Does High School Stress Progress

This project is about the differences in stress seen in the different grade levels and genders in the high school setting. My hypothesis is that the ability to handle stress will decline through the grade levels in high school. The initial idea was to compare the differences in handling stress between the two genders but data gathered through the survey, suggested that there is a more significant change when moving through the grade levels than the two genders. This project entered a second phase to further explore the acquired data. Data was collected through a National Health Institution survey that finds a hardiness score based on the questions. The survey was given to multiple grade levels and genders to produce a mean hardiness score for each gender in each grade level. It was observed that the hardiness went down through the grade levels and that females generally had a higher hardiness score than males. The difference between males and females was different at a linear rate while it was exponential for grade level. This data shows that the initial hypothesis was correct and females do have a better ability of handling stress. This also supports previous research that male brains are more hardwired for one task objectives like survival while female brains are more hardwired towards multitasking like caring for a child. As stated by Dr. Nussbaum in my 2014 interview