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Mental health study finds doomscrolling may be giving young people anxiety

Topic: Mental Health

With so much bad news around, how it is affecting young people's mental health? ( ABC: Graphic by Sharon Gordon )

War, terrorism, death and destruction — there's no denying that there's a lot of bad news around.

So could constantly scrolling through bad news   on social media — or doomscrolling — be giving young people existential anxiety?

A study published in the peer-reviewed journal ScienceDirect says negative news can be a source of vicarious trauma and that media coverage of mass traumatic events can trigger acute stress, PTSD, anxiety, and depression.

Emma Thomas is one of the authors of the study. ( Supplied: Emma Thomas )

One of the study's authors, Professor Emma Thomas from Flinders University in Adelaide, says the study suggests all this doom and gloom can trigger existential anxiety.

"I think we can all relate to turning on the news and feeling like the world is going to pieces," she says.

What is doomscrolling?

Doomscrolling, also known as doomsurfing, is the excessive consumption of news – particularly negative news – online.

"When you're scrolling on social media, you see more negative [stories] than you would positive," 19-year-old Rebecca says.

"News channels are always posting … someone's house is on fire, or someone's been murdered … it's depressing and you can't really escape it," her friend Alice says.

Uni students Rosie, 22, Alice, 19, and Rebecca, 19, spoke to BTN High about doomscrolling. ( ABC: Che Chorley )

The young women say the Israel-Gaza war, elder abuse, the housing crisis, and cost of living are issues they are constantly reminded of.

"There's a lot to take in and it's quite overwhelming," Rebecca says.

"Violence against women and kids is very scary, especially for young kids," her friend Rosie says.

Professor Thomas says doomscrolling can lead to the contemplation of some heavy questions.

"The more you're seeking out this kind of negative news that you're not having thoughtful control over, the more it was associated with existential anxiety — a sense in which life isn't very meaningful," she says.

Researchers found both groups in the study, which involved more than 800 uni students from the US and Iran, felt that life was becoming meaningless. The students also felt more negative about humanity in general.

"The more that people engaged in this doomscrolling behaviour online, the more they reported higher levels of misanthropy, which is a general kind of dislike and distrust of humans," Professor Thomas says.

Disconnecting is hard

The research didn't include Australians, but experts say exposure to a whole lot of bad news is likely having the same impact on young people here.

Linda Williams is the clinical lead at ReachOut, an online mental health service for young people and their parents. 

Linda Williams is the clinical lead for ReachOut. ( Supplied: Linda Williams )

She says it's hard to disconnect from news on social media feeds.

Ms Williams says young people may start to believe that the world isn't safe and that people can't be trusted.

"There's a lot going on in the world that young people are worried about," she says.

The teenagers BTN High spoke to agreed.

"I do see a lot of bad stuff, disturbing images from war, such as the [Israel-Gaza war]. It shows the world is much darker than we think," Kosta says.

"It becomes an echo chamber type of thing where you might feel life's pretty harsh … and then when you get hit with a bunch of bad news, you start thinking the world is pretty shit," Dennis says.

"It can impact young people in not wanting to socialise or go out to potentially protect themselves from things they're seeing online," Rebecca says.

Alexandra says recent negative news has some young people working in retail on edge.

"There've been a lot of stabbings in malls, shopping centres, just random places in Australia," she says.

Professor Thomas says the more cynical and mistrustful you are about the world, "the more you are likely to be susceptible to things like conspiracy theories".

Alexandra says young and vulnerable people may believe what they see online.

"We can see so much fake news from these companies trying to get lots of commercial value, lots of views, and it's just a really negative space," she says.

Media student Alexandra, 18, says recent news about stabbings is worrying. ( ABC: Che Chorley )

"So many teenagers, young adults can be vulnerable, almost gullible, where they could see fake news and believe it … that should be discussed a lot more. It should be a lot more prohibited online.

"Especially on TikTok, which is popular among the young population."

The US election is another story that has generated a big discussion on social media, especially since the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

International student, Kenji, 17, and uni students Dennis, 17, and Denis, 19. ( ABC: Che Chorley )

Alexandra says turning off the news isn't the answer though.

"It's very important to keep up with your news so you're informed about stuff going on in the world … you've just got to be careful with it. Make sure you get your stuff from trustworthy sources online," she says.

"I usually just read the headlines for a few seconds and scroll past it right away," Kenji says.

But Professor Thomas agrees that it's important for young people to be politically engaged.

"It's thinking about how we engage politically and being aware that you're seeking out and being exposed to a lot of negativity," she says.

"There are other ways that are more productive and pragmatic in terms of seeking to change the world but also protect your wellbeing."

How to avoid doomscrolling

Linda Williams from ReachOut says it is best to take opportunities to switch off.

"Feeling upset, feeling stressed, or finding it difficult to disengage would be a sign to say perhaps the balance you've got isn't quite right for you at the moment," she says.

"If it's not working for you, then try something different."

Rosie thinks social media detoxes are a good idea.

"Relying a bit more on your friends, filling yourself with more positive experiences, rather than being exposed to negative news," she says.

"Especially before bed, flip the phone the other way because constantly looking at bad news all the time can be hard."

"As cringy as it may sound, talk to your family, talk to your teachers, whoever is an influence in your life," Alice says.

Kosta, 19, says there's good stuff on social media too. ( ABC: Che Chorley )

"Just following people who you find will lift you, rather than bring you down," Rebecca says.

Denis says if you see something traumatic "turn off the phone for a bit".

" That's enough internet for the day, or something like that, just so you save yourself that pain," he says.

And Kosta says, if you can't get off your phone, watch something else.

"Shut off social media, go watch some cat memes as well. That's the best stuff."

• Diet & Nutrition

Everything You Need to Know About Caffeine—Including How to Quit It

I ’ll never know how much caffeine I consumed the night I practically drank my weight in Typhoo tea, but given the fact that I stayed awake for 24 hours, it was an awful lot. The tea was delicious, the conversation with friends was engaging—and both conspired to see me consuming three pots of the stuff before I realized what I had done. Jitteriness followed; then a headache; then accelerated heart rate; and finally a full day and night of sleeplessness. 

That may have been my lowest caffeine moment, but it was not remotely the only time I overindulged. Like most adults, I consume caffeine on a daily basis, and I’ve sometimes paid a price—especially in terms of insomnia. So how much caffeine is too much? How do you quit if you want to? And what is the best time of day to stop drinking it if you don’t want to spend the night staring at the ceiling? Here’s what you need to know.

How does caffeine have its effects?

In the brain, caffeine blocks or impedes the effect of adenosine , a building block of nucleic acid found in all of the cells in the body. Ordinarily, adenosine is a central nervous system depressant that promotes sleep and suppresses arousal. Caffeine starts interfering with adenosine relatively quickly; it is absorbed by the small intestine and has its peak effect within 30 minutes or so , depending on multiple factors including how much food is in your stomach.

What drinks contain caffeine?

The place most people find their caffeine is in their coffee cups, and there can be an awful lot of it there. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends limiting your caffeine intake to 400 mg or less per day. A single 8-oz. cup of coffee contains about 100 mg , and with coffee shops like Starbucks selling single servings of up to 20 oz., it’s easy to break through that limit—especially if you begin consuming coffee early in the day.

Read More : 8 Ways to Stay Hydrated if You Hate Drinking Water

Tea, of course, contains caffeine too. An 8-oz. cup of black tea has just shy of 50 mg, and green tea weighs in at close to 30. Cola has 22 mg in an 8-oz. serving, and while that is much less than coffee, soft drinks are typically served in 12-oz. cans or 20-oz. bottles, so here, too, the caffeine can add up. 

As for energy drinks, beware. A small, 8.4-oz. can of Red Bull contains 80 mg of caffeine, and a concentrated, 2-oz. energy shot can contain a staggering 215 mg, according to the Mayo Clinic. Just how any one person will react to these caffeine dosings can be hard to predict, and the 400-mg limit is just a general benchmark.

“There is individual variation in how caffeine is metabolized,” says registered dietitian nutritionist Maya Feller, “so some people may experience unwanted side effects with a lower amount of caffeine.”

What are caffeine's side effects?

Since caffeine is a stimulant, it can make it harder both to fall and stay asleep. Other side effects can include irritability, nervousness, excessive urination, headaches, and muscle tremors, says registered dietitian Mindy Haar, assistant dean at the New York Institute of Technology’s School of Health Professions. “For people with a history of anxiety, depression, or mood disorders,” Feller says, “high caffeine intake can exacerbate feelings of instability.”

You can even have caffeine withdrawal . Symptoms can be similar to those of withdrawal from other mood-altering substances, including headaches, fatigue or drowsiness, depressed mood, irritability, poor concentration, nausea, vomiting, or muscle pain and stiffness.

So how do you safely quit caffeine?

For most people, caffeine is not harmful and may even have health benefits. According to the American Heart Association, regular coffee drinkers may be less likely to develop cancer and several other chronic diseases. Caffeine may also reduce appetite and lower depression risk. But that’s mostly true of people who consume caffeine in moderation. Others may suffer from jitteriness, insomnia, and coffee’s other unpleasant side effects. For them, abstinence—or at least cutting back—may be best.

Read More : The 1 Heart-Health Habit You Should Start When You’re Young

Quitting caffeine is best done the same way you’d quit any other drug: gradually. “I do not recommend going cold turkey,” says Feller, “especially for someone who regularly consumes caffeine.” Start reducing your intake by 5% to 10% each day while drinking your caffeine earlier in the day. “Maintain this for 3-4 days, and then remove the second drink until all caffeine is consumed before noon,” and you’ve capped your daily intake at 400 mg. Continue this slow detox until your desired level.

Cutting out caffeinated beverages does have a downside. It can mean reducing the overall amount of fluids you consume in a day, and that can be bad for your health. According to the Mayo Clinic , men should drink about 15.5 cups, or 3.7 liters of fluids per day, and women should consume 11.5 cups, or 2.7 liters. Haar thus recommends replacing each caffeinated drink you eliminate with water or a decaf beverage.

What time should you stop drinking caffeine during the day?

Feller recommends that people keeping a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. workday schedule limit their caffeine intake to the hours before noon. If you work an irregular or overnight shift, similarly stop drinking caffeine 10 or 11 hours before you go to bed. The Sleep Foundation gives you a little more wiggle room, suggesting stopping caffeine at least eight hours before bed. But again, there are person-to-person variations. 

“Aside from general differences in metabolism between people,” says Haar, “obesity, smoking, use of oral contraceptives, altitude, and pregnancy can affect how long it takes for caffeine to be totally out of your system. You should observe your own intake and how easy it is to fall asleep.”

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Ultraprocessed foods are everywhere. How bad are they?

FILE - A customer makes a purchase at a convenience store in Boston in this July 12, 2005 file photo. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole, file)

FILE - A woman looks at products in the aisle of a store as her daughter naps in a shopping cart in Waco, Texas on Dec. 14, 2010. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

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Whether they know it or not, most Americans don’t go a day — or often a single meal — without eating ultraprocessed foods.

From sugary cereals at breakfast to frozen pizzas at dinner, plus in-between snacks of potato chips, sodas and ice cream, ultraprocessed foods make up about 60% of the U.S. diet. For kids and teens, it’s even higher – about two-thirds of what they eat.

