School burnout is on the rise among adolescents in Finland. A new doctoral thesis suggests that closer collaboration between home and school may hold the answer to better adolescent wellbeing.
Growing numbers of young people in Finland are experiencing mental health problems, and adolescents' career uncertainty is more widespread than in other OECD countries.
"My research on lower and upper secondary school students showed that school burnout affected their subsequent educational plans and goals. Students with a negative and cynical attitude towards studying and school were particularly unlikely to plan for higher education," says University of Helsinki Doctoral Researcher Lotta Allemand.
Allemand's study involved nearly 500 adolescents and 1,600 parents. It found that exhaustion was most prevalent among students with the highest school-related expectations. Allemand suggests that prolonged exhaustion may reduce young people's educational expectations over time. Girls experienced exhaustion and cynicism more often than boys.
"We must invest in adolescents' school wellbeing both now and in the future, and consider how the pressures associated with studying can be eased," notes Allemand.
