The study summarizes the findings in simple terms: if parents have a degree, their children are pressured into getting one. This is not a bad thing.
The study authors found that children born to these families are often stressed by the fear of jeopardizing the social status of their families if they fail academically.
To evaluate stress levels of young people from different families, the team had tests done on 71 participants. The only inclusion criterion for the study was that the individuals had already begun their first semester and had sufficiently long hair. This is because in stressful conditions, the body releases large amounts of the stress hormone, cortisol, which deposits in high amounts in hair. The participants supplied three strands of hair each and filled out questionnaires to provide details about their parents’ background.
The results? First-year students from academic households with at least one parent with a university degree had higher stress levels than those from non-academic households.
Read more here – https://news.rub.de/english/press-releases/2020-06-25-psychology-children-academics-exhibit-more-stress