That’s concerning because ultraprocessed foods have been linked to a host of negative health effects, from obesity and diabetes to heart disease, depression, dementia and more. One recent study suggested that eating these foods may raise the risk of early death.

Nutrition science is tricky, though, and most research so far has found connections, not proof, regarding the health consequences of these foods.

Food manufacturers argue that processing boosts food safety and supplies and offers a cheap, convenient way to provide a diverse and nutritious diet.

Even if the science were clear, it’s hard to know what practical advice to give when ultraprocessed foods account for what one study estimates is 73% of the U.S. food supply.

The Associated Press asked several nutrition experts and here’s what they said:

What are ultraprocessed foods?

Most foods are processed, whether it’s by freezing, grinding, fermentation, pasteurization or other means. In 2009, Brazilian epidemiologist Carlos Monteiro and colleagues first proposed a system that classifies foods according to the amount of processing they undergo, not by nutrient content.

This article is part of AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health. Read more Be Well.

At the top of the four-tier scale are foods created through industrial processes and with ingredients such as additives, colors and preservatives that you couldn’t duplicate in a home kitchen, said Kevin Hall, a researcher who focuses on metabolism and diet at the National Institutes of Health.

“These are most, but not all, of the packaged foods you see,” Hall said.

Such foods are often made to be both cheap and irresistibly delicious, said Dr. Neena Prasad, director of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Food Policy Program.

“They have just the right combination of sugar, salt and fat and you just can’t stop eating them,” Prasad said

However, the level of processing alone doesn’t determine whether a food is unhealthy or not, Hall noted. Whole-grain bread, yogurt, tofu and infant formula are all highly processed, for instance, but they’re also nutritious.

Are ultraprocessed foods harmful?

Here’s the tricky part. Many studies suggest that diets high in such foods are linked to negative health outcomes. But these kinds of studies can’t say whether the foods are the cause of the negative effects — or whether there’s something else about the people who eat these foods that might be responsible.

At the same time, ultraprocessed foods, as a group, tend to have higher amounts of sodium, saturated fat and sugar, and tend to be lower in fiber and protein. It’s not clear whether it’s just these nutrients that are driving the effects.

Hall and his colleagues were the first to conduct a small but influential experiment that directly compared the results of eating similar diets made of ultraprocessed versus unprocessed foods.

Published in 2019 , the research included 20 adults who went to live at an NIH center for a month. They received diets of ultraprocessed and unprocessed foods matched for calories, sugar, fat, fiber and macronutrients for two weeks each and were told to eat as much as they liked.

When participants ate the diet of ultraprocessed foods, they consumed about 500 calories per day more than when they ate unprocessed foods, researchers found — and they gained an average of about 2 pounds (1 kilogram) during the study period. When they ate only unprocessed foods for the same amount of time, they lost about 2 pounds (1 kilogram).

Hall is conducting a more detailed study now, but the process is slow and costly and results aren’t expected until late next year. He and others argue that such definitive research is needed to determine exactly how ultraprocessed foods affect consumption.

“It’s better to understand the mechanisms by which they drive the deleterious health consequences, if they’re driving them,” he said.

Should ultraprocessed foods be regulated?

Some advocates, like Prasad, argue that the large body of research linking ultraprocessed foods to poor health should be more than enough to spur government and industry to change policies. She calls for actions such as increased taxes on sugary drinks, stricter sodium restrictions for manufacturers and cracking down on marketing of such foods to children, the same way tobacco marketing is curtailed.

“Do we want to risk our kids getting sicker while we wait for this perfect evidence to emerge?” Prasad said. Earlier this year, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf broached the subject, telling a conference of food policy experts that ultraprocessed foods are “one of the most complex things I’ve ever dealt with.”

But, he concluded, “We’ve got to have the scientific basis and then we’ve got to follow through.”

How should consumers manage ultraprocessed foods at home?

In countries like the U.S., it’s hard to avoid highly processed foods — and not clear which ones should be targeted, said Aviva Musicus, science director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which advocates for food policies.

“The range of ultraprocessed foods is just so wide,” she said.

Instead, it’s better to be mindful of the ingredients in foods. Check the labels and make choices that align with the current U.S. Dietary Guidelines , she suggested.

“We have really good evidence that added sugar is not great for us. We have evidence that high-sodium foods are not great for us,” she said. “We have great evidence that fruits and vegetables which are minimally processed are really good for us.”

It’s important not to vilify certain foods, she added. Many consumers don’t have the time or money to cook most meals from scratch.

“I think foods should be joyous and delicious and shouldn’t involve moral judgment,” Musicus said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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• Trumponomics would not be as bad as most expect

Opposition would come from all angles

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I n markets it is known as the “Trump trade”, a bet that Donald Trump’s return to the White House would herald more inflation and higher interest rates. Many of Mr Trump’s core policies push in this direction: tariffs would add to import costs, deportations of immigrants could push up wages and deficit-financed tax cuts would juice the economy. Amid mounting inflation, the Federal Reserve would have little choice but to opt for higher rates.

In the wake of Joe Biden’s calamitous debate on June 27th, a preview of the trade played out. As investors grappled with the likelihood that Mr Trump would romp to the presidency, they sold off Treasuries, which led to a brief surge in yields. The big fear is that much worse would come to pass. If Mr Trump fought the Fed on rates, he might sow doubts about the central bank’s independence, undermining confidence in America’s markets and the dollar. That is the economic nightmare scenario for a second Trump administration.

But as with any nightmare, the bogeyman of Trumponomics may be more terrible than its reality. Mr Trump and his advisers have many rotten ideas. They also have some decent ones. And their ability to implement damaging policies will be constrained, with Congress, America’s institutions and markets all serving as checks.

Mr Trump has honed his agenda in speeches and interviews, and on July 8th it was enshrined by Republicans as the party’s election platform. Three elements stand out. The first is deregulation, a staple for Republicans. In contrast to 2017, when he and his advisers were ill prepared for the presidency, this time they have lined up personnel and policies. Mr Trump will waste little time in rescinding many of the Biden administration’s environmental rules, easing drilling restrictions for oil companies and putting pressure on federal agencies to cut spending. He has promised, as in his first presidency, to eliminate two regulations for each one issued.

But much of this is marketing buzz. The number of restrictions in the Code of Federal Regulations, a proxy for the intensity of regulation in America, was basically unchanged under Mr Trump. What is more, his administration was stymied by the courts. It was unsuccessful in nearly 80% of litigation over its use of federal agencies, according to the Institute for Policy Integrity, a research group. Goldman Sachs, a bank, reckons that the impact of all Mr Trump’s deregulation was ultimately insignificant for the wider economy—a result likely to be repeated.

On tax, Mr Trump can, in some sense, be seen as a continuity candidate. Action will focus on the looming expiration of much of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Mr Trump’s package from 2017. The TCJA ’s reduction in corporate taxes was permanent, but much of the rest of the law, including cuts to personal income taxes, will expire at the end of 2025. Mr Trump’s main objective is to make these cuts permanent.

That will not be simple because to get the bill through Congress, Republicans will need to pay the cost of extending the cuts, about $4.5trn over the next decade. But Mr Trump has options. One slug of revenue may come from tariffs, which could bring in $3trn over the decade. There is also money in reversing some of Mr Biden’s policies. The cost of the Inflation Reduction Act, Mr Biden’s climate-subsidy package, is expected to reach about $1trn. Republicans can eliminate some tax credits, starting with discounts for electric vehicles. Mr Trump has also suggested he may unwind Mr Biden’s student-debt cancellations, on track to cost $1trn.

Mr Trump’s other tax ideas are more modest. He has talked about shaving a percentage point off the corporate tax rate, to cut it to 20% (he likes a round number). His zaniest proposal is to make tipping exempt from taxes. Legislators would have to craft that exemption carefully, otherwise everyone might demand pay as gratuities. Without offsetting revenue or spending cuts, every tax cut will make America’s deficit worse, a risk under Mr Trump. But it is not as if Mr Biden has been a paragon of fiscal rectitude: the federal deficit is on track to hit a hefty 7% of GDP this year.

Tariff man, part two

The economic strategy for which Mr Trump is most infamous, especially outside America, is his protectionism. He has been clear about where he wants to go next, aiming for a 10% universal tariff on all imports into America and a 60% levy on Chinese-made goods. He also wants a more concerted decoupling from China.

There is no doubting the global fallout if Mr Trump were to deliver on his panoply of America-first trade policies. Would he be able to do so? In the traditional wing of the Republican Party, there is still resistance to tariffs. If Mr Trump decides to cut Congress out of the picture, he may declare a national-security emergency, which would give him special powers. That, however, may be struck down in court.

Higher tariffs on China would be more achievable, since the White House could piggyback them on existing measures. It could, for instance, conclude that China has not lived up to a deal signed with Mr Trump in 2020, which would be easy to demonstrate. Cracking down on the rerouting of Chinese exports via other countries would be harder without co-operation from foreign governments, which Mr Trump has struggled to elicit in the past.

Moreover, even within Mr Trump’s White House, there may well be opposition to his most aggressive trade policies. Hawks such as Peter Navarro, an economic adviser, have been the most voluble, but Mr Trump likes to assemble a team of rivals, letting him adjudicate between contrasting opinions. He may once again appoint a Wall Street veteran as his treasury secretary and such a figure would be a counterweight to fire-breathing protectionists.

Mr Trump’s agenda will face other hurdles. He wants to hit the ground running but his first year in office features a dense legislative calendar. The debt ceiling will be reinstated on January 2nd, forcing the White House to enter talks with Congress. Another deadline looms at the end of April when Congress will have to make swingeing cuts if it has not worked out a new budget. All the while, the clock will be ticking on Mr Trump’s tax cuts. If the Democrats manage to win the House, all of these negotiations will be that much thornier.

Mr Trump will make even less headway on reshaping the Fed. Investors worry that he wants to influence the central bank’s rate decisions. Putting that desire into practice, though, is difficult. His first chance to appoint a new governor will come in 2026, after which he can also nominate a chair to replace Jerome Powell. But the Fed’s board is seven-strong and all nominations must go through the Senate, which previously blocked two of Mr Trump’s four nominees. If Mr Trump tried to fire Mr Powell, insiders at the Fed think that he would have another unwinnable legal fight on his hands.

Perhaps the biggest short-term damage that Mr Trump can inflict on America’s economy is through his immigration policy. Stopping “the invasion”, as he calls it, will consume his administration. The millions who have entered the country in the past few years have been vital to sustaining economic growth while taming inflation. A halt to migration would be a shock to the labour market. Nevertheless, as with other Trumpian policies, there will be resistance every step of the way, with courts striking down deportation orders, Democrat states refusing to co-operate and businesses lobbying for a lighter touch.

Through all of this, the financial world would also rein in Mr Trump. He is sensitive to the stockmarket, even ascribing its good run earlier this year to expectations of his victory. Were equities to fall or yields to soar when Mr Trump attacks his latest target—whether the Fed, migrants or foreign trade—it would catch his attention.

