The Anxious Generation Under Exam Conditions

2025 exam results reveal the emotional toll on a generation raised with smartphones, pandemics and high-pressure learning environments

Over summer, the bridge between school years, the class of 2025 received their GCSE and A Level grades. The results reveal the toll on a year group raised with smartphones amid a global pandemic. The GCSE cohort of 2025 has been widely termed “COVID’s worst-hit”, having missed critical educational transitions, with sequential gaps in learning and reports of low concentration. [1] With back-to-school anxiety growing across the age groups, how can findings improve support for the students who are set to sit exams in the coming years?

The Times published an article in August, in the wake of exam results, confirming that our students are growing up in an age of anxiety.

24% of students surveyed had anxiety, rising to 34% among girls. Whilst 70% of girls said anxiety had led them to skip school, according to the exclusive poll for The Sunday Times. [2]

The biggest fears among the age group were about exams, school or college. 48% of students shared that they worry “a lot” about them. That’s almost half of every classroom. [2]

Last year, a UK survey of Year 11 teachers (June 2024) revealed the staggering impact of exams on student mental health:

77% reported mental health issues linked to exam anxiety.

65% noted that their students were missing school due to their anxiety.

74% said special arrangements were needed for their exams.

47% observed students entering or leaving exams in distress; 28% were withdrawn from exams entirely. [3]

In 2024, art-K collated stats on student wellbeing during the transition to secondary school and its impact on school attendance in a blog post titled: I Want to Quit Secondary School. Am I Wrong?. 1 year on, a clearer trend is appearing:

Whilst school and exams have long been a cause of anxiety, the effects appear to be worsening.

Whilst Mental health services have seen increased demand, Childline recorded 1,812 counselling sessions related to exams between April and June 2025, which is more than double the 861 from the same period in 2024. [4]

Now, the rest of the students have returned to school, and anxiety is high across all ages. The general temperature check on student well-being suggests that anxiety is at an all-time high.

Do you remember how you felt on your first day back at school? Children in 2025 are favouring words like “hard”, “difficult”, “challenging”, “stressful” and “scary” when describing their return to school after the school holidays. [2]

So, this gathering of research is not aimed directly at this year’s Year 11s, but all our students who are embarking on another school year. After all, as the last GCSE cohort labelled “worst hit”, all school-age students are growing up and learning in the same environments. [1]

The Anxious Generation Under Exam Conditions

In case you’ve not read it, Jonathan Haidt’s core ideas behind his book, The Anxious Generation, are about the many ways in which modern pressures, largely digital life, are reshaping childhood for the worse. Children and young adults making up The Anxious Generation have been affected in many ways. Namely, a notable decline in attention spans, a lower resilience and development of coping mechanisms in stressful situations, as well as a worsening school behaviour and performance.

The Class of 2025, those who just received their exam results, are defined by the digital age. They are perhaps the best case study for “The Anxious Generation”.

This is the cohort that:

Missed the key early years of their education during COVID-19 lockdowns.
Came of age in a fully digital world, having never known a time before social media or the digital landscape as we know it.

So, while The Anxious Generation called for a rethinking of childhood, it’s also time to ask: should there be a rewiring of exams too? Exams and GCSE courses were created before many of the issues that face ‘The Anxious Generation’. It’s fair to say that the system was created in a different time, and perhaps never accounted for a generation growing up online, especially in the wake of a global pandemic.

Navigating school and exam anxiety with your child

Play (children and teens are never too old to play)

Play experts promote the benefits of rebuilding play-based childhoods. Jonathan Haidt (author of The Anxious Generation) encourages more outdoor, unsupervised play. He believes that more independence in the real world to make mistakes (small ones) helps children and teenagers to build emotional resiliency. That also extends to play through art.

You can read more about play on our blog, here.

Screentime is strongly linked to the causes of growing anxiety

The Anxious Generation promotes delaying access to smart smartphones until 16. Spending quality time off mobile phones and reducing screen time is one way that experts and parents alike are recommending to help reduce anxiety and focus on in-person connections. This can be achieved through play, as well as other activities that provide time without phones.

Psychologists emphasise normalising anxiety, using confined ‘worry windows’, and fostering coping strategies like downtime with friends, hobbies, and support. [5]

An article by the BBC outlines COVID-19 alone meant that children lost the rhythm of everyday life and hobbies:

“the opportunity to attend clubs, play sports, practice hobbies were replaced with activities at home.” – BBC article [6]

Each child is different, and their strategies for managing worries will be too and so it’s helpful to find what works for them. “Worry windows!” and short breaks away from school and exams are proven to help.

Questions to reflect on:

How will exam results shape how schools educate next year’s cohort sitting exams in 2026 and beyond?

What will this mean as AI shapes our futures further, as younger children continue to grow up with ever-increasing pressures?

Is growing up under ever-growing pressures to succeed diminishing the joy in learning?

What play can we all bring back into our lives and what does that look like for you and/or your children?

We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Further Reading: