IELTS Task 2 Sample Answer 32 - Nowadays parents put too much pressure on their children to succeed.What is the reason for doing this?Is this a positive or negative development?

Children today undergo a considerable amount of stress and one contributing factor to this stress is the over insistence from parents to succeed in life. This attitude has developed among parents due to many reasons and the continuation of this trend can result in negative outcomes.

The predominant factor leading to this phenomenon is the competitive attitude among parents. Parents often force their children to indulge themselves in various activities both of academic and non-academic nature as they believe competency in different areas is required for a successful life in future. In order to achieve the desired results the children are subject to a lot of pressure. They also have a feeling of pride when their child excels in various fields and often associate it as matter of their status in society which adds on to the compulsion.

I believe over pressurization would adversely affect a child’s mental health. When children are compelled to involve in activities beyond their interest and capability, it would not result in a fruitful outcome as the children may undergo a lot of stress. When they try to cope with this pressure of becoming successful, their mental health deteriorates and may result in conditions like depression and low self-esteem. In some circumstances, it can even lead to situations wherein the child may decide to run away from home because of his inability to deal with the stress.

To conclude, the competition among children has increased a lot these days and this attitude is forcefully developed in children by parents through a lot of coercion. Though this may help to mould a child's future to some extent, I believe it has more of a negative impact on a child’s psychological health.