This is not to be sanguine about Mr Trump’s hold over American politics. There is a risk that his second term would spiral out of control. Checks on his excesses are not automatic, and would need people to go against him in the Republican Party, the courts and society at large. But that ought to happen, which would keep the worst of Trumponomics at bay. ■

For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, finance and markets, sign up to  Money Talks , our weekly subscriber-only newsletter.

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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Halting his charge”

Finance & economics July 13th 2024

• Betting markets are useful when politics is chaotic
• Europe prepares for a mighty trade war
• The dangerous rise of pension nationalism
• How strongmen abuse tools for fighting financial crime
• Xi Jinping really is unshakeably committed to the private sector

From the July 13th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

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Can Japan’s zombie bond market be brought back to life?

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The plasma trade is becoming ever-more hypocritical

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David Wallace-Wells

We All Live in Vegas Now

By David Wallace-Wells

Opinion Writer

In 2022, Americans lost $60 billion betting at licensed casinos and through licensed online gambling, Nate Silver writes in his engrossing new book, “On the Edge,” a meditation on risk, a study of those most comfortable taking it and an invitation for the rest of us to think about what it means that so much more of our lives now seems to hang on it.

That same year, Americans also lost about $40 billion in black-market betting, Silver notes, and $30 billion in state lotteries. These are just the losses, of course — $130 billion worth. The total wagers placed by Americans every year, he estimates, passes $1 trillion. Taken together, the two figures suggest that in 2022 Americans bet the equivalent of nearly 4 percent of gross domestic product and lost more than 10 percent of that money on those bets.

In Silver’s telling, this is not merely a story about the addictive appeal of making low-stakes wagers on your phone, but about a much larger drift toward a more volatile culture of risk-taking, across domains from professional sports to dating apps to venture capital and even, through the pandemic emergency and after, public health. “The activities that everyone agrees are capital-G Gambling — like blackjack and slots and horse racing and lotteries and poker and sports betting — are really just the tip of the iceberg,” he writes. “They are fundamentally not that different from trading stock options or crypto tokens, or investing in new tech startups.”

The result is an emergent rivalry that often resembles a culture war and is sometimes waged in partisan terms. On one side are relatively risk-averse groups — academics, the media and most political actors in the liberal mainstream — that Silver describes as members of a community he calls “the Village.” On the other side are a loose alliance of risk-takers — poker players and also N.B.A. nuts, venture capitalists and crypto speculators — Silver calls “the River,” which he divides into subcommunities.

“Upriver” comprises the high-minded intellectuals who call themselves rationalists and effective altruists and view the world through calculations of expected value. “Mid-river” is embodied by Wall Street and Silicon Valley, where investors hungry for astronomical returns countenance liquidations of the country’s taxi industry and degradations of its eldercare systems, for instance. “Downriver” is table gambling and sports books, and, below that, the legal and moral gray zone of what he calls “the Archipelago,” represented by crypto’s more volatile corners and other sundry scams.

Sports betting illustrates the downriver drift. The Supreme Court functionally legalized sports gambling only in May 2018, and because the country’s experiment with on-demand gambling is so young, it’s not entirely clear yet what its negative effects are. And as with our experiment with marijuana legalization, it’s sometimes hard to separate those effects from moral panic. But according to one survey early this year, 39 percent of American men aged 18 to 49 have an online sports betting account, and 38 percent of Americans with such accounts reported betting more than they should. Almost 20 percent said they’d recently lied about how much they were gambling — about the same percentage that reported losing money that was intended to meet a financial obligation. In New Jersey, in just five years, the number of calls to the state’s gambling addiction hotline has tripled.

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Why Rudeness from Political Candidates Is Bad for Everyone

Research shows how to recover from the negative effects of politicial insults..

Posted August 26, 2024 | Reviewed by Hara Estroff Marano

• What Is Stress?
• Take our Burnout Test
• Find counselling to overcome stress
• Research shows that witnessing rudeness can harm us.
• Seeing rude behavior from political authority figures can be especially damaging.
• In this election year, we can detach from rudeness and use strategies to restore our balance.

Rudeness and disrespect can have long-term effects on people. When someone insults, bullies, or humiliates us, the effects can linger for days, weeks, even years, leading to recurrent feelings of hurt, resentment, and self-doubt. Even witnessing an act of rudeness can have harmful effects, research shows. Seeing rude behavior adversely affects our performance and can cause us to react in fearful, aggressive, and hostile ways (Porath & Erez, 2009).

Social learning theory explains that we receive behavioral cues from the people around us. If their behavior is rude and aggressive, we may behave rudely and aggressively as well (Bandura, 1973). In addition, neuroscience research has shown that we process negative emotions with our amygdala, the brain’s alarm system.

The amygdala responds to perceived threats with fear and defensiveness, activating the sympathetic nervous system ’s stress response of fight, flight, or freeze (LeDoux, 1996). To focus on survival, the stress response can shut down higher brain centers, compromising our ability to think clearly and make reasoned decisions.

The Effects of Witnessing Rudeness

Witnessing rudeness reduces our ability to think rationally, perform routine tasks, and devise creative solutions to problems, research in organizational psychology shows. It also decreases citizenship behavior, our ability to trust and work cooperatively, while increasing aggressive reactions to others (Porath & Erez, 2009).

Such adverse effects from witnessing rude behavior is not limited to the workplace. They likely explain the strong correlation between the increased use of smartphones and social media and the rise of anxiety and depression among young people (Twenge et al., 2010; Twenge, 2017).

The Effects of Witnessing Political Rudeness Today

Organizational researchers Porath and Erez (2009) warn of the highly harmful effects when we witness rudeness from authority figures . They recommend that organizations pay special attention to the behavior of CEOs and managers, powerful role models whose rude behavior can severely undermine employees’ performance.

Their research findings are particularly relevant in today's election season, filled with rudeness from political candidates, especially Donald Trump , who lashes out at opponents with name-calling, insults, and personal attacks. Political rudeness can fill us with fear and defensiveness, interfering with our ability to think clearly, solve our problems creatively, and cooperate as citizens.

What Can You Do About This?

It’s important to be an informed citizen but detaching from political insults by changing the channel or turning off a device gives you the chance to restore your emotional balance. Here are some options for doing that:

• Take a few slow deep breaths, focusing on your heart. It has been shown to reduce stress and restore personal balance (Childre et al, 2016).
• Silently repeat a mantra, a short, spiritual word or phrase. The technique has been found to reduce stress in busy hospital workers and even significantly alleviate PTSD in war veterans (Bormann et al, 2006; 2013).
• Pause for a moment of gratitude . In numerous experiments, practicing gratitude has been shown to reduce stress and restore a sense of balance and emotional well-being (Emmons, 2007).

Choosing to detach and take positive steps to restore emotional well-being can help us become healthier and more balanced in our personal and political lives.

© 2024 Diane Dreher, All Rights Reserved.

Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: A social learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Bormann, J. E., Oman, D., Kemppainen, J. K., Becker, S., Gershwin, M., & Kelly, A. (2006). Mantram repetition for stress management in veterans and employees: A critical incident study. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 53 (5), 502-512.

Bormann, J. E., Thorpe, S. R, Wetherell, J. L., Golshan, S., & Lang, A. J. (2013). Meditation-based mantram intervention for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder: A randomized trial. Psychological Trauma Theory: Research, Practice, and Policy, 5, 259-267.

Childre, D., Martin, H., Rozman, D., & McCraty, R. (2016). Heart intelligence: Connecting with the intuitive guidance of the heart. Waterfront Press.

Emmons, R. A. (2007). Thanks!: How practicing gratitude can make you happier. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.

LeDoux, J. (1996). The Emotional Brain. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Photo. Supporters of President of the United States Donald Trump at a "Keep America Great" rally at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona. By Gage Skidmore. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_Trump_supporters_(49567387501).jpg

Porath, C. L. & Erez, A. (2009). Overlooked but not untouched: How rudeness reduces onlookers’ performance on routine and creative tasks. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 109, 29-44.

Twenge, J. M., Gentile, B., DeWall, C. N., Ma, D., Lacefield, K., & Schurtz, D. R. (2010). Birth cohort increases in psychopathology among young Americans, 1938–2007: A cross-temporal meta-analysis of the MMPI. Clinical psychology review , 30 (2), 145-154.

Twenge, J. (2017). iGen: Why today's super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy--and completely unprepared for adulthood--and what that means for the rest of us. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Diane Dreher, Ph.D. , is an author, researcher, and positive psychology coach.

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Effects of extreme rainfall change on sediment load in the huangfuchuan watershed, loess plateau, china.

1. Introduction

2. materials and methods, 2.1. study area, 2.3. methods, 2.3.1. mann–kendall non-parametric test, 2.3.2. pettitt test, 2.3.3. double mass curve analysis, 3.1. spatiotemporal variations of extreme rainfall indexes, 3.2. change points of extreme rainfall indexes, 3.3. trends and change points of sediment load, 3.4. impact of extreme rainfall on sediment load, 3.4.1. correlation between extreme rainfall indexes and sediment load, 3.4.2. contribution of extreme rainfall to sediment load, 4. discussion, 5. conclusions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

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Share and Cite

Li, E. Effects of Extreme Rainfall Change on Sediment Load in the Huangfuchuan Watershed, Loess Plateau, China. Sustainability 2024 , 16 , 7457. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177457

Li E. Effects of Extreme Rainfall Change on Sediment Load in the Huangfuchuan Watershed, Loess Plateau, China. Sustainability . 2024; 16(17):7457. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177457

Li, Erhui. 2024. "Effects of Extreme Rainfall Change on Sediment Load in the Huangfuchuan Watershed, Loess Plateau, China" Sustainability 16, no. 17: 7457. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177457

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The Effects Homework Can Have On Teens’ Sleeping Habits

Jess Amabile '24 and February 25, 2021

Ever wonder why you feel like you never get enough sleep? Here’s a pretty good reason: large amounts of homework can be detrimental to a teen’s sleeping habits, even more so with high schoolers.

There have been many studies recently about the damage homework has to students’ health, mainly concerning lack of sleep in teenagers.  According to an article published by US News called “The Importance of Sleep for Teen Mental Health” , it states that “ surveys show that less than 9 percent of teens get enough sleep”.  This fact is devastating, especially considering the fact that teenagers take up about thirteen percent of the country’s population.  

Also mentioned in “The Importance of Sleep for Teen Mental Health” , “ about forty-one million Americans get six or fewer hours of sleep per night”.  If teenagers see their parents not getting enough sleep, it can convince them that there are things more important than sleep, such as something almost every teenager in America has to deal with–homework.

Homework is pretty stressful for teens, especially if they have other things to do.  Many teens have long hours at school, which limits the time for them to do their insane amount of homework, attend extra-curricular activities, eat, do whatever they need to around the house, and sleep.  And usually, sleeping is the last thing on the list of things to do before school the next day. Another article, “What’s preventing adequate teen sleep” , states that, “Homework is possibly the biggest factor that keeps teens from getting enough sleep…The sheer quantity of homework absorbs hours that should be dedicated to sleep”.  Students generally have so much homework that they don’t have enough time to do everything else they need to do that day.  So, sleeping is often the first thing teens eliminate from their schedule.  

According to Oxford Learning , homework can have other negative effects on students. In their article, Oxford Learning remarks, “56 percent of students considered homework a primary source of stress. Too much homework can result in lack of sleep, headaches, exhaustion, and weight loss”. 

