Students under academic pressure and their spillover effects on peers’ mental well-being

Abstract

This study explores the spillover effects of students under academic pressure on their peers’ mental well-being in high school. I approximate students who are under such pressure by whether they attended private educational institutes before entering primary school. To conduct the analysis, I employ the random assignment of high school students to classrooms within schools in South Korea. I find that students who attended private institutes in early childhood have greater exam-related pressure in grade 10 and exhibit negative externalities on their classmates’ mental well-being. The subgroup analysis reveals that students whose parents have higher expectations of their children's education and those who attend schools in highly competitive regions are largely influenced by these negative externalities.