When success is not enough: academic pressure and adolescent mental health

The PISA 2025 results were released on 8 September and quickly became comparisons between countries: which ones moved up or down, and which education systems continue to produce the strongest results. But there is another question that rankings cannot answer on their own: what happens when good grades cease to be just a goal and begin to shape how a young person sees themselves?

Parents, teachers and psychologists recognise this experience. Some adolescents study for hours, dread every test, feel guilty when they rest, or experience a lower-than-expected mark as proof that they are not capable. They are not always struggling students. Some achieve excellent results and remain convinced that a single mistake will disappoint everyone.

Some pressure is part of studying. A deadline approaches, an examination requires preparation and the body mobilises. Difficulty can even stimulate attention and persistence, and help us discover that we are capable of overcoming obstacles. The problem, then, is not every effort or expectation. It can begin when the possibility of failure becomes psychologically difficult to tolerate.

When expectations change their meaning

Academic pressure means more than having a great deal of homework or sitting difficult examinations. In research, the term encompasses concern about results, competition for grades, family expectations, workload and the fear that one mark may jeopardise access to a course or determine the future itself.

This is why two people can approach the same examination with very different experiences. One thinks, “I want a good mark, and I am going to prepare for it.” The other thinks, “I have to get a good mark. If I do not, it means I am not good enough.” Outwardly, both are studying for the same examination. Psychologically, only the second feels that the examination is also judging them as a person.

This shift from “I want to succeed” to “I have to succeed” helps explain why the same expectations can feel like a challenge at one moment and a threat at another. The choice is not between expecting effort and offering protection, but understanding how much support is available and how much room remains for mistakes.

What we know about academic pressure and mental health

A systematic review published in 2023 brought together 52 studies of academic pressure and mental health problems in children and adolescents. In 48 of them, higher levels of pressure or periods of greater academic demand were associated with at least one negative outcome, including symptoms of depression and anxiety, self-harm and suicidal behaviour. Of the 19 studies that examined depressive symptoms, 17 found an association; the same was true of five of the six studies on anxiety.^[1]

The pattern merits attention, although it does not show that pressure alone causes these problems. As most studies assessed pressure and distress at approximately the same time, the relationship may work in both directions and reinforce itself. For those supporting adolescents, the useful conclusion is that academic pressure can form part of cycles of distress and should not be treated as a simple price of success.

Wanting to do very well is not the same as being unable to fail

Perfectionism helps make this distinction clearer. In everyday language, we may describe someone as a perfectionist because they are committed, organised or set very high standards for themselves. Research distinguishes, however, between striving for high standards and excessive concern about mistakes, persistent doubts about one’s performance and the feeling of never meeting expectations.

A meta-analysis of 121 studies involving young people found moderate associations between these perfectionistic concerns and symptoms of anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Striving for high standards in itself showed considerably weaker links with these difficulties.^[2] Put simply, “I want to do very well” is not the same as “I cannot do badly”.

Imagine two students who receive 12 marks out of 20 when they expected 16. One thinks that the test went worse than expected and tries to understand where they went wrong. The other concludes that they are not intelligent after all. The mark is the same, but in the first case it provides information about a task; in the second, it becomes a judgement about the whole person.

Fear of failure becomes especially important when grades take on this weight. In PISA 2018, greater fear of failure was associated with lower life satisfaction in most education systems examined. Girls expressed greater fear of failure than boys in almost all of those systems.^[3] The crucial question is no longer simply how much an adolescent studies, but what they believe will happen if they fail.

They may fear losing an opportunity, disappointing their parents or appearing less capable than their peers. They may conclude that they have compromised their future or that the result reveals how much they are worth. The more that seems to be at stake, the more threatening the same mark becomes.

A good school can still be demanding

The PISA 2025 results make this discussion less obvious and, for that reason, more interesting. It would be easy to imagine that high-performing systems necessarily have cold, hostile or unsupportive schools. The data do not support that caricature.

In South Korea, 14% of students reported being bullied at least a few times a month, compared with an OECD average of 20%. In science lessons, 87% said that their teacher showed an interest in every student’s learning, and the same proportion reported receiving extra help when they needed it.^[4] In Portugal, the prevalence of bullying was also 14%; 80% of students felt that their science teacher was interested in everyone’s learning, and 83% said that additional help was available.^[5]

These figures do not measure academic pressure directly, but they suggest that strong performance, support and safety can coexist.

Some pressure originates outside the classroom. It may come through family expectations, comparisons with peers, university admission grades or uncertainty about the future. Over time, these messages can be internalised: nobody needs to keep saying “you have to be the best” once a young person has learnt to say it to themselves.

