Peer Relationship and Mental Health Damage from Academic-Stress and Depersonalization in High School

Abstract

An examination of how student stress impacts their mental health and peer relationships used an explanatory sequential mixed methods design with a quantitative survey of 136 students from an independent school student body and follow-up qualitative interviews of 8 students. A positive correlation between academic stress and depersonalization was identified in all 4 grades with both indicators increasing with grade level before plateauing in grade 12. The main stressors identified were to achieve high grades and accomplish schoolwork to satisfy their own and parental expectations. High academic stress is attributed to depersonalization symptoms when students cut social interactions during "crunch time" to focus on studying by entering a "trance state". However, some students instead became more social as a distraction or to study more efficiently in study groups. Overall, this study showed similarities in academic stress and depersonalization between university/professional and high school samples while analyzing the rationale behind reported scores.