Students With Poor School/Life Balance Struggle With Career Planning, Connecting With Others: Study

Students with poor school/life balance are less likely to have a clear understanding of their future aspirations and career plans as well as struggle to connect with other people.

That is according to new research from Pearson's Connections Academy, which surveyed parents and students in eighth through 12th grade in the United States. The study found that less than half of students, or 45%, feel they have a healthy school/life balance. Among them, 29% said having a poor school/life balance is affecting their ability to begin planning for their future, including their aspirations and careers.

Furthermore, 51% of students who said their school/life balance is affecting them also said they are finding it difficult to understand their interests while 45% said they are struggling to make connections with other people.

A Disconnect Between Parents and Teens

Per the study, parents and students were not always on the same page when it came it school/life balance. Where 45% of students said they had good boundaries between school and life, 80% of parents believed their teens had a healthy school/life balance.

Additionally, researchers found that among kids whose parents pushed them to do more, 72% wished they had the opportunity to explore different career paths before graduation, and 67% said they regretted not being able to learn better time management skills.

Roughly 64% also said they would have been able to balance their time better between academics and extracurriculars had their parents not pushed.

What Can Parents Do To Ensure School/Life Balance

Parents play a significant role in ensuring their children have a healthy school/life balance. Some steps include allowing their children to join extracurriculars or in-school activities, doing career exploration together, setting a daily routine, and allowing them to take breaks from studying.

In addition, experts recommend against having their children cram for the exams. While cramming can lead to more stress in the long run, it is also an ineffective way to learn as it forces the student to fit plenty of information into a short period.