High-Achieving Schools Connote Risks for Adolescents: Problems Documented, Processes Implicated, and Directions for Interventions

Abstract

Excessive pressures to excel, generally in affluent contexts, are now listed among the top 4 "high risk" factors for adolescents' mental health, along with exposure to poverty, trauma, and discrimination. Multiple studies of high-achieving school (HAS) cohorts have shown elevated rates of serious symptoms relative to norms, with corroborating evidence from other research using diverse designs. Grounded in theories on resilience and ecological influences in development, a conceptual model is presented here on major risk and protective processes implicated in unrelenting achievement pressures facing HAS youth. These include forces at the macrolevel, including economic and technological changes that have led to the "middle class squeeze," and proximal influences involving the family, peers, schools, and communities. Also considered are potential directions for future interventions, with precautions about some practices that are currently widespread in HAS contexts. In the years ahead, any meaningful reductions in the high distress of HAS youth will require collaborations among all stakeholders, with parents and educators targeting the specific areas that must be prioritized in their own communities. Leaders in higher education and social policy could also help in beginning to curtail this problem, which is truly becoming an epidemic among today's youth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

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High-Achieving Schools Connote Risks for Adolescents: Problems
Documented, Processes Implicated, and Directions for Interventions
Suniya S. Luthar
Arizona State University and Columbia University’s
Teachers College
Nina L. Kumar
Authentic Connections, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Nicole Zillmer
Arizona State University
Excessive pressures to excel, generally in affluent contexts, are now listed among the top 4
“high risk” factors for adolescents’ mental health, along with exposure to poverty, trauma,
and discrimination. Multiple studies of high-achieving school (HAS) cohorts have shown
elevated rates of serious symptoms relative to norms, with corroborating evidence from other
research using diverse designs. Grounded in theories on resilience and ecological influences
in development, a conceptual model is presented here on major risk and protective processes
implicated in unrelenting achievement pressures facing HAS youth. These include forces at
the macrolevel, including economic and technological changes that have led to the “middle
class squeeze,” and proximal influences involving the family, peers, schools, and communi-
ties. Also considered are potential directions for future interventions, with precautions about
some practices that are currently widespread in HAS contexts. In the years ahead, any
meaningful reductions in the high distress of HAS youth will require collaborations among
all stakeholders, with parents and educators targeting the specific areas that must be priori-
tized in their own communities. Leaders in higher education and social policy could also help
in beginning to curtail this problem, which is truly becoming an epidemic among today’s
youth.
Public Significance Statement
Major policy reports have now declared youth in high-achieving schools to be an at-risk group.
Following a summary of findings documenting elevated problems, this article describes the complex,
multilevel factors that eventuate in high levels of pressure. Also reviewed are interventions that might
reduce stress levels and promote positive well-being.
Keywords: affluence, socioeconomic status, risk, resilience, high-achieving schools (HAS)
Developmental scientists have increasingly argued that
youth in high-achieving settings are an “at-risk group” (for
a review see Luthar & Kumar, 2018, p. 441), and now, two
major national policy reports have clearly stated this (Wal-
lace, 2019). In a consensus study on maximizing equity in
children’s well-being, the National Academies of Science,
Engineering and Medicine (NASEM, 2019) indicated that
exposure to elevated levels of chronic stress applies to
youth at high as well as low levels of socioeconomic
status (SES). “Studies using varied samples and methods
have converged in indicating relatively high levels of
adjustment problems, likely linked with long-standing,
ubiquitous pressures to excel at academics and extracur-
riculars (among) students attending high-achieving
schools (HASs)” (NASEM, 2019, pp. 4–24). The sum-
marized conclusion echoes that from a Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation report on adolescent wellness (Geisz
& Nakashian, 2018); that is, that exposure to excessive
This article was published Online First November 7, 2019.
XSuniya S. Luthar, Department of Psychology, Arizona State Univer-
sity, and Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, Columbia
University’s Teachers College; XNina L. Kumar, Authentic Connections,
Cambridge, Massachusetts; Nicole Zillmer, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers
College, Arizona State University.
Nicole Zillmer is now an Independent Scholar, Phoenix, Arizona.
This article was supported by funding from Authentic Connections,
which was founded by Suniya S. Luthar, who also serves as the organiza-
tion’s Executive Director. Nina Kumar is Chief Executive Officer of
Authentic Connections.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Suniya S.
Luthar, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, 950 South
McAllister Street, Tempe, AZ 85287. E-mail: sluthar@asu.edu
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
American Psychologist
© 2019 American Psychological Association 2020, Vol. 75, No. 7, 983–995
ISSN: 0003-066X http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/amp0000556
983