 Similarly, Stanford Medicine News Center reports that the founder of the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic stated, “‘I think high school is the real danger spot in terms of sleep deprivation,’ said William Dement, MD, Ph.D.”.  Sleep deprivation is a real problem for high school students, and Stanford Medicine News Center continues on this topic by commenting, “Sleep deprivation increases the likelihood teens will suffer myriad negative consequences, including an inability to concentrate, poor grades, drowsy-driving incidents, anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide and even suicide attempts. It’s a problem that knows no economic boundaries”. If students are constantly battling sleep deprivation, how can they concentrate on schoolwork, or even be able to perform everyday tasks?  This shows that homework greatly affects students in both mental and physical ways. If something is supposed to continue a lesson that was learned in school, why is it negatively affecting students’ lives?

Ask yourself: is homework really worth the extremely negative effects?

“What’s preventing adequate teen sleep”

http://sleepeducation.org/news/2017/07/26/what-is-preventing-adequate-teen-sleep

“The Importance of Sleep for Teen Mental Health”

https://health.usnews.com/health-care/for-better/articles/2018-07-02/the-importance-of-sleep-for-teen-mental-health

Oxford Learning

https://www.oxfordlearning.com/how-does-homework-affect-students/#:~:text=How%20Does%20Homework%20Affect%20Students,headaches%2C%20exhaustion%20and%20weight%20loss.

Stanford Medicine News Center

https://med.stanford.edu/news.html

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August 28, 2024

Student Opinion and Resources Newspaper

The Negative Effects of Homework

Last updated on July 27, 2022

It’s easy to villainize homework, a common stress factor in our daily lives. Numerous teachers assign a simple ten minutes of homework a day, usually more. However, entering middle and high school, the six to seven classes quickly add up. Soon, drowning in hours of endless work becomes routine. This cuts into extracurriculars, and personal free time, and dictates how we spend our day. Homework is not necessary because of the negative impacts on mental health it helps develop, such as burn-out, and only benefits the non-disadvantaged families. 

Homework was originally invented by an Italian teacher in 1905 and used to punish misbehaving students. The version of homework we complete every day is far from that. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that the typical high schooler spends 6.8 hours of homework per week, perhaps longer. What used to be discipline has now become a plethora of pressure. “That means that by asking our children to put in an hour or more per day of dedicated homework time, we are not only not helping them, but according to the aforementioned studies — we are hurting them, both physically and emotionally.” Being an eighth-grader with non-academic commitments and a touch of insomnia, homework is a huge anxiety factor in my daily life. Although I’m still thriving in the school environment, it is an unnecessary distraction when I could be preparing for a final or different commitment. One of the leading causes of sleep deprivation in teens is homework, which [in middle and high school at least], can easily be limited to a small subset.

With a lack of relaxation and an abundance of work, the body shuts down, physically and mentally. Burnout, depression, and anxiety are all present when the anticipated overload occurs. What is burnout? “A stressful lifestyle can put people under extreme pressure, to the point that they feel exhausted, empty, burned out, and unable to cope.” The term “burnout” was coined by American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger in the 1970s. For students with a competitive sport, other activity-filled schedules, or AP/honor classes, this has been proven true. It has been proven that areas of work cause this, not to be confused with exhaustion or depression, which can be life-threatening negative thoughts, low self-esteem, and hopelessness. It’s important to understand balance. If homework cannot be completely eliminated from the curriculum, it should at least be ensured a cut in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. 

In addition to unkept stress, many students do not have the proper access to technology and homework help. Less affluent families have children that may work jobs, take care of family members when the parents are working multiple shifts, and generally don’t have internet connections/technology. “It highlights Inequalities” is the term the University of Sandiego uses. In addition, the American Psychological Association also observes, “Adding homework into the mix is one more thing to deal with — and if the student is struggling, the task of completing homework can be too much to consider at the end of an already long school day”. Although most students simply whine and complain about the extra work, it can be a true disadvantage for children in struggling home environments.

Many would argue, “Homework is essential to the school’s curriculum. How else would the students polish up the learning material, get extra practice, and teach time management?”. While these are all fair points, extended school hours could solve this problem. Accessibility to help after school, as mentioned previously, is difficult for many students. Extending the school session by even an hour or less, which will also benefit parents’ working schedules, lets the teacher have more time to grade assignments done in class and deliver help to the students. Teachers should ensure that students understand the material while in class. When the extra practice is then supplied, the teacher has an opportunity to work with the pupil. A study hall would be advantageous as well, as opposed to leaving students to fend for themselves after school. 

Although homework has both positives and negatives, the strain it places on students is not healthy and outweighs the benefits. Learners already spend six to seven hours five days a week in a tense environment, and as the name implies, work after school shouldn’t be standard. Many workplaces are experimenting with five-hour workdays, such as Tower Paddle Boards because a study by the APA showed Americans can only be fully productive for two to three hours in a row. In the future, I hope that schools will be able to do the same in order to prevent mental and physical overworking, level the playing field for unequipped families, and allow students to spend more time with friends, and family, and pursue non-academic activities. 

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Negative Effects of Homework

Cindy Guo January 21, 2017 School Leave a comment

By Katherine Han

Imagine this: You get out of school around 3:00 pm, and you’re probably pretty tired from the 7 hours of instruction. After school, you still have one or two activities to attend. Say you get home around 6:30 pm. You take a shower, eat dinner with your family, and it’s likely already close to 8:00pm. So you head upstairs to your room to do your homework. Each of your classes has assigned around 45 minutes of homework. When you put all of the homework together, you realize that you have an entire load of work to complete for tomorrow. By the time you finish your homework, it is 11:30pm, and your parents are already asleep. That is what a day in my life generally looks like. Therefore I think that schools should reduce the amount of homework assigned to students because excess homework causes stress, sleep deprivation and fatigue, and less time spent with family and friends.

One reason that schools should reduce the homework load is because an excess load can cause students to have a lot of stress. Even though schools are being more careful now with assigning only a certain amount of homework per class, when you put all of the classes together, you end up with a long list of homework items. This can cause students to feel very pressured because they want to finish all their homework on time. Students are always rushing to finish their homework due to the amount they have and all of the other activities they have going on in their lives. I have seen one of my fellow classmates cry because he was so overwhelmed by the amount of homework he had to complete. Students also tend to stress over homework because they know that their homework grade affects their overall grade in the class. Homework should be a review of the new material learned in class, but instead, it’s just causing a lot of stress in students.

Homework is also one of the main reasons students are often sleep deprived and tired. A lot of students get home late due to after school activities. Coming home late and then having to complete a load of homework causes the students to go to bed even later. I have volleyball practice from 3:00 to 5:00pm. On game days, I don’t get home till around 7:00 pm. Because of this and all of the homework that I have, I’ve been going to bed at nearly midnight every night. I go to school the next day feeling sleep deprived and weak. I often end up becoming inattentive during class due to the lack of sleep I received the night before. An elementary school in Massachusetts recently started a no-homework pilot program. The principal of the school says, “We want them [the kids] to go to soccer practice or football practice, and we want them to go to bed. And that’s it” (Reilly). Having less or no homework could definitely increase the number of hours of sleep each student gets every night. The purpose of this program in Massachusetts is working towards that goal. It’s a common belief that homework is a great way to cement new material into student’s minds. However, “research has been unable to prove that homework improves student performance” (“Elementary School Bans Homework”). Other studies have shown that “homework can cause physical and emotional fatigue, fuel negative attitudes about learning and limit leisure time for children” (Reilly).

Another reason schools should assign less homework is because homework can be the cause of less time spent with family and friends. I often spend more time in my room doing homework than with my family. I sometimes even have to miss out on social events with friends because I know that I have a lot of homework left to complete. I’ve also seen some of my friends turn down events or get-togethers because they have a load of homework to complete. If schools assigned less homework, students would be able to complete the homework quicker, and they would be able to spend more time with their family and friends.

Some people say that homework is a great way to get extra practice and to help students learn new material. In some ways, this is true. Homework does provide extra practice for students, and there’s many assignments that teachers have assigned that have proved to be very helpful. However, assigning loads of homework doesn’t help anyone. Instead of overloading students with homework, schools can find an alternative way to get in some “extra practice” for the students who need or want it. For example, adding on time to the school day to allow teachers more time for instruction could fill in for the extra practice that homework provides. Another option is finding a healthy medium. Schools could work to find just the right amount of homework that each class should assign. Most importantly, this limit should be enforced throughout the school to ensure no student ends up with a load of homework regardless of the limit.

There has always been a large debate around homework. In ways, homework can help, but it has also caused lots of negative effects as well. Schools should assign less homework to students because it causes stress, sleep deprivation and fatigue, and less time spent with family and friends. If schools could work to find a better alternative to assigning a load of homework, it could take a large burden off of the student’s shoulders that could prove to seriously improve the student’s lives.

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Negative Effects of Homework on Mind & Body

Education experts confirm that there is a relationship between depression and homework. If homework did not exist, a lot of students would enjoy learning. It could even result in more creativity in schools.

The dangers of homework stretch from the body to the mind. They range from fatigue to burnout and even being denied the chance to spend more time outside the study space. Here are reasons why too much homework is bad and suggestions on how to deal with it provided by 123homework .

• Causes stress and anxiety

The thought that you have a few exercises waiting for you in the evening is enough to cause anxiety. You begin wondering whether you can manage the exercises or you will fail. It gets worse when you realize that you will be handling the assignment alone. No classmates or a teacher to assist. Your parents or guardians might also not be in a position to assist. It becomes the first point connecting homework and stress.

The best solution is to set a time to work on the assignment. You will avoid thinking about the work until it is time to tackle it. You can also get help from your tutor or online writers. It will reduce anxiety.

• Takes away playtime

Playtime is important for a student who has spent his entire day in class. The entire day is spent with books and tutors. Just when you think you can enjoy a game of football, you are told to return to books. This is why many students are stressed over homework. The time you would have spent unwinding goes to completing these assignments.

• Stops students from resting

When asked why is homework bad, experts cited the fact that students do not find time to rest. After spending the entire day in class, it is only reasonable to allow the student to rest. It could involve sleeping, watching a movie, or chatting with friends.

Students cannot rest knowing that some homework is waiting. Whether you can manage the assignment or not, you will still be stressed about homework. It feels like a cloud hanging over your head. The long deadline or your ability to complete the work do not count. Unconsciously, you will feel that some work is pending.

• Denies students a chance to socialize

One of the connections between homework and mental health has nothing to do with the actual assignment. It comes as an indirect effect. When a student cannot socialize, he lives a stressful life. Upon coming from school, a student should find time to play games, chat with friends, and watch movies, or do such social activities. The advice to complete assignments first denies students the opportunity to socialize.

Socialization is a crucial part of good mental health. As students exchange ideas and play, they relieve stress coming from schoolwork. The idea of a return to books after an entire day of lectures and library sessions is unwelcome.

• Causes dilemma and doubts

One of the issues about homework affecting mental health is the doubt and anxiety that come with assignments. A student is not sure whether he got the answers right. Even the brightest students have to wait for approval from the teacher.

