Exam stress in Children: Helping your child to cope with exam stress

Exam stress in children: Helping your child cope with exam stress

Children are under intense study pressure during these times. During the exam period, children also appear to be under severe mental stress. When young children are expected to do well at everything, it can be traumatic.

For students to succeed on their exams, some exam stress is necessary.

However, if not managed properly, this stress could result in various mental complications if prolonged for a long period of time. It is for this reason that as a parent, you should pay attention to your child’s behaviour, especially before and during the exams.

Factors related to exam stress in children

Parental expectations with the child

Because of the tremendous competition all over, parents have high expectations beginning at a very young age. As a parent, if you expect your child to excel beyond everyone else, you put immense pressure on your child. The mental health of your child can be adversely affected by this, which is a cause for concern.

The child may develop a lot of mental anxiety if he or she cannot live up to your expectations. Therefore, you should have realistic expectations and not overburden your child with expectations that they must always be top of the class all the time.

If you set unrealistic performance standards for your child, they can suffer great mental harm. Hence, this should always be avoided.

Competition with peer group members

As a parent, you should also be aware that your child may feel stressed when preparing for his or her exams because of peer pressure. Your child may belong to a student group that has more advanced academics than yours. There is often unhealthy competition among peer groups, which is difficult for the relatively weaker students to deal with.

You, as a parent, are aware of peer pressure, so it is best to support your child and reassure him or her that he or she is good in many ways and that competition among peers should not cause them stress.

Financial stress

The mental stress that a child feels because he or she is expected to do well to support the family could be yet another stressor for the child.

In case you find any abnormality in the children including changes in behaviour, anxiety, depression it is important to take an expert opinion with your psychiatrist. 

For more information:

Contact: Dr. Kenison Shrestha, Psychiatrist – Mental Health Clinic

Dr. Kenison Shrestha, Psychiatrist – Mental Health Clinic

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