Most teenagers have turned to cigarettes and alcohol to cope with stress they get in school. A study by Dr. Pamela Taylor proves this.

With 172 students, ranging between 15 and 16 years old, Taylor looked into their stress factors and coping mechanisms. Some of these strategies include listening to music, sports activities, watching TV among many others.

But these are just some of the many coping strategies they have. The top results were unhealthy approaches. Among these students, 30 percent resort to drinking alcohol. 16 percent tried to relieve their stress by smoking cigarettes. Six percent of the respondents used illegal drugs to escape from the stressful reality in school.

Is the society, including the educational institutions, that stressful? Undeniably, it is with all the issues in and around the news. But granted that stress is part of reality, are the teenagers approaching it the right way?

Taylor’s study responds to this issue.

“Our results illustrate how important it is to educate teenagers on the best ways to manage this stress, and highlight the dangers of using cigarettes, alcohol and drugs to cope,” said Taylor.

The results of the study should be a wake-up call to the educational institutions. Even if stress is given, more effort to teach the students how to cope with it should be taught. Students cannot add up to their existing stress problems.

“Teenagers face many pressures at school…,” Taylor expressed. And they need not experience more problems as a result of how they respond to these pressures. More info on stress and various related topics is available at the Stress Reduction Blog.