In some cases, students who understand a topic but miss a concept or two end up failing. Such failure is demoralizing. It causes them to lose faith in their ability to complete an assignment alone. This works against the original intention of enabling students to work independently.

• Results in lack of balance in life

Homework denies students a chance to achieve a work-life balance. The student comes to class only to return to books immediately. Without socialization or a chance to work on personal projects, the life of a student becomes too academic.

If homework must continue, it is upon the student to find a way out. Hire a homework helper or use the best assignment apps online. You should also set a specific time for homework to make it easier and faster to complete. Such measures make homework easier and interesting.

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The Dark Side of Homework: Why It’s Harmful and What the Statistics Say

Pencils down, backpacks zipped—the after-school battle that’s eroding our children’s well-being and widening educational gaps has a name: homework. This seemingly innocuous academic tradition has become a contentious issue in recent years, sparking debates among educators, parents, and policymakers alike. As we delve into the dark side of homework, we’ll explore its history, examine its impact on students, and consider alternatives that could reshape the future of education.

The practice of assigning homework has been a cornerstone of education for centuries, with its roots tracing back to the early days of formal schooling. Initially conceived as a way to reinforce classroom learning and instill discipline, homework has evolved into a complex and often controversial aspect of modern education. Today, the homework debate rages on, with proponents arguing for its necessity in academic achievement and critics pointing to its detrimental effects on student well-being and family life.

The importance of examining homework’s impact on students cannot be overstated. As our understanding of child development and learning processes advances, it’s crucial to reevaluate long-standing educational practices. The homework question touches on fundamental issues of equity, mental health, and the very purpose of education itself. By critically analyzing the role of homework in our educational system, we can work towards creating more effective and supportive learning environments for all students.

The Negative Effects of Homework on Student Well-being

One of the most significant concerns surrounding homework is its impact on student well-being. The Alarming Reality: What Percent of Students Are Stressed by Homework? reveals that a staggering number of students experience stress and anxiety related to their after-school assignments. This stress can manifest in various ways, from physical symptoms like headaches and stomach aches to emotional distress and feelings of overwhelm.

The pressure to complete homework often comes at the expense of valuable family time and social interactions. As students struggle to balance their academic responsibilities with extracurricular activities and personal interests, family dinners become rushed affairs, and quality time with loved ones becomes a luxury. This erosion of family connections can have long-lasting effects on a child’s emotional development and sense of security.

Moreover, the time-consuming nature of homework can significantly impact students’ sleep patterns and physical health. Late nights spent completing assignments lead to sleep deprivation, which in turn affects cognitive function, mood regulation, and overall well-being. Understanding Homeostatic Imbalance and Stress: A Comprehensive Guide with Worksheet Answers sheds light on how disrupted sleep patterns can contribute to a cascade of health issues.

Perhaps most concerning is the potential for homework to diminish students’ interest in learning and contribute to academic burnout. When learning becomes synonymous with tedious, repetitive tasks, students may lose their natural curiosity and enthusiasm for education. This disengagement can have far-reaching consequences, affecting not only academic performance but also future career aspirations and lifelong learning attitudes.

Homework and Academic Performance: A Surprising Relationship

Contrary to popular belief, the relationship between homework and academic achievement is not as straightforward as one might assume. Numerous studies have shown a limited correlation between homework and improved performance, particularly for younger students. This surprising finding challenges the long-held assumption that more homework inevitably leads to better academic outcomes.

The law of diminishing returns applies to homework as well. While some homework may be beneficial, there comes a point where additional assignments yield little to no academic benefit. This threshold varies depending on the student’s age, with high school students generally able to handle more homework than elementary or middle school students. However, even for older students, excessive homework can lead to burnout and decreased motivation.

It’s important to note that the effectiveness of homework differs across age groups. For younger children, homework has been shown to have minimal impact on academic achievement. As students progress through middle and high school, homework can become more beneficial, but only when it’s carefully designed and appropriately challenging.

The quality of homework assignments is far more important than quantity. Meaningful, engaging tasks that reinforce classroom learning or encourage independent exploration are more likely to yield positive results than rote memorization or busywork. Educators and policymakers must focus on creating homework policies that prioritize quality over quantity, ensuring that out-of-school assignments truly contribute to student learning and growth.

Stress and Homework: What the Statistics Reveal

The statistics surrounding homework-related stress are alarming. Studies have consistently shown that a high percentage of students report experiencing stress and anxiety due to homework demands. In some surveys, as many as 70-80% of students indicate that homework is a significant source of stress in their lives.

When comparing stress levels across different educational systems, it becomes clear that homework practices vary widely. Countries with high-performing education systems, such as Finland, often assign less homework than their counterparts, challenging the notion that more homework equates to better academic outcomes. These international comparisons provide valuable insights into alternative approaches to education that prioritize student well-being alongside academic achievement.

The long-term effects of academic stress on mental health are a growing concern among researchers and mental health professionals. Chronic stress during childhood and adolescence can lead to increased risk of anxiety disorders, depression, and other mental health issues later in life. Overcoming Math Stress: Strategies for Confidence and Success in Mathematics explores how subject-specific stress, such as math anxiety, can have lasting impacts on students’ academic and personal lives.

Interestingly, gender differences in homework-related stress have been observed in various studies. Girls often report higher levels of stress and anxiety related to homework compared to boys. This disparity may be attributed to societal expectations, differences in coping strategies, or other factors that require further investigation to fully understand and address.

The Equity Issue: How Homework Perpetuates Inequality

One of the most troubling aspects of homework is its potential to exacerbate existing educational inequalities. Students from different socioeconomic backgrounds often face vastly different circumstances when it comes to completing homework assignments. Disparities in home resources and support can significantly impact a student’s ability to succeed academically.

For students from low-income families, homework can present numerous challenges. Limited access to technology, quiet study spaces, or academic resources can make completing assignments difficult or impossible. Parents working multiple jobs may have less time to assist with homework, putting their children at a disadvantage compared to peers with more available parental support. The Pervasive Daily Stress of Poverty: Unraveling Its Impact on Brain Development highlights how these socioeconomic factors can have far-reaching effects on a child’s cognitive development and academic potential.

Homework’s role in widening the achievement gap is a critical concern. As students from privileged backgrounds benefit from additional resources and support, those from disadvantaged backgrounds may fall further behind. This cycle can perpetuate and even amplify existing inequalities, making it increasingly difficult for students from low-income families to achieve academic success and social mobility.

Cultural biases in homework assignments can further compound these issues. Assignments that assume certain cultural knowledge or experiences may inadvertently disadvantage students from diverse backgrounds. Educators must be mindful of these potential biases and strive to create inclusive, culturally responsive homework practices that support all students’ learning and growth.

Alternatives to Traditional Homework

As the drawbacks of traditional homework become increasingly apparent, educators and researchers are exploring alternative approaches to out-of-school learning. Project-based learning approaches offer one promising alternative, encouraging students to engage in long-term, interdisciplinary projects that foster creativity, critical thinking, and real-world problem-solving skills.

The flipped classroom model is another innovative approach that reimagines the role of homework. In this model, students engage with instructional content at home through videos or readings, while class time is devoted to collaborative problem-solving and hands-on activities. This approach allows for more personalized instruction and support during school hours, potentially reducing the need for extensive homework assignments.

Personalized learning strategies, facilitated by advancements in educational technology, offer yet another alternative to traditional homework. These approaches tailor assignments to individual students’ needs, interests, and learning styles, potentially increasing engagement and reducing unnecessary stress. Gloria’s Study Challenge: The Impact of One More Hour and the Hidden Costs of Interruptions explores how personalized study strategies can impact learning outcomes.

Emphasizing in-class practice and collaboration is another way to reduce the burden of homework while still promoting learning and skill development. By providing more opportunities for guided practice during school hours, teachers can ensure that students receive immediate feedback and support, potentially reducing the need for extensive at-home practice.

Conclusion: Rethinking Homework for a Better Educational Future

As we’ve explored throughout this article, the traditional approach to homework is fraught with challenges. From its negative impact on student well-being to its potential to exacerbate educational inequalities, homework as we know it may be doing more harm than good. The limited correlation between homework and academic achievement, particularly for younger students, further calls into question the value of extensive out-of-school assignments.

A balanced approach to out-of-school learning is crucial. While some form of independent practice and exploration outside of school hours may be beneficial, it’s essential to consider the quality, quantity, and purpose of these assignments. Educators and policymakers must prioritize student well-being, equity, and meaningful learning experiences when developing homework policies.

The need for education reform and policy changes is clear. Is Homework Necessary? Examining the Debate and Its Impact on Student Well-being delves deeper into this question, challenging long-held assumptions about the role of homework in education. As we move forward, it’s crucial to consider alternative approaches that support student learning without sacrificing their mental health, family time, or love of learning.

Encouraging further research and discussion on homework practices is essential for developing evidence-based policies that truly serve students’ best interests. By critically examining our current practices and remaining open to innovative approaches, we can work towards an educational system that nurtures well-rounded, engaged, and lifelong learners.

As we conclude this exploration of the dark side of homework, it’s clear that the time has come to reevaluate our approach to out-of-school learning. By addressing the stress, inequity, and limited benefits associated with traditional homework, we can pave the way for a more effective, equitable, and student-centered education system. The Power of Playtime: How Recess Reduces Stress in Students reminds us of the importance of balance in education, highlighting the need for policies that support both academic growth and overall well-being.

The homework debate is far from over, but by continuing to question, research, and innovate, we can work towards educational practices that truly serve the needs of all students. As parents, educators, and policymakers, it’s our responsibility to ensure that our children’s education nurtures their curiosity, supports their well-being, and prepares them for success in an ever-changing world. Let’s reimagine homework not as a nightly battle, but as an opportunity for meaningful learning, growth, and discovery.

References:

1. Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987–2003. Review of Educational Research, 76(1), 1-62.

2. Galloway, M., Conner, J., & Pope, D. (2013). Nonacademic effects of homework in privileged, high-performing high schools. The Journal of Experimental Education, 81(4), 490-510.

3. OECD (2014). Does homework perpetuate inequities in education? PISA in Focus, No. 46, OECD Publishing, Paris.

4. Kralovec, E., & Buell, J. (2000). The end of homework: How homework disrupts families, overburdens children, and limits learning. Beacon Press.

5. Marzano, R. J., & Pickering, D. J. (2007). Special topic: The case for and against homework. Educational Leadership, 64(6), 74-79.

6. Vatterott, C. (2018). Rethinking homework: Best practices that support diverse needs. ASCD.

7. Kohn, A. (2006). The homework myth: Why our kids get too much of a bad thing. Da Capo Press.

8. Pressman, R. M., Sugarman, D. B., Nemon, M. L., Desjarlais, J., Owens, J. A., & Schettini-Evans, A. (2015). Homework and family stress: With consideration of parents’ self confidence, educational level, and cultural background. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 43(4), 297-313.

9. Hattie, J. (2008). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Routledge.

10. Sahlberg, P. (2015). Finnish lessons 2.0: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? Teachers College Press.

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Purpose, Public Attitudes toward Homework, The Positive and Negative Effects of Homework, Extensiveness of Homework

Homework is defined as tasks assigned to students by school teachers that are intended to be carried out during nonschool hours. This definition excludes in-school guided study (although homework is often worked on during school), home-study courses, and extracurricular activities such as sports teams and clubs.

