Children whose parents have degrees feel more stressed when they start university because they are worried about failing or ‘letting down their family’, study finds
- Researchers examined the hair of first year female students to look for cortisol
- They measured the level of the stress hormone in about 70 different students
- The team also asked the students to fill in a questionnaire about their parents
- Those from more academic backgrounds had higher levels of stress hormone
University students whose parents also have a degree suffer from more stress when they start their course than others due to a fear of ‘letting down their family’.
A new study by the University of Bochum, Germany, looked at levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the hair of women starting their first year at university.
About 80 per cent of people in higher education report feeling anxious or stressed, and the number dropping out due to mental health issues is also increasing.
Study authors say children from academic households exhibit significantly more stress during their time at university than non-academic families.
University students whose parents also have a degree suffer from more stress when they start their course than others due to fear of ‘letting down their family’. Stock image
Dr Nina Minkley, study lead author, said starting a degree course is an exciting time phase for everyone involved – but some find it harder than others.
A stressed person’s body releases a hormone called cortisol, which is stored in ‘growing hair’, where it can build up over time if stress levels remain high.
The research team recruited over 70 students from different family backgrounds and asked them for three strands of hair, cut off near the scalp.
As human hair grows at about 0.4 inches every month, the researchers focused only on the last 0.6 inches, which had grown in the past six weeks, when the term began.
Students were then asked to fill out a questionnaire about their parents’ level of education and how stressed they were feeling.
‘The only inclusion criteria were that they started their first semester and that they had sufficiently long hair,’ said Dr Minkley.
‘In the end, this meant that we recruited almost only women, and we decided not to include the few eligible men to avoid falsifying the results.’
The researchers found first-year students from ‘academic backgrounds’, where at least one parent had a university degree, had higher stress levels.
The team believes this is because failing their studies would lead to a loss of status for them and their families.
These findings are in line with other studies which have shown students with academic parents often attend university even if they haven’t done well in school.
About 80 per cent of people in higher education report feeling anxious or stressed, and the number dropping out due to mental health issues is also increasing. Stock image
‘Children of non-academics, on the other hand, can only win and are therefore probably less stressed,’ said Dr Minkley.
Over 500,000 people are accepted to university in the UK every year and nearly half of them are 18-years-old.
The findings could help universities alleviate stress among first-year students and parents who wish to reassure their children.
The findings were published in the journal Frontiers of Psychiatry.