This is the dimension that rankings struggle to capture. A demanding context can become more manageable when a young person feels able to ask for help, knows that one mistake will not close every possibility, and continues to be recognised as more than their performance.

When pressure takes over rest

Academic pressure does not always announce itself through a crisis. It may settle into an apparently ordinary sequence. A young person finishes studying in the evening but continues thinking about the test over dinner. They see a classmate mention how much they have already studied and decide to revise one more chapter. They go to bed late, wake up tired, find it harder to concentrate and need even longer to study the following day. When they try to rest, they feel guilty for not working.

At that point, high expectations have begun to interfere with the very mechanisms that would allow recovery from them. Sleep is one of the most important. In a study of 3,724 Chinese adolescents, sleeping fewer than six hours a night was associated with a higher likelihood of depressive symptoms, as were very high levels of academic pressure. The results also suggested that sleep duration explained part of the observed relationship between pressure and depressive symptoms.^[6]

Studying hard is not harmful in itself. There are periods when an important goal requires more time and effort. The difference also lies in being able to stop, sleep, maintain meaningful relationships and activities, and accept that the work already done may be enough even when a perfect result cannot be guaranteed.

Portugal is part of this story

School pressure is not confined to East Asian education systems. The international HBSC study, which monitors adolescent health and wellbeing across dozens of countries, found an increase in pressure related to schoolwork between 2018 and 2022, particularly among 15-year-old girls. In that group, the proportion reporting some or a lot of pressure rose from 54% to approximately 63%; among boys of the same age, it increased from 40% to 43%.^[7]

In Portugal, the 2022 data also pointed to a decline in wellbeing: 27.7% of the adolescents surveyed said they felt unhappy, while the study also recorded greater school pressure.^[8] The change cannot be attributed to a single cause, but distress connected with school can no longer be treated as a distant reality.

The context may change, but the mechanisms are recognisable. A Portuguese adolescent who feels they need a particular average grade, attends private tutoring, constantly compares marks with classmates and sees 15 out of 20 as failure may experience the same tension between ambition and threat. The question is not whether they want a challenging future. It is whether they can imagine it without feeling that a single result will decide everything.

What adults can do

Reducing pressure does not mean making results irrelevant or abandoning expectations. An adolescent may benefit from feeling that parents and teachers believe in their abilities and expect them to make an effort. There is, however, a difference between “I know you can do this and I am here to help” and “I know you can do this, so there is no reason for you to get less than 18 out of 20”. In the second sentence, any lower result risks feeling like a failure of the young person themselves.

After a lower-than-expected mark, it is worth understanding before drawing conclusions. Asking what happened or whether help is needed creates room to think. Immediately comparing the result with those of classmates may increase precisely the shame that prevents a young person from acknowledging difficulties.

Schools face the same balance. Indiscriminately lowering expectations does not necessarily promote mental health; increasing demands without increasing resources does not necessarily promote learning either. The more schools ask of students, the more important clear expectations, access to help, a sense of belonging and a culture in which mistakes guide learning rather than humiliate become.

It is also important to protect basic conditions that can appear easily negotiable during assessment periods. Sleep, breaks, physical activity and relationships are not rewards to be granted once every piece of work is finished. They are part of the resources required for learning.

When to pay closer attention

It is normal to feel worried before an examination, disappointed by a mark or to go through more intensive periods of study. Concern deserves closer attention when the relationship with performance persistently interferes with the rest of life: when sleep is routinely sacrificed, rest provokes guilt, important activities are abandoned or anxiety leads to avoiding tasks for fear of not completing them perfectly.

It also matters how a young person speaks about themselves. “This test went badly” describes an event; “I am stupid” or “I am a failure” turns it into an identity. Intense self-criticism in response to small mistakes, a constant search for reassurance and distress hidden behind excellent results may indicate that the issue is no longer simply the amount of work, but the relationship the young person has developed with expectations.

In these situations, the first step may be a conversation that begins with openness rather than correcting behaviour. When anxiety, sadness, changes in sleep or disruption to everyday functioning persist, psychological support can help identify what sustains the cycle and develop a more flexible relationship with performance.

Learning to want success without having to succeed

We do not need to choose between academic achievement and mental health. Psychologically healthy education does not require us to eliminate assessment, difficult goals or experiences of failure. It does require us to teach something different about what those experiences mean.

We can help a young person want to improve without feeling that who they already are is never enough; persevere without learning that rest is laziness; and feel proud of a good result without needing it in order to feel valuable. Above all, they can discover that failing at a task does not make them a failure.

International rankings tell us a great deal about what young people have learnt. Psychology requires us to ask a different question: what are young people learning about themselves as they try to succeed?