The most common purpose of homework is to have students practice material already presented in class so as to reinforce learning and facilitate mastery of specific skills. Preparation assignments introduce the material that will be presented in future lessons. These assignments aim to help students obtain the maximum benefit when the new material is covered in class. Extension homework involves the transfer of previously learned skills to new situations. For example, students might learn in class about factors that led to the French Revolution and then be asked as homework to apply them to the American Revolution. Finally, integration homework requires the student to apply separately learned skills to produce a single product, such as book reports, science projects, or creative writing.

Homework also can serve purposes that do not relate directly to instruction. Homework can be used to (1) establish communication between parents and children; (2) fulfill directives from school administrators; (3) punish students; and (4) inform parents about what is going on in school. Most homework assignments have elements of several different purposes.

Public Attitudes toward Homework

Homework has been a part of student's lives since the beginning of formal schooling in the United States. However, the practice has been alternately accepted and rejected by educators and parents.

When the twentieth century began, the mind was viewed as a muscle that could be strengthened through mental exercise. Since this exercise could be done at home, homework was viewed favorably. During the 1940s, the emphasis in education shifted from drill to problem solving. Homework fell out of favor because it was closely associated with the repetition of material. The launch of the satellite Sputnik by the Soviet Union in the mid-1950s reversed this thinking. The American public worried that education lacked rigor and left children unprepared for complex technologies. Homework, it was believed, could accelerate knowledge acquisition.

The late 1960s witnessed yet another reversal. Educators and parents became concerned that homework was crowding out social experience, outdoor recreation, and creative activities. In the 1980s, homework once again leapt back into favor when A Nation at Risk (1983), the report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, cited homework as a defense against the rising tide of mediocrity in American education. The push for more homework continued into the 1990s, fueled by increasingly rigorous state-mandated academic standards. As the century ended, a backlash against homework set in, led by parents concerned about too much stress on their children.

The Positive and Negative Effects of Homework

The most direct positive effect of homework is that it can improve retention and understanding. More indirectly, homework can improve students' study skills and attitudes toward school, and teach students that learning can take place anywhere, not just in school buildings. The nonacademic benefits of homework include fostering independence and responsibility. Finally, homework can involve parents in the school process, enhancing their appreciation of education, and allowing them to express positive attitudes toward the value of school success.

Conversely, educators and parents worry that students will grow bored if they are required to spend too much time on academic material. Homework can deny access to leisure time and community activities that also teach important life skills. Parent involvement in homework can turn into parent interference. For example, parents can confuse children if the instructional techniques they use differ from those used by teachers. Homework can actually lead to the acquisition of undesirable character traits if it promotes cheating, either through the copying of assignments or help with homework that goes beyond tutoring. Finally, homework could accentuate existing social inequities. Children from disadvantaged homes may have more difficulty completing assignments than their middle-class counterparts.

Extensiveness of Homework

In contrast to the shifts in public attitudes, surveys suggest that the amount of time students spend on homework has been relatively stable. Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress suggests that in both 1984 and 1994, about one-third of nine-year-olds and one-quarter of thirteen-and seventeen-year-olds reported being assigned no homework at all, with an additional 5 percent to 10 percent admitting they did not do homework that was assigned. About one-half of nine-year-olds, one-third of thirteen-year-olds, and one-quarter of seventeen-year-olds said they did less than an hour of homework each night. In 1994 about 12 percent of nine-year-olds, 28 percent of thirteen-year-olds, and 26 percent of seventeen-year-olds said they did one to two hours of homework each night. These percentages were all within one point of the 1984 survey results.

A national survey of parents conducted by the polling agency Public Agenda, in October, 2000, revealed that 64 percent of parents felt their child was getting "about the right amount" of homework, 25 percent felt their child was getting "too little" homework, and only 10 percent felt "too much homework" was being assigned.

International comparisons often suggest that U.S. students spend less time on homework than students in other industrialized nations. However, direct comparisons across countries are difficult to interpret because of different definitions of homework and differences in the length of the school day and year.

Appropriate Amounts of Homework

Experts agree that the amount and type of homework should depend on the developmental level of the student. The National PTA and the National Education Association suggest that homework for children in grades K–2 is most effective when it does not exceed ten to twenty minutes each day. In grades three through six, children can benefit from thirty to sixty minutes daily. Junior high and high school students can benefit from more time on homework and the amount might vary from night to night. These recommendations are consistent with the conclusions reached by studies into the effectiveness of homework.

Research on Homework's Overall Effectiveness

Three types of studies have been used to examine the relationship between homework and academic achievement. One type compares students who receive homework with students who receive none. Generally, these studies reveal homework to be a positive influence on achievement. However, they also reveal a relationship between homework and achievement for high school students that is about twice as strong as for junior high students. The relationship at the elementary school level is only one-quarter that of the high school level.

Another type of study compares homework to in-class supervised study. Overall, the positive relationship is about half as strong as in the first type of study. These studies again reveal a strong grade-level effect. When homework and in-class study were compared in elementary schools, in-class study proved superior.

The third type of study correlates the amount of homework students say they complete with their achievement test scores. Again, these surveys show the relationship is influenced by the grade level of students. For students in primary grades, the correlation between time spent on homework and achievement is near zero. For students in middle and junior high school, the correlation suggests a positive but weak relationship. For high school students, the correlation suggests a moderate relationship between achievement and time spend on homework.

Research on Effective Homework Assignments

The subject matter shows no consistent relationship to the value of homework. It appears that shorter and more frequent assignments may be more effective than longer but fewer assignments. Assignments that involve review and preparation are more effective than homework that focuses only on material covered in class on the day of the assignments. It can be beneficial to involve parents in homework when young children are experiencing problems in school. Older students and students doing well in school have more to gain from homework when it promotes independent learning.

Homework can be an effective instructional device. However, the relationship between homework and achievement is influenced greatly by the students' developmental level. Expectations for home work's effects, especially in the short term and in earlier grades, must be modest. Further, homework can have both positive and negative effects. Educators and parents should not be concerned with which list of homework effects is correct. Rather, homework policies and practices should give individual schools and teachers flexibility to take into account the unique needs and circumstances of their students so as to maximize positive effects and minimize negative ones.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

C AMPBELL , J AY R. ; R EESE , C LYDE M. ; O'S ULLIVAN, C HRISTINE; and D OSSEY , J OHN A. 1996. NAEP 1994 Trends in Academic Progress. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

C OOPER , H ARRIS. 2001. The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents, 2nd edition. Newbury Park, CA: Corwin Press.

C OOPER , H ARRIS, and V ALENTINE , J. C., eds. 2001. "Homework: A Special Issue." Educational Psychologist 36 (3).

INTERNET RESOURCES

H ENDERSON , M. 1996. "Helping Your Student Get the Most Out of Homework." Chicago: National PTA and the National Education Association. < www.pta.org/Programs/edulibr/homework. htm >.

P UBLIC A GENDA. 2000. "Survey Finds Little Sign of Backlash Against Academic Standards or Standardized Tests." < www.publicagenda.org/aboutpa/aboutpa3ee.htm >

H ARRIS C OOPER

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Is homework a necessary evil?

After decades of debate, researchers are still sorting out the truth about homework’s pros and cons. One point they can agree on: Quality assignments matter.

By Kirsten Weir

March 2016, Vol 47, No. 3

Print version: page 36

• Schools and Classrooms

Homework battles have raged for decades. For as long as kids have been whining about doing their homework, parents and education reformers have complained that homework's benefits are dubious. Meanwhile many teachers argue that take-home lessons are key to helping students learn. Now, as schools are shifting to the new (and hotly debated) Common Core curriculum standards, educators, administrators and researchers are turning a fresh eye toward the question of homework's value.

But when it comes to deciphering the research literature on the subject, homework is anything but an open book.

The 10-minute rule

In many ways, homework seems like common sense. Spend more time practicing multiplication or studying Spanish vocabulary and you should get better at math or Spanish. But it may not be that simple.

Homework can indeed produce academic benefits, such as increased understanding and retention of the material, says Duke University social psychologist Harris Cooper, PhD, one of the nation's leading homework researchers. But not all students benefit. In a review of studies published from 1987 to 2003, Cooper and his colleagues found that homework was linked to better test scores in high school and, to a lesser degree, in middle school. Yet they found only faint evidence that homework provided academic benefit in elementary school ( Review of Educational Research , 2006).

Then again, test scores aren't everything. Homework proponents also cite the nonacademic advantages it might confer, such as the development of personal responsibility, good study habits and time-management skills. But as to hard evidence of those benefits, "the jury is still out," says Mollie Galloway, PhD, associate professor of educational leadership at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. "I think there's a focus on assigning homework because [teachers] think it has these positive outcomes for study skills and habits. But we don't know for sure that's the case."

Even when homework is helpful, there can be too much of a good thing. "There is a limit to how much kids can benefit from home study," Cooper says. He agrees with an oft-cited rule of thumb that students should do no more than 10 minutes a night per grade level — from about 10 minutes in first grade up to a maximum of about two hours in high school. Both the National Education Association and National Parent Teacher Association support that limit.

Beyond that point, kids don't absorb much useful information, Cooper says. In fact, too much homework can do more harm than good. Researchers have cited drawbacks, including boredom and burnout toward academic material, less time for family and extracurricular activities, lack of sleep and increased stress.

In a recent study of Spanish students, Rubén Fernández-Alonso, PhD, and colleagues found that students who were regularly assigned math and science homework scored higher on standardized tests. But when kids reported having more than 90 to 100 minutes of homework per day, scores declined ( Journal of Educational Psychology , 2015).

"At all grade levels, doing other things after school can have positive effects," Cooper says. "To the extent that homework denies access to other leisure and community activities, it's not serving the child's best interest."

Children of all ages need down time in order to thrive, says Denise Pope, PhD, a professor of education at Stanford University and a co-founder of Challenge Success, a program that partners with secondary schools to implement policies that improve students' academic engagement and well-being.

"Little kids and big kids need unstructured time for play each day," she says. Certainly, time for physical activity is important for kids' health and well-being. But even time spent on social media can help give busy kids' brains a break, she says.

All over the map

But are teachers sticking to the 10-minute rule? Studies attempting to quantify time spent on homework are all over the map, in part because of wide variations in methodology, Pope says.

A 2014 report by the Brookings Institution examined the question of homework, comparing data from a variety of sources. That report cited findings from a 2012 survey of first-year college students in which 38.4 percent reported spending six hours or more per week on homework during their last year of high school. That was down from 49.5 percent in 1986 ( The Brown Center Report on American Education , 2014).

The Brookings report also explored survey data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which asked 9-, 13- and 17-year-old students how much homework they'd done the previous night. They found that between 1984 and 2012, there was a slight increase in homework for 9-year-olds, but homework amounts for 13- and 17-year-olds stayed roughly the same, or even decreased slightly.

Yet other evidence suggests that some kids might be taking home much more work than they can handle. Robert Pressman, PhD, and colleagues recently investigated the 10-minute rule among more than 1,100 students, and found that elementary-school kids were receiving up to three times as much homework as recommended. As homework load increased, so did family stress, the researchers found ( American Journal of Family Therapy , 2015).

