Stress in Adolescents

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Stress in Adolescents

• By Amy Knowles, Diana Radtke, Erin Smith, Lucas
  Stern, and TJ Murray

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What is Stress?

• The non-specific response of the body to any
  demand made upon it
• Demand any change that forces the body to adapt,
  ex. a threat
• Response a reaction to this threat
• Result immediate, generalized feelings of
  nervousness/anxiety
• Body experiences an increase in
• Blood pressure
• Heart rate
• Muscle tension
• Breathing rate
• Blood flow to heart brain

• Mental Alertness
• Perspiration
• Cholesterol
• Blood sugar
• Platelets Clotting Factors

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Different Types/Levels of Stress

• Short-term (acute) versus long-term (chronic)
• Fight-or-Flight response
• Different strokes for different folks
• Positive stress (eustress) versus negative stress
  (distress)
• Chinese word for stress is best translated
  crisis
• Top character represents danger
• Bottom character represents opportunity

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The History of Stress

• Dr. Hans Selye, the father of stress theory
• Studied the similarities in patients with
  different diseases.
• Ex. fatigue, weakness, apathy, weight loss,
  muscular dystrophy
• Borrowed the term stress from engineering,
  where it describes external forces, strains, and
  tensions.
• Stressor a factor that brings about stress
• General Adaptation Syndrome
• 3 phases Alarm phase, Resistance phase,
  Exhaustion

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General Adaptation Syndrome
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Stress in Adolescents

• Adolescence is one of the most stressful periods
  in a persons life.
• Factors puberty, school transitions, new
  expectations responsibilities, changing family
  relationships
• Evokes feelings of worry, melancholy, tension,
  frustration, withdrawal
• One study found that American high school
  students are more stressed than their
  counterparts around the world, including Japan
  and Taiwan.
• Possibly caused by Americans pursuing academic
  and non-academic pursuits such as dating,
  working, playing sports, and socializing with
  friends
• Another study of 12- to 17-year-old girls found
  that the most common cause of stress in these
  girls is academic achievement.

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Question and Answer Period