In a Pew survey of teens pre-COVID, academic pressure tops their list of stressors: 61 percent say they face a lot of pressure to get good grades. By comparison, 29 percent say they feel pressure to look good; 28 percent to fit in socially; and just 6 percent to drink alcohol.
An outcome of this pressure to perform academically is that when something happens in a kids life interrupts their schooling (which it othen does)