Many high school students also seem to be exceeding the recommended amounts of homework. Pope and Galloway recently surveyed more than 4,300 students from 10 high-achieving high schools. Students reported bringing home an average of just over three hours of homework nightly ( Journal of Experiential Education , 2013).

On the positive side, students who spent more time on homework in that study did report being more behaviorally engaged in school — for instance, giving more effort and paying more attention in class, Galloway says. But they were not more invested in the homework itself. They also reported greater academic stress and less time to balance family, friends and extracurricular activities. They experienced more physical health problems as well, such as headaches, stomach troubles and sleep deprivation. "Three hours per night is too much," Galloway says.

In the high-achieving schools Pope and Galloway studied, more than 90 percent of the students go on to college. There's often intense pressure to succeed academically, from both parents and peers. On top of that, kids in these communities are often overloaded with extracurricular activities, including sports and clubs. "They're very busy," Pope says. "Some kids have up to 40 hours a week — a full-time job's worth — of extracurricular activities." And homework is yet one more commitment on top of all the others.

"Homework has perennially acted as a source of stress for students, so that piece of it is not new," Galloway says. "But especially in upper-middle-class communities, where the focus is on getting ahead, I think the pressure on students has been ratcheted up."

Yet homework can be a problem at the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum as well. Kids from wealthier homes are more likely to have resources such as computers, Internet connections, dedicated areas to do schoolwork and parents who tend to be more educated and more available to help them with tricky assignments. Kids from disadvantaged homes are more likely to work at afterschool jobs, or to be home without supervision in the evenings while their parents work multiple jobs, says Lea Theodore, PhD, a professor of school psychology at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. They are less likely to have computers or a quiet place to do homework in peace.

"Homework can highlight those inequities," she says.

Quantity vs. quality

One point researchers agree on is that for all students, homework quality matters. But too many kids are feeling a lack of engagement with their take-home assignments, many experts say. In Pope and Galloway's research, only 20 percent to 30 percent of students said they felt their homework was useful or meaningful.

"Students are assigned a lot of busywork. They're naming it as a primary stressor, but they don't feel it's supporting their learning," Galloway says.

"Homework that's busywork is not good for anyone," Cooper agrees. Still, he says, different subjects call for different kinds of assignments. "Things like vocabulary and spelling are learned through practice. Other kinds of courses require more integration of material and drawing on different skills."

But critics say those skills can be developed with many fewer hours of homework each week. Why assign 50 math problems, Pope asks, when 10 would be just as constructive? One Advanced Placement biology teacher she worked with through Challenge Success experimented with cutting his homework assignments by a third, and then by half. "Test scores didn't go down," she says. "You can have a rigorous course and not have a crazy homework load."

Still, changing the culture of homework won't be easy. Teachers-to-be get little instruction in homework during their training, Pope says. And despite some vocal parents arguing that kids bring home too much homework, many others get nervous if they think their child doesn't have enough. "Teachers feel pressured to give homework because parents expect it to come home," says Galloway. "When it doesn't, there's this idea that the school might not be doing its job."

Galloway argues teachers and school administrators need to set clear goals when it comes to homework — and parents and students should be in on the discussion, too. "It should be a broader conversation within the community, asking what's the purpose of homework? Why are we giving it? Who is it serving? Who is it not serving?"

Until schools and communities agree to take a hard look at those questions, those backpacks full of take-home assignments will probably keep stirring up more feelings than facts.

Further reading

• Cooper, H., Robinson, J. C., & Patall, E. A. (2006). Does homework improve academic achievement? A synthesis of research, 1987-2003. Review of Educational Research, 76 (1), 1–62. doi: 10.3102/00346543076001001
• Galloway, M., Connor, J., & Pope, D. (2013). Nonacademic effects of homework in privileged, high-performing high schools. The Journal of Experimental Education, 81 (4), 490–510. doi: 10.1080/00220973.2012.745469
• Pope, D., Brown, M., & Miles, S. (2015). Overloaded and underprepared: Strategies for stronger schools and healthy, successful kids . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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20 Pros and Cons of Homework

Homework. It’s a word that sends a shudder down the spine of students and parents alike.

It is also a question that has become divisive. Some people feel that homework is an effective way to reinforce the concepts that were learned at school. Others feel like the time that homework demands would be better spent with a meaningful activity that brings the family together.

Is homework important? Is it necessary? Or is the added stress that homework places on students and parents doing more harm than good? Here are some of the key pros and cons to discuss.

List of the Pros of Homework

1. It encourages the discipline of practice. Repeating the same problems over and over can be boring and difficult, but it also reinforces the practice of discipline. To get better at a skill, repetition is often necessary. You get better with each repetition. By having homework completed every night, especially with a difficult subject, the concepts become easier to understand. That gives the student an advantage later on in life when seeking a vocational career.

2. It gets parents involved with a child’s life. Looking at Common Core math can be somewhat bewildering to parents. If you see the math problem 5×3 expressed as an addition problem, 5+5+5 seems like the right answer. The correct answer, however, would be 3+3+3+3+3. By bringing homework to do, students can engage their learning process with their parents so everyone can be involved. Many parents actually want homework sent so they can see what their children are being taught in the classroom.

3. It teaches time management skills. Homework goes beyond completing a task. It forces children (and parents, to some extent) to develop time management skills. Schedules must be organized to ensure that all tasks can be completed during the day. This creates independent thinking and develops problem-solving skills. It encourages research skills. It also puts parents and children into a position where positive decision-making skills must be developed.

4. Homework creates a communication network. Teachers rarely see into the family lives of their students. Parents rarely see the classroom lives of their children. Homework is a bridge that opens lines of communication between the school, the teacher, and the parent. This allows everyone to get to know one another better. It helps teachers understand the needs of their students better.

It allows parents to find out their child’s strengths and weaknesses. Together, an educational plan can be developed that encourages the best possible learning environment.

5. It allows for a comfortable place to study. Classrooms have evolved over the years to be a warmer and welcoming environment, but there is nothing like the comfort that is felt at home or in a safe space. By encouraging studies where a child feels the most comfortable, it is possible to retain additional information that may get lost within the standard classroom environment.

6. It provides more time to complete the learning process. The time allotted for each area of study in school, especially in K-12, is often limited to 1 hour or less per day. That is not always enough time for students to be able to grasp core concepts of that material. By creating specific homework assignments which address these deficiencies, it becomes possible to counter the effects of the time shortages. That can benefit students greatly over time.

7. It reduces screen time. On the average school night, a student in the US might get 3-4 hours of screen time in per day. When that student isn’t in school, that figure doubles to 7-8 hours of screen time. Homework might be unwanted and disliked, but it does encourage better study habits. It discourages time being spent in front of the television or playing games on a mobile device. That, in turn, may discourage distracting habits from forming that can take away from the learning process in the future.

8. It can be treated like any other extracurricular activity. Some families over-extend themselves on extracurricular activities. Students can easily have more than 40 hours per week, from clubs to sports, that fall outside of regular school hours. Homework can be treated as one of these activities, fitting into the schedule where there is extra time. As an added benefit, some homework can even be completed on the way to or from some activities.

List of the Cons of Homework

1. Children benefit from playing. Being in a classroom can be a good thing, but so can being on a playground. With too much homework, a child doesn’t have enough time to play and that can impact their learning and social development. Low levels of play are associated with lower academic achievement levels, lower safety awareness, less character development, and lower overall health.

2. It encourages a sedentary lifestyle. Long homework assignments require long periods of sitting. A sedentary lifestyle has numerous direct associations with premature death as children age into adults. Obesity levels are already at or near record highs in many communities. Homework may reinforce certain skills and encourage knowledge retention, but it may come at a high price.

3. Not every home is a beneficial environment. There are some homes that are highly invested into their children. Parents may be involved in every stage of homework or there may be access to tutors that can explain difficult concepts. In other homes, there may be little or no education investment into the child. Some parents push the responsibility of teaching off on the teacher and provide no homework support at all.

Sometimes parents may wish to be involved and support their child, but there are barriers in place that prevent this from happening. The bottom line is this: no every home life is equal.

4. School is already a full-time job for kids. An elementary school day might start at 9:00am and end at 3:20pm. That’s more than 6 hours of work that kids as young as 5 are putting into their education every day. Add in the extra-curricular activities that schools encourage, such as sports, musicals, and after-school programming and a student can easily reach 8 hours of education in the average day. Then add homework on top of that? It is asking a lot for any child, but especially young children, to complete extra homework.

5. There is no evidence that homework creates improvements. Survey after survey has found that the only thing that homework does is create a negative attitude toward schooling and education in general. Homework is not associated with a higher level of academic achievement on a national scale. It may help some students who struggle with certain subjects, if they have access to a knowledgeable tutor or parent, but on a community level, there is no evidence that shows improvements are gained.

6. It discourages creative endeavors. If a student is spending 1 hour each day on homework, that’s an hour they are not spending pursuing something that is important to them. Students might like to play video games or watch TV, but homework takes time away from learning an instrument, painting, or developing photography skills as well. Although some homework can involve creative skills, that usually isn’t the case.

7. Homework is difficult to enforce. Some students just don’t care about homework. They can achieve adequate grades without doing it, so they choose not to do it. There is no level of motivation that a parent or teacher can create that inspires some students to get involved with homework. There is no denying the fact that homework requires a certain amount of effort. Sometimes a child just doesn’t want to put in that effort.

8. Extra time in school does not equate to better grades. Students in the US spend more than 100 hours of extra time in school already compared to high-performing countries around the world, but that has not closed the educational gap between those countries and the United States. In some educational areas, the US is even falling in global rankings despite the extra time that students are spending in school. When it comes to homework or any other form of learning, quality is much more important than quantity.

9. Accurate practice may not be possible. If homework is assigned, there is a reliance on the student, their parents, or their guardians to locate resources that can help them understand the content. Homework is often about practice, but if the core concepts of that information are not understood or inaccurately understood, then the results are the opposite of what is intended. If inaccurate practice is performed, it becomes necessary for the teacher to first correct the issue and then reteach it, which prolongs the learning process.

10. It may encourage cheating on multiple levels. Some students may decide that cheating in the classroom to avoid taking homework home is a compromise they’re willing to make. With internet resources, finding the answers to homework instead of figuring out the answers on one’s own is a constant temptation as well. For families with multiple children, they may decide to copy off one another to minimize the time investment.

11. Too much homework is often assigned to students. There is a general agreement that students should be assigned no more than 10 minutes of homework per day, per grade level. That means a first grader should not be assigned more than 10 minutes of homework per night. Yet for the average first grader in US public schools, they come home with 20 minutes of homework and then are asked to complete 20 minutes of reading on top of that. That means some students are completing 4x more homework than recommended every night.

At the same time, the amount of time children spent playing outdoors has decreased by 40% over the past 30 years.

For high school students, it is even worse at high performing schools in the US where 90% of graduates go onto college, the average amount of homework assigned per night was 3 hours per student.

12. Homework is often geared toward benchmarks. Homework is often assigned to improve test scores. Although this can provide positive outcomes, including better study skills or habits, the fact is that when children are tired, they do not absorb much information. When children have more homework than recommended, test scores actually go down. Stress levels go up. Burnout on the curriculum occurs.

