Youth researcher Margot Peeters of Utrecht University: “Addressing school stress and absenteeism can only be successful if change is initiated simultaneously at multiple levels. This concerns the interaction between society, school, family and the individual.”
Together with her Utrecht colleagues Marloes Kleinjan and Suzan Doornwaard, Peeters conducted literature studies for Mental Capital and carried out interviews in the four Utrecht Youth Regions with teachers, parents, healthcare professionals, school attendance officers and young people themselves. In their report ‘Mental Capital: Which factors play a role in unhealthy stress, performance pressure, school absenteeism/staying at home and dropping out of school?’ Among other things, they conclude that the emphasis on achievement and excellence contributes to feelings of inferiority among young people in practical education. Peeters: “Some young people sometimes experience unnecessarily high levels of unhealthy stress because they want to perform above their level.” There are also young people in vulnerable situations who are not adequately supported by the current education system, are unable to develop their talents and consequently sometimes stay at home unnecessarily.
System, environment and young people themselves
To improve young people’s mental well-being and make continuous educational development possible for all young people, it seems important to focus on reducing school stress and performance pressure and improving appropriate support for young people who are struggling. It is also important for schools to pay attention to young people’s social and emotional development and to offer professional support to teachers in order to create a safe pedagogical climate in their classroom and at school. To achieve all this, Peeters and her colleagues make six recommendations. Peeters: “These recommendations concern the education system, the environment surrounding young people and the young people themselves.”
Struggling at an excessively high educational level
One of the recommendations in the report is to revalue educational levels and skills. According to the authors of Mental Capital, ‘performing well’ in our society seems to be equated with cognitive excellence at the highest possible level. Peeters: “Young people learn at an early age that pre-vocational secondary education is not really good enough. This results in high expectations and pressure from parents and young people themselves. The result is that young people struggle at educational levels that are too high for them—whether or not pushed by their parents—while talented young people in practical education feel stigmatized and are at risk of dropping out. By offering more room for personal development and talent development, and by recognizing other core qualities alongside cognitive abilities as equally valuable, every young person gets the opportunity to excel.”