A representative national study involving 2,000 teenagers aged 14 to 17 has revealed that 33 percent of young people in Germany are significantly impacted by academic stress. This finding comes from the Sinus Youth Study 2025/2026, commissioned by the Barmer health insurance fund.
The research highlighted stark differences based on gender: female teenagers reported being much more affected, with 42 percent experiencing serious strain, compared to 25 percent of their male counterparts. Conversely, only 22 percent of the surveyed youth indicated that school stress had no negative impact on their lives.
Following stress from school, the most significant stressors reported in daily life were familial stress, cited by 16 percent of respondents, and loneliness, mentioned by 12 percent. In response to these findings, Barmer CEO Christoph Straub emphasized the urgent necessity of placing greater focus on the mental health of young people.
The study also established that adolescents with a lower level of education across all categories reported being substantially more stressed. This difference was particularly pronounced when considering issues like bullying, addiction, and chronic physical ailments. Relationship stress played a smaller role for this age group; only six percent of those surveyed stated that it greatly strained their daily lives.
