Mental Health Month: What Students Wish Parents Understood

4/27/2021

Sam Borkovic (written by club members) (lk)

Active Minds is a national organization dedicated to promoting mental health awareness with chapters around the country, including one here at Saint Edward's School. In one of our chapter meetings, we noted that one of the sources of frustration for students would be the disparity between the generations of our students and our parents. The rapid development of technology and increased globalization combined with COVID this year has led to drastically different high school experiences for each generation, which has created many misunderstandings. To bridge the gap between parents and children and mitigate some mental health issues in students that could arise from parental conflicts, our Active Minds chapter sent out a survey to the student body a few weeks ago asking the question, "What is something that you wish your parents understood about high school?" (*eNews: click READ MORE to read the full story).

This survey yielded a wide range of anonymous responses, including:

"That school can have a significant impact on mental health…… The school schedule is monotonous and not special. It is easy to go home and go on electronics than to go outside and socialize, especially with covid."

"That it’s very hard to balance a social life, do sports to look good for college, clubs, eating well, getting exercise, getting good grades, they need to realize it’s very hard to balance all that and that high school is meant to be fun and a time to make memories and also succeed"

"Asking constantly about colleges stresses kids out"

"I can't be treated like a child while expected to take on parent responsibilities"

"I wish they understood that sometimes how I feel is genuinely out of my control"

"I wish my parents understood that I'm allowed to have my own opinion. I'm not allowed to think for myself around them"

"I wish they understood that I am my own person and not my friends"

The responses to this survey addressed a wide variety of issues, but many of them point out the increasingly competitive environment of 21st century high schools. This has led to many students feeling as though they are spreading themselves too thin to build extensive resumes to appear competitive to colleges. As previously mentioned, most parents have not been involved in the college admissions process since they went through it themselves, and, therefore, may not be aware of the pressure that is currently placed on students. By sharing the results of this survey, Active Minds hopes to spark a conversation between students and parents to understand better generational attitudes and experiences surrounding high school by sharing current students’ perspectives.

Parents - please consider talking with your child about what they need from you. Always remember you can reach out the college counseling team at school or our school counselor for more advice.

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