We see myriad examples of ambitious kids hoping not to disappoint their big-shot Ivy League parents, from the White Lotus’ Saxton who is eagerly hoping to impress his seemingly successful Duke-grad finance dad, to the pressure facing Rory Gilmore to succeed at Yale, her grandparents’ alma mater, in Gilmore Girls. The desire to mirror parents’ success may work against some aspirational college students, churning up signs of physiological stress, according to one study.
The study, published in Frontiers in Psychiatry from researchers in Germany and Switzerland, analyzed how parental educational attainment may be associated with the stress of their teenage children starting college. Researchers compared hair cortisol concentrations (HHCs) from women in their first semester of college from families where parents had graduated from tertiary education with students from families where parents did not (the stress hormone is typically measured using blood, urine, or saliva samples, and, more recently, hair). While the study was published in 2020, it may be especially timely today, as students face more economic uncertainty and a workforce rapidly changing, largely thanks to AI.
Those who had at least one parent graduate from college appeared to have more physiological stress after starting school than those whose parents did not graduate from college. While self-reported stress levels did not vary, the physiological stress measured by HHCs did.
“Our findings are in line with the theoretical and empirical work of sociologists who argue that individuals from academic families may be frightened of experiencing a social (academic) drop if they fail while attending a university,” the researchers write. “Based on this argumentation, we assumed that there may be social pressure for academic family members to continue the family tradition, that is, to acquire a higher education at a university.”
There’s more parental involvement across the board, and it could be argued that parents of a particular educational attainment may be more likely to place specific career aspirations on their children. A recent Pew Research study found that 41% of parents say their children (between ages 18 and 34) “rely on them a great deal or a fair amount for emotional support,” with the majority saying their children come to them for advice and 73% saying they text with them at least a few times week.
The small study of 71 women in one university in Switzerland has limitations. A more comprehensive analysis across academic disciplines with more participants could add to the association between parental education, area of study, and stress levels.
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But the results add to the literature that Gen Zers across the board are anxious about being financially less stable than their parents, as they consider financial success to be a net worth twice as large as their Gen X parents. They are also struggling with the rising cost of living amid economic turmoil.
And that anxiety is not limited to a privileged few: Research from the journal Cogent Mental Health also finds high rates of anxiety, depression, and stress among first-generation college students, many of whom have faced systemic barriers to equal educational attainment, financial stress, and debt that can exacerbate stress.
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