Comparing Stress Levels and Coping Mechanisms of American and Chinese High School Students: A Literature Review

Abstract

The education systems of American and Chinese high schools are formatted very differently. American high schools are more focused on supporting well-rounded students and Chinese high schools are more focused on academic achievement. These systems create different stressors and also offer different support systems for stress. It’s important for educators and researchers to understand how these stressors impact students’ mental health and ability to function and achieve their goals, and how peers and teachers support and encourage coping strategies in response to stress. Stress is processed on both a psychological level and a biological level, so it’s helpful to study both together. Thus, we will include measures of students’ self-reported stress and their levels of neurological responses to stress (e.g., brain activity in the limbic system, and cortisol and oxytocin levels). We will review published papers on self-reported academic stress and collect descriptive statistics about self-reported academic stress, and biological response to stress, in high school American and Chinese students. We will also summarize the impact that school peers and teachers have on students’ willingness to engage in coping strategies. Based on the literature, we will also provide evidence-based strategies for students to cope with stress tailored to their cultural background.