Teenagers reporting increased stress

The 2011 Mission Australia survey has found teenagers are stressing about school work, body image and coping with stress more than ever.

Teenagers are feeling the pressure to get good grades at school, particularly 15-19 year olds. The survey found that 41.8 are now listing school as their top priority, up from 28.7 last year. These concerns are probably coming from this generation watching people lose jobs due to the global financial crisis and anticipating the highly competetive job market they will be entering.

Teens, particularly girls, have reported increasing levels of concern with body image, this indicates that the messages about healthy liefstyles and realistic body images are not getting through. The quest to gain peer approval and to be popular seem to be over riding all attempts to make people aware of the dangers associated with the quest to be like "the girls on tv."

This age group also reported generally coping with stress as a stressor.

All in all these figures are concerning, the pressure youth are under and the pressure they put themselves under could lead to further mental health issues.

For more information, check out these articles from News.com and the Australian.