

Homework can often feel like an overwhelming, never-ending pile of stress. Homework stress can cause frustration and anxiety and ultimately prevent you from achieving your best results. However, this feeling of not being in control can be avoided by simply adjusting your study habits. Subsequently, question is, how much does homework increase …

When Homework Causes Stress – Gateway High School

The student’s short answer survey results showed that a heavy homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. Balancing schoolwork and a healthy lifestyle can be tricky, especially if the student is also working part-time. Spending too much time on homework can lead to not meeting other physical and social needs, like …

As a result, this stress creates unnecessary anxiety and contrary to popular belief, worsens academic performance. Thus it can be assumed that homework is the number one cause of stress for the majority of high school students. Although a little bit of stress can motivate children to achieve their goals, it can be seen from above that too much …

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The Silent Rhythm of Workplace Stress

New study reveals link between white-collar work and atrial fibrillation..

Updated August 19, 2024 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

• What Is Stress?
• Take our Burnout Test
• Find a therapist to overcome stress
• A new 18-year study links job strain and effort-reward imbalance to the risk of atrial fibrillation (AFib).
• Workers experiencing high job strain had an 83% higher risk of developing AFib.
• Creating healthier work environments could potentially reduce AFib risk among employees.

Your heart races unexpectedly, pounding against your chest. You feel a flutter, an irregularity in its beat. Shortness of breath follows, accompanied by weakness and fatigue. These aren't just symptoms of a stressful day at the office—they could be signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib), a heart condition that new research suggests may be linked to the very nature of our work lives.

Consider Jay King, an engineer at Abbott with over 16 years of experience in high-stakes roles. From vascular production to leading special projects in rapid diagnostics, Jay's career mirrors that of many professionals navigating today's demanding corporate landscape. In 2020, he even played a crucial role in Abbott's COVID-19 testing ramp-up. Yet, despite his active lifestyle, a routine physical revealed an unexpected diagnosis: Jay was in AFib.

New Research Unveils Workplace-AFib Connection

A recent 18-year prospective study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association sheds light on why professionals like Jay might be at risk. The research, led by Canadian researchers and published last week in the Journal of the American Heart Association , examined the relationship between psychosocial stressors at work and AFib incidence among nearly 6,000 white-collar workers.

The findings are striking:

• Workers exposed to high job strain (high demands combined with low control) had an 83% increased risk of developing AFib.
• Those experiencing an effort-reward imbalance at work (high effort with low recognition or compensation) faced a 44% higher risk.
• Individuals exposed to both these stressors had nearly double the risk of AFib compared to their less-stressed counterparts.

But what exactly is AFib? It's the most common form of heart arrhythmia, affecting about 1 in 4 middle-aged adults in their lifetime. During AFib, the heart's upper chambers beat chaotically and irregularly, out of coordination with the lower chambers. This can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure, and other heart-related complications.

The study's findings illuminate how our modern work environments might be contributing to this health risk. Long hours, high-pressure deadlines, constant connectivity, and the blurring of work-life boundaries are all hallmarks of many white-collar jobs. These factors can create a perfect storm of chronic stress, potentially setting the stage for heart issues like AFib.

Detoxing Management: A Heart-Healthy Approach

This research underscores the critical need for what I call "detoxing management." It's not just about productivity anymore; it's about creating work environments that don't jeopardize our health. Managers and organizational leaders have a crucial role to play in mitigating these risks.

While the link between workplace stress and AFib risk is concerning, there are proactive steps both managers and employees can take to create healthier work environments. My own heart attack last year sparked a deep curiosity about the relationship between work and heart health. This personal experience, combined with my work on detoxing management, led me to develop the RISE Framework for Healthy Leadership , which offers guidance that can be particularly relevant in light of this new research:

• Relate : Managers should get to know their team members as individuals. Understanding each person's strengths and how they best contribute can reduce stress and increase job satisfaction.
• Inspire : Foster a sense of purpose in your team's work. When employees believe in the meaning of their efforts, it can make hard work feel rewarding rather than draining.
• Simplify : Clear expectations and focused priorities can significantly reduce workplace stress. Conflicting demands are often more stressful than hard work itself.
• Empower : Give employees a sense of control over their work. This agency can act as a buffer against the negative effects of job strain.

By implementing these principles, leaders can create work environments that are not only more productive but also potentially healthier for employees' hearts.

The implications of this research extend far beyond the individual. They challenge us to reconsider our work cultures and management practices. As we strive for success in our careers, we must also prioritize creating environments that support our health and well-being.

Awareness is the first step. By recognizing the potential health impacts of workplace stress, we can begin to make informed choices—both as individuals managing our own careers and as leaders shaping our organizations. The rhythm of our work lives shouldn't come at the cost of our heart's rhythm. It's time to listen closely to what our bodies are telling us about our work, and to create workplaces that truly work for our health.

Abbott. (2022, September 15). He Was in AFib. He Didn't Know It. Would You? Retrieved from https://www.abbott.com/corpnewsroom/healthy-heart/he-was-in-AFib-he-didnt-know-It-would-you.html

E., Lavigne-Robichaud, M., Milot, A., Brisson, C., Gilbert-Ouimet, M., Vézina, M., ... & Trudel, X. (2024). Psychosocial Stressors at Work and Atrial Fibrillation Incidence: An 18-Year Prospective Study. Journal of the American Heart Association, 13(2), e032414. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/JAHA.123.032414

Jake Breeden is a leadership expert who partners with companies to unlock high performance through workshops on influence, trust, psychological safety, team performance, innovation, and challenging the status quo.

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