Burnout is described by the ICD-11 from the World Health Organization (WHO) as “three dimensions: 1) feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; 2) increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and 3) a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.” In this informative article, Sean will delve into the psychological effects of burnout in teenagers who have been forced into overwhelming lives.
Burnout is a commonality between all generations-- no matter what their work is or where they come from. People’s worth has begun to be measured by how much they work and how little free time they have. Many people have heard the saying, “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” While it may be true that those who do what they love experience joy, this statement does not account for the amount of time and energy pooled into the activity that creates burnout. Like an electric car, humans can only go so far before they have to find somewhere to recharge their batteries. Everyone has a different gauge of battery life, so some people shut down sooner than others. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), in 2014, “Many teens also reported feeling overwhelmed (31 percent) and depressed or sad (30 percent) as a result of stress. More than one-third of teens reported feeling tired (36 percent) and nearly one-quarter of teens (23 percent) reported skipping a meal due to stress.”
As one can see: even when it comes to children, statistically, a third of them feel more pressure than adults do-- when adults are supposed to be the ones who are fully developed and adapted enough to our capitalist society to handle the workload required to survive. This leads to an intensive thought: why are kids in Generation Z feeling so stressed, overworked, and burnt out? What thought processes have changed to lead to where we are today?
In July 2021, USA Today stated: “Teenagers have become one of the largest segments of the working population. The Associated Press reported that, in May, 33.2% of teens ages 16 to 19 were in the national workforce, the highest figure for teen workers since the Great Recession of 2008.” Not only do teenagers have to face their education as a priority, but they are also expected to work hours upon hours throughout the week. Zippia, a career advice website, reveals that the average amount of hours worked by teens (ages 16 to 19 years) is 24.1 hours. If a teen goes to school five days a week and has classes that run from 7:50 AM to 3:20 PM (7.5 hours), then that takes up 37.5 hours of their week. If there are 168 hours in a week, that only gives children 15.2 hours a day to have any free time on their hands to do anything-- including sleep. 83 percent of kids from ages 6 to 17 participate in at least one extracurricular activity, which is piled on top of the number of hours spent on homework (38.9 percent of students take at least one AP course, which doubles the workload per class). This also does not include time spent eating, cleaning, spending time with family, volunteering, traveling, and getting ready for the days ahead, leaving children with only an hour or two of free time. The average student, considering these statistics, does not have enough time for the recommended amount of sleep, which, according to the CDC, is 8 to 10 hours.
With an increasing demand of performance pressure from education systems and teenage-employed corporations, children’s mental and physical health is shoved into the backseat. Feelings of burnout are tied to stress and lack of eating, sleeping, and exercising. The APA specifies that “36 percent of teens reported feeling tired because of stress in the past month… Of the 23 percent of teens who reported skipping a meal in the prior month due to stress, nearly one in four (39 percent) said they do this weekly or more.” Lack of eating, sleeping, and exercising induced by stress can lead to several medical issues and mental diseases, which can be traced as the main factor of why many Generation Z kids have developed mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, ADHD, ADD, insomnia, and more.
This burned-out state among teenagers continues to increase as the years move forward. The New York Times quotes, “The city government on May 25 raised the starting pay to $10 an hour and dropped the minimum age for applicants from 16 years old to 15. It seems to have worked: More teenagers applied and the city has started interviewing candidates for the open positions.” What do people ultimately work for? Money. It is hard for some not to be enticed into a position, simply because they know that they will rake in the green. And for many teenagers, the economy does not provide access to enough resources without having to spend copious amounts of money. USA Today quotes teenager Courtney Collins as saying, “I started working to make sure I had money aside for school, a car, and am able to do things that I want. I think really it is expected for young people to work now because of the major focus on money. And to many, money equals success.” In older generations, happiness and entertainment seemed to come from less material objects and more experiences. Now, the new generation faces a whole new line of expectations of obtaining those objects that were easier for previous generations to get, while finding satisfaction in doing so.
What does not make these expectations from parents and elderly any easier is when the conformity comes from your own age demographic. While many teenagers have to work to afford school, home expenses, medical bills, or insurance, some teens report that they work because they just feel an obligation from their peers to do so. Nick Moretti, 17, states, “I feel like having a job is a really big deal in high school right now… I can't really explain why. You just don't want to be the one friend who doesn't have a job. People my age want to be employed so you can be able to do things, like it's something to be proud of.” Teenagers cannot seem to stop the cycle in which they are trapped, because if they were to do anything else, they would not feel as important or accepted.
While the concept of working may never disappear, there are multiple ways to mend the health of teenagers who are cracking under the pressure that their work environment has dealt them.
There are many online resources that handle information relating to burnout and how to cope with feelings of depression, dissociation, exhaustion, and more (see below). Deenie Bulyalert, (a super awesome) writer for The Scroll, writes regularly for the Mental Health Column, sharing experiences of kids who attend GPHS and how their mental illnesses affect them. Their column can be found here. Allison Robinson also runs her own psychology column on The Scroll, which can be found here.
Whether it is picking up slack for a friend and helping them through a rough patch or simply being there as an ear to listen, the most amazing favor an individual can do for someone in need is to reach out and let them know they are not alone.
As George Eliot said, “What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?”
Passion Leading to Burnout: https://hbr.org/2019/07/when-passion-leads-to-burnout
Burnout Def: https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f129180281
Teenage Burnout: https://www.youthwork-practice.com/youth-education/P01-Burnout-in-children-and-adolescents.html
Mental/Physical Health: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/04/teen-stress
Wages: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/30/business/economy/pandemic-jobs-teenagers.html
Real-World Situations: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/07/25/work-shortage-teenagers-largest-segments-workforce/8086700002/
Hours a week Worked: https://www.zippia.com/advice/average-work-hours-per-week/
Extracurriculars: https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/70131/900869-Children-s-Environment-and-Behavior-Participation-in-Extracurricular-Activities.PDF
CDC Source: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/features/students-sleep.htm
