High school students have a lot of responsibilities and expectations. They always have, but, nowadays, the amount of time students have to devote to homework has increased. This is why we’re talking about the question, “does homework cause depression?”
This leaves students with less time for hanging out with friends, managing physical symptoms of stress, and understanding that better grades don’t equal better life.
And, yet, students still have to deal with too much homework that makes it impossible for them to take care of their mental health. Here are 10 reasons why homework is associated with depression.
This blog is all about answering the question “Does homework cause depression?”
HOMEWORK AND DEPRESSION:
1. The benefits of homework don’t always outweigh the stress it causes
At the end of the day, homework is all about cementing the learning the students have done in class. However, a lot of students complete busy work that does not promote the active learning they need for a class to help them in the future.
Instead, homework assignments, especially for high school students, are now designed to give students heavy workloads instead of providing only the amount necessary to process the information they’re learning in class.
2. Students deal with the added stress of college applications
By their junior year, high schoolers have to start applying to college. They have to handle both excessive homework that may or may not help their learning and individual essays for every college.
They have to do this while cultivating relationships with encouraging teachers for future letters of recommendation.
Therefore, they have to dedicate time to excessive amounts of homework while having enough time to plan out which universities they want to apply to, complete applications, and write multiple essays.
3. Students don’t always rely on their support systems
As much as parents want students to turn to them for support, lots of students are individuating and becoming independent from their family members.
They take on rigorous courses that require high academic performance without communicating with their families about the lack of sleep and excessive stress. Students may theoretically have enough time to complete assignments.
But, they struggle with a lack of balance because they’re taking on extra stress at the same time they’re learning critical life skills. Oftentimes, high schoolers don’t ask for help because they don’t want to admit they can’t do it all.
4. Stress makes it difficult to avoid poor eating habits
High school students often think that they can maintain unhealthy habits, like limiting their hours of sleep and eating unsatisfying foods, long enough to get into a good college.
Once they graduate from high school, they think that they will be college students with a new and improved homework routine and a better quality of life.
However, high schoolers don’t realize the negative impact that unsatisfying, non-nutritious foods have on their mental health when they rely on poor eating habits during times of stress.
5. Students might turn to substance abuse to handle stress
When we think of high school students abusing substances, we probably think of alcohol. What we don’t think about is caffeine or energy drinks.
While high schoolers certainly drink underage, the far more dangerous substances are the ones they’re allowed to consume before their bodies are developed.
High schoolers can consume caffeine to pull-nighters before a test or during the day when they need to stay awake during classes. This substance abuse leads to sleep deprivation and sporadic sleep schedules that disrupt their learning process and brain development.
6. Students don’t prioritize their emotional health
People value mental health more now than ever before. We’re talking about it more and sharing our experiences despite the stigma that still exists around mental health. So, we expose students to resources and tools that can help them fight anxiety and depression.
But, they don’t take them seriously because we’re also telling them that they have to get into a four-year university, pick the major that will determine their future career, and, if they fail at any of this, their future is doomed.
In other words, we give them the tools and resources, but we haven’t given them the infrastructure to take it seriously. They don’t have the safety to take care of themselves because they have so many assignments, expectations, and future problems to manage.
7. It’s easy to spend lots of time on social media
As obvious as it is, social media must be addressed when we talk about students and the hours of homework they have to complete.
Regardless of how much we encourage and motivate students to complete their homework assignments, we still can’t change the effect of social media on their lives.
Students who want good grades will most likely find a way to do that, even if they lose hours of sleep from going through social media. Social media is complicated, but it harms young people and we have to state that.
It distracts students, gives them a false sense of reality they can’t live up to, and provides them with a distraction from the stress and pain they’re feeling.
8. Students have to participate in extracurricular activities
Society has way too many expectations on young people for young people to be able to meet all of them and avoid mental illness. Extracurricular activities are no different.
Whether a student signs up for band, volunteering outside of school, or sports, that’s one more commitment they make. Sometimes, students do these activities because they choose to, but, far more often, they make these commitments because they are pleasing someone else.
That someone else might be college admissions or parents, but it usually isn’t them. Unfortunately, that means they don’t have as much time for the amount of homework they need to finish.
9. Students need flexibility in their schedule to have a social life
On top of thinking ahead to college applications and staying ahead of homework assignments, students need time to hang out with friends.
Most students will find a way to spend time with friends and complete large amounts of homework, but they won’t do so without serious mental health problems.
The problem with high school students is not that they will avoid people or become depressed because they don’t see their friends. Unfortunately, they instead experience burnout and lose sleep to do everything they want to do.
10. Students don’t learn about time management
Before their brains are fully developed, high schoolers are already attempting to function like adults. They try to form good study habits, complete a lot of homework, and spend time with friends and family. High school students do all of this with a lack of balance.
Whatever is not crucial to their existence is not a part of their life. When young adults have too many responsibilities and needs to meet, they choose the ones they think are most important and let the rest of them deteriorate.
For example, a student is much more likely to ignore their physical health problems and mental health issues if their grades are good and they get to spend time with friends.