Why Young People in China have so much pressure?

In recent years, depression has become more common more and more common among Chinese students, and the main cause of depression of Chinese students is the high level of pressure they are facing, so parents and teachers started to realize the importance of students’ mental health. However, some parents still don’t take metal health issues seriously, because they think their children are too young to have that much pressure.

As a Chinese student, I sometimes also feel stressed out, and I think the main reasons behind the high pressure are expectation and competition. To begin with, Chinese parents put too many expectations on their children, and they invest too much time and money on their children, so the fear of letting them down becomes the source of students’ pressure. I was in an international high school, which costs my parents much more money than a traditional Chinese would cost, so when I couldn’t get good grades in SAT exams or my school exams, I felt guilty. That kind of guilty made me stress out every time before the exams. The second source of pressure came from the intense competition students are facing. China has a large population, and the opportunities are very limited, so students have to beat a lot of students to get to top universities. The peer pressure among students forces them always be tense and work hard.

I understand that the education system is hard to change because of Chinese culture and national conditions, but I do think that Chinese parents should be more serious about their children’s mental health. Students are not studying machines, so their feelings should be concerned. If parents can sometimes ask their children “ Do you feel stressful?”, fewer students would get depression at a young age.