School-Related Stress and Psychosomatic Symptoms among Norwegian Adolescents

TLDR

The study investigates how school‑related stress and gender relate to psychosomatic symptoms among 531 Norwegian adolescents aged 13‑16. School‑related stress was measured across four dimensions—peer difficulties, academic worries, workload pressure, and parent/teacher conflicts—using validated questionnaires. About 18 % of students reported severe psychosomatic symptoms, with girls showing higher symptom and academic‑worry stress levels, while boys reported more parent/teacher conflict stress; overall stress scores were significantly linked to symptom frequency.

Abstract

This study examines the relationships between school-related stress, gender and psychosomatic symptoms in a sample of 531 adolescents pupils in years (grades) 8, 9 and 10 (aged 13-16 years) from two compulsory schools in Norway. Results showed that 18.1 percent reported being ‘very much’ affected by at least one of the assessed psychosomatic symptoms. Girls reported significantly more psychosomatic symptoms than did boys. Tests of the dimensionality of the school-related stress that was assessed in the present study showed four main categories: (1) difficulties with peers at school; (2) worries about school achievement; (3) schoolwork pressure and (4) conflicts with parents and/or teachers. Results from multiple regression analyses showed that scores for the different stressors were significantly associated with psychosomatic symptoms. Findings suggest that frequency of psychosomatic symptoms might be related to how well or otherwise pupils adapt to the demands of school and to the interpersonal climate of the school. Gender seems to play a differentiating role here. Girls reported significantly more stress that was related to worries about school achievement, whereas boys reported significantly more stress arising from conflicts with parents and/or teachers. Finally, stress due to difficulties with peers at school was more closely correlated with psychosomatic symptoms among boys than among girls.