Grades, Stress and Student Mental Health: What Parents and Schools Should Know
For many children, a report card is more than a progress
update. It can feel like a judgement about intelligence, future success and
personal value. As schools place greater emphasis on testing, grading, rankings
and performance targets, parents and educators are increasingly asking a
crucial question: can the way schools evaluate children affect mental health?
A review of the research supplied to NewsWebFit
suggests that academic evaluation is not automatically harmful. Grades can help
teachers identify learning needs, guide students and communicate progress to
families. However, when assessment begins too early, becomes highly public, or
is tied closely to a child’s sense of worth, it may increase stress for some
students—particularly those already vulnerable to performance pressure.
Swedish Study Raises Concern for Girls
One of the strongest pieces of evidence comes from a large
Swedish study examining a 2012 education reform. Sweden shifted the beginning
of formal grading from grade eight, when students were around 14 years old, to
grade six, when they were around 12.
The researchers used nationwide education and
health-register data covering more than 520,000 children born between July 1992
and June 2000. They compared students born immediately before and after the
policy cut-off, allowing them to examine whether exposure to earlier formal
grading was associated with later mental-health diagnoses.
According to the researchers, girls exposed to earlier
grading had higher recorded rates of depression and anxiety diagnoses by the
time they reached grade nine. The reported proportion rose from 1.4 percent to
2.0 percent—an increase of 0.6 percentage points, or roughly two-fifths
relative to the earlier level. The strongest pattern appeared among girls with
low-to-average academic achievement. Effects among boys were smaller and less
consistent.
This research does not mean that every girl who receives
grades will develop anxiety or depression. It does, however, raise an important
policy concern: the timing and design of evaluation may matter. At age 12,
children are still forming identity, confidence and social relationships.
Formal grades may intensify comparison with classmates and make a child feel
that performance defines personal value.
Why Rankings May Feel Different
Grades show how a student performed against a standard.
Rankings add another layer: they show where that student stands compared with
peers. For some children, this can create motivation. For others, it can create
embarrassment, fear of failure or a belief that they are “less capable.”
A separate study co-authored by Ran Liu, an assistant
professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education, and Jinho
Kim of Korea University examined ability rankings and depressive symptoms.
Using adolescent mental-health data and standardised measures of verbal
ability, the researchers reported that students placed lower in their classroom
ability ranking were more likely to experience depressive symptoms than highly
ranked peers, even after accounting for their absolute ability.
The finding is important because it suggests that a
student’s wellbeing may be influenced not only by what they can do, but also by
how their performance is positioned socially. A capable student can still feel
inadequate when repeatedly compared with higher-performing classmates.
The study also pointed to a potential protective factor:
supportive teacher-student relationships. Teacher care partly reduced the
apparent effect of ranking for some students. This supports a simple but
powerful lesson for schools: feedback should help students understand what to
improve, not make them feel permanently labelled by a score.
Competition and the Pressure to Succeed
The supplied articles also discuss high-achieving schools,
intense workloads, competitive tutoring and pressure to gain admission to
prestigious universities. These reports raise valid concerns, but their claims
should be treated carefully.
Some articles are commentary pieces rather than original
peer-reviewed studies. Statements that all high-achieving schools are harmful,
or that particular interventions never work, are too broad to apply to every
child or school. Student experiences differ according to family support,
financial pressure, workload, bullying, learning needs, access to counselling
and school culture.
Still, research in this area consistently supports one basic
point: chronic academic pressure can be associated with stress, emotional
exhaustion, anxiety and lower self-esteem. The risk may increase when students
believe that love, respect or future security depends entirely on exceptional
marks.
A healthy education system should aim for achievement
without teaching children that a low score makes them failures.
Girls, Social Comparison and Feedback
The Swedish findings are particularly relevant because girls
showed a clearer rise in diagnosed depression and anxiety after earlier
grading. Researchers suggested that formal evaluation may increase sensitivity
to academic feedback and social comparison during early adolescence.
This should not be interpreted as girls being weak or unable
to handle challenge. Rather, it highlights that children can respond
differently to the same environment. Gender expectations, peer relationships,
perfectionism and pressure to please adults may influence how evaluation is
experienced.
The appropriate response is not to lower expectations for
girls or boys. It is to create fairer ways of communicating achievement.
Teachers can focus on progress, specific skills and next steps instead of using
shame, public comparison or language that treats one examination as a verdict
on a child’s future.
What Schools Can Do
The World Health Organization says schools are important
settings for promoting mental health, preventing difficulties and identifying
students who need support. WHO guidance favours a whole-school approach,
involving students, teachers, families, school leadership and appropriate
health services.iris.who+1
Practical steps may include:
- Avoiding
public rankings, humiliating comparisons and unnecessary competition.
