And no one typically excels at everything. You can't make a mistake or your chances will be ruined." So we see especially very smart kids, which some researchers call brainiacs, they have what we call "destructive perfectionism" they cannot tolerate not excelling at everything. For other parents, it's just a lot of pressure on the kids, "You have to do well. Hibbs: Parents are scared that there's only one path, a linear path, to the good life, and so for some parents who are affluent enough, that means the brand-name college, or the top prep that you can get. And, of course, being in this 24/7 news cycle as well as the Internet itself, has really created a different childhood. Our students today were young then, and the anxiety, we think, really had an impact on their families, as well as on what they could glean from the news. School shootings, the rise in the uncertainty from globalization and the economic uncertainties, and of course the economic recession of 2008. Rostain: We think that the culture has changed in the last 30, 40 years, and that these students are growing up in the post-9/11 era, that they've been exposed to a lot of trauma, both in the media and also in their lives. On why current college students are more stressed than previous generations Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Hibbs faced a difficult set of choices: she wanted to best parent her son as he struggled, but she also wanted his life to stay on track.Ĭlose overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Stressed Years of Their Lives Subtitle Helping Your Kid Survive and Thrive During Their College Years Author B. Janet Hibbs, is a family and couples psychotherapist whose son took a medical leave of absence during his first college spring break to deal with anxiety and depression. Rostain is a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and the former chair of the school's Task Force on Student Psychological Health and Welfare. "What we're seeing now are growing numbers of students coming campus who are already being treated for mental illness, or who are on various medications and who really have learned to manage their illnesses at home," he says, "but suddenly they're on their own and sometimes they're not following through their own recommended treatments." Anthony Rostain, co-author of The Stressed Years of Their Lives, notes that today's college students are experiencing an "inordinate amount of anxiety" - much of it centered on "surviving college and doing well." Anthony Rostain, co-author of The Stressed Years of Their Lives, says today's college students are experiencing an "inordinate amount of anxiety."Īs colleges and universities across the country report an explosion of mental health problems, a new book argues that college life may be more stressful than ever. A file photo shows the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.