Video produced by Karen Trinh, Katrya Ly and Ashley Le
By Karen Trinh, Editor-In-Chief and Katrya Ly, News Editor
For two years, UCLA has been working with FVHS students to conduct a psychology study called Adolescents Coping With Everyday Stress, regarding student stress.
According to Hannah Nguyen, a postdoctoral scholar from UCLA, the goal is to understand the daily experience of teenagers and how cultural aspects can affect their stress and their coping techniques.
At the beginning of the study, earlier this year, the entire sophomore class was given a survey in their social studies classes. Then from the results of the survey, students were selected to undergo a screening process before a select group were chosen to be a part of the two wellness programs designed to prevent depression.
The first program, called Learning to Breath, focused on mindfulness. Students were encouraged to take notice of their everyday actions, such as walking, eating and breathing. They were taught to focus on their current situation rather than allowing negative emotions to overwhelm them.
“Oftentimes you hear students share that they sometimes pay so much attention to their worries and it really leads to feelings of anxiety…. it really takes the focus away from them,” said Nguyen.
The second program, was an interpersonal therapy program (IPT), geared towards improving students’ relationships with their family and friends. From the study, common stressors are interpersonal relationships, such as with parents and friends, as well as academics.
“The idea is that if those relationships are doing well, if those relationships are healthy and if we’re communicating well with people, letting them know what we need and they’re letting us know what they need, that also tends to decrease stress, depression and some of those indicators that we’re worried about,” said school psychologist, Cynthia Olaya.
After the two 12-week wellness programs, exit interviews were conducted by the UCLA researchers. Nguyen stated that the teenagers who were involved spoke positively about the program.
“One thing we got away from [the exit interviews] is that students learned that they are not alone…other people also share their experiences,” said Nguyen.
Recently, the study was introduced to a new group of students for the second semester. Instead of sophomores, juniors will be the focus this time around. Due to limited funding, the study is directed only towards sophomores and juniors because according to Nguyen, 10th and 11th grade are two critical years in regards to college acclimation, so they are more intense for high school students than freshmen and senior years. In addition, the study is focused on Vietnamese-American and European-American students, also due to limited funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Nguyen stated that If the program continues to go well during the second semester, she and those who are involved would like to continue the program at FVHS, hopefully with a grant from UCLA.
“Our hope is really to support the teens and have them develop healthy strategies, healthy ways to manage the different hassles they have to deal with in their daily lives,” said Nguyen.
