Common Stressors faced by Hong Kong Students

During the developmental process, apart from facing physical and psychological changes, adolescents have to play different roles in their family, school, society and peer group. These can become sources of stress. In regard of Hong Kong students, they have six common stressors: personal, family, school, environmental, peer group and intimate relationship.

Stressors	Examples
1. Personal Stressor: e.g.	vague prospect, unstable emotion, poor health, common appearance, poor self-esteem, despair, etc.
2. Family Stressor: e.g.	high expectation from parents, being scolded, nagging, lack of communication with parents, poor relationship with siblings, quarrels between parents, broken family, poor economical status, have to do a lot of housework, etc.
3. School Stressor: e.g.	having too much homework, difficult homework, frequent tests and examinations, unsatisfying results, high expectations from teachers, lack of understanding and care from teachers, poor relationship with classmates and too many strict school regulations, etc.
4. Environmental Stressor: e.g.	cramped living space, traffic congestion, poor sanitation, noise pollution, air pollution, damaged living environment, strong triad society influences, declining moral standard, inflation, declining Hong Kong security system, facing legal cases and social changes, etc.
5. Peer Stressor: e.g.	lack of intimate friends, have been deceived or cheated by friends, conflicts with friends, have been neglected or discriminated, have poorer results when comparing with friends, with friends who are materialistic, etc.
6. Intimate Relationship Stressor: e.g.	lack of communication, misunderstanding, incompatibility, pleasing others all the time, high mutual expectations, inhibition and exhibition of 'sex', etc.

(資料來源: 香港心理學會臨床心理組（壓力面面觀）編輯委員會，(1995)，壓力面面觀，香港，香港基督教服務處)

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