- Giving
feedback that identifies strengths, gaps and realistic next steps.
- Monitoring
student wellbeing alongside exam results and attendance.
- Ensuring
students know how to access school counsellors or trusted adults.
- Training
teachers to recognise persistent withdrawal, fear, low mood, exhaustion or
major changes in behaviour.
- Providing
reasonable workloads and coordinating deadlines across subjects.
- Teaching
coping, communication and problem-solving skills without making students
solely responsible for unhealthy school pressure.
- Encouraging
parents to praise effort, curiosity, kindness and persistence—not only
marks, trophies or ranks.
Schools should not have to choose between learning and
wellbeing. Students learn better when they feel safe, respected and able to
make mistakes.
 |
| Click here to explore and grab your wellness kit today. |
A Balanced Message for Parents
Parents can help by asking questions that move beyond marks:
“What did you enjoy learning?” “What was difficult?” “What support would help?”
These questions remind us that a child’s wellbeing is more important than any
mark on a report card.
It is also helpful to avoid comparing siblings, relatives or
classmates. A child who hears constant comparison may begin to believe that
love and acceptance depend on outperforming others. Instead, families can
celebrate improvement, effort, creativity, responsibility and healthy routines.
Parents should seek professional support if a child shows
persistent sadness, intense worry, school refusal, sleep changes, social
withdrawal, hopelessness, self-harm behaviour or talk about death. Such signs
deserve calm attention, not punishment or dismissal.
NewsWebFit Verdict
The evidence reviewed by NewsWebFit does not support
abandoning grades altogether. Assessment can guide learning and help schools
identify where students need support. But the evidence does support more
thoughtful evaluation—especially for younger students.
The Swedish study offers a credible warning that earlier
formal grading may be linked with higher diagnosed anxiety and depression among
girls. Research on ability ranking similarly suggests that social comparison
can affect emotional wellbeing, while caring teachers may provide protection.
Education policy should therefore measure more than marks. A
successful school is not only one that produces high test scores; it is one
that helps children become capable, curious and emotionally secure people.
Disclaimer: This NewsWebFit article is for health
awareness and educational purposes only. This content is not intended to
diagnose depression, anxiety or any other mental-health disorder. Parents and
caregivers concerned about a child’s wellbeing should contact a qualified
mental-health professional, paediatrician, school counsellor or local emergency
service where there is immediate risk.
Sources Used
Use the following source list at the end of the NewsWebFit
article. The Swedish grading study is the strongest original research source in
the supplied material, while some other items are news reports, academic
commentary or opinion articles that cite research.eric.ed+1
- Adolescent
Mental Health: Impact of Introducing Earlier Compulsory School Grades.
Health Economics, 2025. Swedish register-based study on earlier
formal grading and mental-health diagnoses.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih
- How
school grades can affect mental health – particularly for girls. The
Conversation, republished by INKL, 2026. Public-facing report
explaining the Swedish grading study and its findings.inkl
- Does
grading students at earlier ages increase the risk of mental-health
disorders? EurekAlert!, 2025. Research news release summarising
the Swedish reform analysis of 524,093 children.eurekalert
- Liu
examining how ability rankings impact students’ mental health, STEM
aspirations. University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education news
report. Research by Ran Liu and Jinho Kim on classroom ability rank and
depressive symptoms.
- Luthar,
S. S., Kumar, N. L., & Zillmer, N. (2020). High-achieving
schools connote risks for adolescents: Problems documented, processes
implicated, and directions for interventions. American
Psychologist, 75(7), 983–995.
https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000556files.eric.ed+1
- Luthar,
S. S., Kumar, N. L., & Zillmer, N. (2020). Teachers’
Responsibilities for Students’ Mental Health: Obstacles Faced in
High-Performing Schools. International Journal of School &
Educational Psychology, 8(2), 119–130.eric.ed
- The
Toxic Consequences of Attending a High-Achieving School. Psychology
Today, 2021. Commentary by Peter Gray that discusses Luthar and
colleagues’ research; cite it as commentary, not as primary evidence.psychologytoday
- World
Health Organization. Mental health in schools: a manual. WHO, 2021.
Guidance for educators and school systems on supporting student mental
health.iris.who
- World
Health Organization. How school systems can improve health and well-being:
A topic brief. WHO, 2023. Supports a whole-school approach connecting
education, health and wellbeing.
How could a school report card show a child’s progress
without making classmates feel ranked against one another?