73.5% school-going adolescents in Bangladesh suffer from stress: Study

A large portion of secondary school-going adolescents aged 10-17 in Bangladesh suffer from stress due to lack of physical activities and inadequate sleep, said a recent study report.

According to the study published in BMJ Psychiatry on 19 December 2022, 73.5% of the school-going adolescents in the country are experiencing stress symptoms to different extents. Among them, about 65% adolescents are enduring moderate stress symptoms, while about 9% are experiencing high-stress symptoms.

Among all the adolescents, females (58.7%) are more likely to suffer from stress compared to males (41.3%).

Mental health experts fear that adolescents going through stress would grow up as unproductive, inefficient young adults. So, they urged the authorities to create a curriculum and an education system that would focus on the healthy mental development of adolescents.

One of the researchers of the study, Dr Tajuddin Sikder, associate professor of Department of Public Health and Informatics at Jahangirnagar University, told TBS, "We found out that school and family environments create stress on children. They feel a pressure for good results in school and fear that they would lag behind if they do not understand the lessons. So, these areas require intervention.

"These children need parental motivation. The environment in which they live should be improved by raising awareness and training the teachers."

Dr Tajuddin Sikder said a child gets up in the morning and goes to school where he attends class after class with a short break. In the afternoon, the child returns home and takes tuition from a couple of teachers. He has no time for himself as he cares all about academic development.

"If we provide opportunities for them to participate in cultural activities and debates in our schools, their anxiety will go away. A curriculum should be developed on how to keep children free from stress, anxiety or depression," he said.

"By health we mean only physical health, but no matter how good one's physical health is, if her mental health is not sound, if she is depressed, she cannot do any productive work or make any contribution to the society," he said, adding that, "Those who are adolescents now will be young adults in 2030, and we have high expectations from them. But too much expectation cannot be placed on a stressed, depressed young generation. When someone's mental health is poor, there will be no personal development and they will always be irritable."

The lead investigator of the study titled "Stress symptoms and associated factors among adolescents in Dhaka, Bangladesh: findings from a cross-sectional study" Afifa Anjum said, more than 70% of adolescents here are not involved in Physical activity. A statistically significant association between stress symptoms and screen-based recreation as well as sleep deficiency was found among approximately three-quarters of the adolescents.

Adolescents who perceived themselves as overweight or obese had higher odds of experiencing stress than those who perceived themselves as normal. Experiencing bullying due to one's perceived body weight has been found to cause stress among adolescents.

Studies have shown that stress at school, excessive use of technology, and academic overload contribute to sleep deficiency among adolescents.

The study was conducted between January 2019 and February 2020 among 2,355 secondary school students in urban, semi-urban, and rural areas of the Dhaka district.  

Another researcher of the study, Dr M Tasdik Hasan, PhD researcher at Monash University, Australia, told TBS, appointing psychologists at the schools should be mandatory. Moreover, mental health literacy among students should be increased with appropriate curricular amendments, and periodic stigma reduction campaigns should be organised regularly.

"Researchers should prioritise adolescent mental health and generate evidence calling attention to the policy makers. Gender sensitive interventions are required especially targeting school adolescents from low resource settings. We also need to train lay workers as psychosocial counsellors, considering the limited number of psychiatrists and psychologists available," he said.