The results for many students, according to research from Ruben Fernandez-Alonso in the Journal of Educational Psychology, is a decrease in grades instead of an increase.

The pros and cons of homework are admittedly all over the map. Many parents and teachers follow their personal perspectives and create learning environments around them. When parents and teachers clash on homework, the student is often left in the middle of that tug of war. By discussing these key points, each side can work to find some common ground so our children can benefit for a clear, precise message.

Quantity may be important, but quality must be the priority for homework if a student is going to be successful.

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Education scholar Denise Pope has found that too much homework has negative effects on student well-being and behavioral engagement. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.

“Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good,” wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .

The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students’ views on homework.

Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.

Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.

“The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students’ advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being,” Pope wrote.

Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.

Their study found that too much homework is associated with:

* Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

* Reductions in health: In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.

* Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were “not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills,” according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.

A balancing act

The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as “pointless” or “mindless” in order to keep their grades up.

“This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points,” Pope said.

She said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.

“Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development,” wrote Pope.

High-performing paradox

In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. “Young people are spending more time alone,” they wrote, “which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities.”

Student perspectives

The researchers say that while their open-ended or “self-reporting” methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for “typical adolescent complaining” – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.

The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Media Contacts

Denise Pope, Stanford Graduate School of Education: (650) 725-7412, [email protected] Clifton B. Parker, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-0224, [email protected]

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How does homework affect students.

Posted by Kenny Gill

Homework is essential in the learning process of all students. It benefits them in managing time, being organized, and thinking beyond the classroom work. When students develop good habits towards homework, they enjoy good grades. The amount of homework given to students has risen by 51 percent. In most cases, this pushes them to order for custom essays online. A lot of homework can be overwhelming, affecting students in negative ways.

How homework affects the psyche of students Homework plays a crucial role in ensuring students succeeds both inside and outside the classroom. The numerous hours they spend in class, on school work, and away from family and friends lead to them experiencing exhaustion. Too much homework leads to students becoming disheartened by the school, and it chips away at their motivation for succeeding.

As a result, homework becomes an uphill battle, which they feel they will never win despite putting an effort. When they continue to find homework difficult, they consider other ways of working on it, such as cheating.

Getting enough time to relax, engage with friends and family members helps the students to have fun, thus, raising their spirit and their psyche on school work.  However, when homework exceeds, it affects their emotional well-being making them sad and unproductive students who would rather cheat their way through school.

As a result, they have to struggle with a lack of enough sleep, loss of weight, stomach problems, headaches, and fatigue. Poor eating habits where students rely on fast foods also occasions as they struggle to complete all their assignments. When combined with lack of physical activity, the students suffer from obesity and other health-related conditions. Also, they experience depression and anxiety. The pressure to attend all classes, finish the much homework, as well as have time to make social connections cripples them.

How can parents help with homework? Being an active parent in the life of your child goes a long way towards promoting the health and well-being of children. Participating in their process of doing homework helps you identify if your child is facing challenges, and provide the much-needed support.

The first step is identifying the problem your child has by establishing whether their homework is too much. In elementary school, students should not spend over twenty minutes on homework while in high school they should spend an average of two hours. If it exceeds these guidelines, then you know that the homework is too much and you need to talk with the teachers.

The other step is ensuring your child focuses on their work by eliminating distractions. Texting with friends, watching videos, and playing video games can distract your child. Next, help them create a homework routine by having a designated area for studying and organizing their time for each activity.

Why it is better to do homework with friends Extracurricular activities such as sports and volunteer work that students engage in are vital. The events allow them to refresh their minds, catch up, and share with friends, and sharpen their communication skills. Homework is better done with friends as it helps them get these benefits. Through working together, interacting, and sharing with friends, their stress reduces.

Working on assignments with friends relaxes the students. It ensures they have the help they need when tackling the work, making even too much homework bearable. Also, it develops their communication skills. Deterioration of communication skills is a prominent reason as to why homework is bad. Too much of it keeps one away from classmates and friends, making it difficult for one to communicate with other people.

Working on homework with friends, however, ensures one learns how to express themselves and solve issues, making one an excellent communicator.

How does a lot of homework affect students’ performance? Burnout is a negative effect of homework. After spending the entire day learning, having to spend more hours doing too much homework lead to burnout. When it occurs, students begin dragging their feet when it comes to working on assignments and in some cases, fail to complete them. Therefore, they end up getting poor grades, which affects their overall performance.

Excessive homework also overshadows active learning, which is essential in the learning process. It encourages active participation of students in analyzing and applying what they learn in class in the real world. As a result, this limits the involvement of parents in the process of learning and children collaboration with friends. Instead, it causes boredom, difficulties for the students to work alongside others, and lack of skills in solving problems.

Should students have homework? Well, this is the question many parents and students ask when they consider these adverse effects of homework. Homework is vital in the learning process of any student. However, in most cases, it has crossed the line from being a tool for learning and becomes a source of suffering for students. With such effects, a balance is necessary to help students learn, remain healthy, and be all rounded individuals in society.

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One Response to How does homework affect students?

Great info and really valuable for teachers and tutors. This is a really very wonderful post. I really appreciate it; this post is very helpful for education.

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11 Surprising Homework Statistics, Facts & Data

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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The age-old question of whether homework is good or bad for students is unanswerable because there are so many “ it depends ” factors.

For example, it depends on the age of the child, the type of homework being assigned, and even the child’s needs.

There are also many conflicting reports on whether homework is good or bad. This is a topic that largely relies on data interpretation for the researcher to come to their conclusions.

To cut through some of the fog, below I’ve outlined some great homework statistics that can help us understand the effects of homework on children.

Homework Statistics List

1. 45% of parents think homework is too easy for their children.

A study by the Center for American Progress found that parents are almost twice as likely to believe their children’s homework is too easy than to disagree with that statement.

Here are the figures for math homework:

• 46% of parents think their child’s math homework is too easy.
• 25% of parents think their child’s math homework is not too easy.
• 29% of parents offered no opinion.

Here are the figures for language arts homework:

• 44% of parents think their child’s language arts homework is too easy.
• 28% of parents think their child’s language arts homework is not too easy.
• 28% of parents offered no opinion.

These findings are based on online surveys of 372 parents of school-aged children conducted in 2018.

2. 93% of Fourth Grade Children Worldwide are Assigned Homework

The prestigious worldwide math assessment Trends in International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) took a survey of worldwide homework trends in 2007. Their study concluded that 93% of fourth-grade children are regularly assigned homework, while just 7% never or rarely have homework assigned.

3. 17% of Teens Regularly Miss Homework due to Lack of High-Speed Internet Access

A 2018 Pew Research poll of 743 US teens found that 17%, or almost 2 in every 5 students, regularly struggled to complete homework because they didn’t have reliable access to the internet.

This figure rose to 25% of Black American teens and 24% of teens whose families have an income of less than $30,000 per year.

4. Parents Spend 6.7 Hours Per Week on their Children’s Homework

A 2018 study of 27,500 parents around the world found that the average amount of time parents spend on homework with their child is 6.7 hours per week. Furthermore, 25% of parents spend more than 7 hours per week on their child’s homework.

American parents spend slightly below average at 6.2 hours per week, while Indian parents spend 12 hours per week and Japanese parents spend 2.6 hours per week.

5. Students in High-Performing High Schools Spend on Average 3.1 Hours per night Doing Homework

A study by Galloway, Conner & Pope (2013) conducted a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California. 

Across these high-performing schools, students self-reported that they did 3.1 hours per night of homework.

Graduates from those schools also ended up going on to college 93% of the time.

6. One to Two Hours is the Optimal Duration for Homework

A 2012 peer-reviewed study in the High School Journal found that students who conducted between one and two hours achieved higher results in tests than any other group.

However, the authors were quick to highlight that this “t is an oversimplification of a much more complex problem.” I’m inclined to agree. The greater variable is likely the quality of the homework than time spent on it.

Nevertheless, one result was unequivocal: that some homework is better than none at all : “students who complete any amount of homework earn higher test scores than their peers who do not complete homework.”

7. 74% of Teens cite Homework as a Source of Stress

A study by the Better Sleep Council found that homework is a source of stress for 74% of students. Only school grades, at 75%, rated higher in the study.

That figure rises for girls, with 80% of girls citing homework as a source of stress.

Similarly, the study by Galloway, Conner & Pope (2013) found that 56% of students cite homework as a “primary stressor” in their lives.

8. US Teens Spend more than 15 Hours per Week on Homework

The same study by the Better Sleep Council also found that US teens spend over 2 hours per school night on homework, and overall this added up to over 15 hours per week.

Surprisingly, 4% of US teens say they do more than 6 hours of homework per night. That’s almost as much homework as there are hours in the school day.

The only activity that teens self-reported as doing more than homework was engaging in electronics, which included using phones, playing video games, and watching TV.

9. The 10-Minute Rule

The National Education Association (USA) endorses the concept of doing 10 minutes of homework per night per grade.

For example, if you are in 3rd grade, you should do 30 minutes of homework per night. If you are in 4th grade, you should do 40 minutes of homework per night.

However, this ‘rule’ appears not to be based in sound research. Nevertheless, it is true that homework benefits (no matter the quality of the homework) will likely wane after 2 hours (120 minutes) per night, which would be the NEA guidelines’ peak in grade 12.

10. 21.9% of Parents are Too Busy for their Children’s Homework

An online poll of nearly 300 parents found that 21.9% are too busy to review their children’s homework. On top of this, 31.6% of parents do not look at their children’s homework because their children do not want their help. For these parents, their children’s unwillingness to accept their support is a key source of frustration.

11. 46.5% of Parents find Homework too Hard

The same online poll of parents of children from grades 1 to 12 also found that many parents struggle to help their children with homework because parents find it confusing themselves. Unfortunately, the study did not ask the age of the students so more data is required here to get a full picture of the issue.

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Interpreting the Data

Unfortunately, homework is one of those topics that can be interpreted by different people pursuing differing agendas. All studies of homework have a wide range of variables, such as:

• What age were the children in the study?
• What was the homework they were assigned?
• What tools were available to them?
• What were the cultural attitudes to homework and how did they impact the study?
• Is the study replicable?

The more questions we ask about the data, the more we realize that it’s hard to come to firm conclusions about the pros and cons of homework .

Furthermore, questions about the opportunity cost of homework remain. Even if homework is good for children’s test scores, is it worthwhile if the children consequently do less exercise or experience more stress?

Thus, this ends up becoming a largely qualitative exercise. If parents and teachers zoom in on an individual child’s needs, they’ll be able to more effectively understand how much homework a child needs as well as the type of homework they should be assigned.

Related: Funny Homework Excuses

The debate over whether homework should be banned will not be resolved with these homework statistics. But, these facts and figures can help you to pursue a position in a school debate on the topic – and with that, I hope your debate goes well and you develop some great debating skills!

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 21 Montessori Homeschool Setups
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 101 Hidden Talents Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 15 Green Flags in a Relationship
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 15 Signs you're Burnt Out, Not Lazy

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Associations of time spent on homework or studying with nocturnal sleep behavior and depression symptoms in adolescents from Singapore

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