<\/p>\n
Children in America\u2019s \u201cgood schools\u201d \u2013 those with high test scores and graduates heading to selective colleges \u2013 may look like they have it all<\/span>. B<\/span>ut appearances mask an epidemic of\u00a0<\/span>children\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>mental health problems. In fact,\u00a0<\/span>major policy reports<\/span><\/a>\u00a0now list students at high-achieving schools as an at-risk group,\u00a0<\/span>alongside children in poverty<\/span><\/a>, those experiencing trauma, and those in foster care or with incarcerated parents<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Rates of clinically significant anxiety and depression can be as high as six times the national norm in many high-achieving schools (HASs), where children\u2019s mental health is severely affected by ongoing, ubiquitous, and unrelenting\u00a0<\/span>pressure to achieve<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Students are scrambling to stay on top of a group of high performers; amid a squeeze of the middle classes in the US, young people tend to\u00a0<\/span>fear<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>that, unless they are among the very top performers, they will somehow be left behind.<\/span><\/p>\n P<\/span>ressure\u00a0<\/span>on these children\u2019s mental health\u00a0<\/span>come<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0from multiple sources in their lives, including teachers, coaches, parents and peers. Elite universities \u2013 fervently sought by many of these children \u2013 play an important role, as they pick fewer and fewer from many applicants with exemplary resumes. By 2018, the admissions rate for the top 50 ranked US higher education institutions had dropped to 22.6 per cent, down from 35.9 per cent in 2006. The drop was most pronounced in the top 10 schools, where the admissions rate fell in that 12<\/span>–<\/span>year period by almost two thirds, from 16 percent to 6.4 percent.<\/span><\/p>\n