Stress Management for Teens: Handling Academic Stress
This session includes stress management activities for teens, helping older students understand academic stress and where it comes from. They watch a short video, discuss how to notice school stress as it builds, and play a quick game where they weigh two ways to handle a tense situation. The goal is to help students recognize their stress early and choose strategies that work for them.
Extension activity
- Skill
- Self-Regulation
- Goal
- Managing Stress
- Grade level
- Middle & High School
Get everything you need to teach the skill
These materials are part of a no-prep session designed by our clinical team, with all the structure, scaffolding, and support you need to teach included.
Engaging materials
Video lessonHandling Academic Stress
In this video lesson, students learn how to manage academic stress by getting enough sleep, practicing visualization, taking time for self-care, using to-do lists, and practicing self-compassion.
- Extension activity
Handling Academic Stress
In this interactive dice-roll activity, students reveal academic scenarios, like a pop quiz or an upcoming speech, and name a different coping strategy for each one to practice handling academic stress.
Plus everything you need to teach them
Warm-up
- Video: 4-7-8 Breathing2:13
- Video: Obstacles into Opportunities Visualization1:19
- Video: Yoga Pose Library
Session Opener
Guiding Question: How can academic stress affect a person?
Practice
- Discussion Question
- Role-Play Activity
- Mini Game
How to use it with your students
- 1Watch Play the video lesson so students see the skill in action.
- 2Practice Try the skill together with a discussion prompt, role-play, or mini game.
- 3Extend Use the extension activity to help students carry the skill further.
What's Covered
In this lesson, students learned that academic stress can come from inside themselves, like personal goals and worries, or from outside pressures from parents, teachers, and coaches. They practiced recognizing what was fueling their own stress. They also explored healthy ways to cope, including reaching out to a trusted adult when school feels like too much.
Key Terms
- Academic Stress
- Academic stress is the pressure or worry related to school, such as tests, grades, or homework. It can come from your own goals and expectations or from outside expectations from teachers, parents, or coaches.
- Internal and External Factors
- The two sources of stress and pressure you feel. Internal factors come from inside you, like your own goals and worries, while external factors come from outside you, like pressure from parents, teachers, or coaches.
Sample IEP Goal This Session Supports
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Managing Stress
Learner will recognize signs of stress in their own body or thinking (e.g., tight chest, racing thoughts, feeling overwhelmed) and apply a self-selected strategy (e.g., deep breathing, positive self-talk, taking a break) to manage the feeling in 4 out of 5 opportunities independently/given X prompt(s).
Send this tip home to support generalization
At home or in the classroom, when a student seems weighed down by schoolwork, try asking whether the pressure feels like something they put on themselves or something coming from outside. Naming the source can make it feel more manageable.
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More Self-Regulation Activities
Frequently asked questions
Is this intervention free?
Yes, this ready-to-teach session on Handling Academic Stress is free. You can access this intervention free for 14 days through the Everyday Speech Session Library. Every user gets three free sessions, but you can get more or extend your access by sharing the Session Library with friends and colleagues.
What ages is this for?
These materials are designed for middle and high school students.
What's included?
You'll get access to your choice of warm-up videos, a session opener, a core material on Handling Academic Stress, three practice prompts, and an extension activity, Handling Academic Stress.
What skill does this intervention teach?
This ready-to-teach session is on self-regulation - more specifically, managing stress.
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