Mental Health Survey

After writing an article about our students’ mental health I created an anonymous survey for students to take to create a follow-up article. After receiving the answers from 33 students from Pottsgrove High School I have gathered all the information and concluded that school definitely affects students’ mental health here at Pottsgrove High School.

After asking the question “Do you struggle with poor mental health?” 72.7 percent of students answered yes and the other 27.3 percent answered no or they have in the past. Out of 33 respondents 26 said that school affects their mental health, 6 said sometimes and 1 said no. Just with those two questions we can tell that school definitely has a large impact on students’ mental health. I asked a few other questions relating to how much homework students have, what their stress level throughout the week, and how much sleep students get per school night. I asked students what their stress level was throughout the week from 1 to 10, 10 being extremely stressful and 1 being little to no stress. 28 out of 33 students had a higher than 7 stress level through the week. A little over 53 percent of those who have a stress level of 7 or higher also have homework from 3 to all of their classes per week and over 57 percent of those who get less than 8 hours of sleep per night also have homework from over three classes.

This shows that students who tend to have more homework and less sleep also tend to be more stressed during the school week. Looking at this data concludes that the more homework teachers give and the more students are being pushed to do more work causes more stress. If you are struggling with these topics, talk to your guidance counselor or a therapist to better manage stress during school.