The Effect of Enrollment In a Middle School Magnet Program and a Student's Perceived Stress and Amount of Sleep

Over the past few years, sleep deprivation and worsened physical and mental health in adolescents has become a common and alarming issue. With intensifying pressures to do well in school, academic magnet programs have garnered attention for their accelerated learning and curriculum. Though these programs are known for producing students better acclimated to certain fields, it is often believed that academic strain on these students sometimes interferes with the two earlier stated factors. The purpose of this study was to determine if the effect of enrollment in a magnet program heightened perceived stress and/or contributed to lack of sleep. It was hypothesized that students in a middle school magnet program would on average get fewer hours of sleep and have higher scores for perceived stress than non-magnet students. To measure the sleep variable, students in grades 6-8 used a google form to record the amount of sleep received the night before. These students also completed a children’s perceived stress scale questionnaire weekly in order to gauge stress levels. This procedure continued over the span of four weeks. The results for magnet and non-magnet students were compared for the 7th and 8th grades. A one-way ANOVA test was run to determine the effect of the program on sleep and perceived stress levels. It was concluded that the amount of sleep (F(4,1421)=12.83, p<0.001) was lower, while perceived stress levels (F(4,198)=5.87, p<0.001) were higher for magnet students than non-magnet students.