Authors: Dr Nilani Sammuarachchi
Abstract: Child and adolescent mental health disorders represent a rapidly escalating global public health concern, with increasing prevalence of anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation, and stress-related developmental vulnerability. Among the most influential yet comparatively under-examined contributors to this burden is chronic parental pressure in combination with sustained psychosocial stress. Excessive academic expectations, performance-contingent approval, emotional invalidation, and fear-based parenting practices may function as persistent stressors that disrupt healthy psychological development and stress-regulation processes during critical periods of childhood and adolescence. This doctoral research investigates the impact of parental pressure and psychosocial stress on child and adolescent mental health outcomes within a mixed-methods public health framework. A TAP-IT mixed-methods design was employed, integrating quantitative assessment of psychological distress, behavioural outcomes, and stress-related indicators with qualitative exploration of lived experiences among children, adolescents, and parents. The study examined anxiety, depressive symptoms, emotional regulation, stress perception, family dynamics, and functional impairment, alongside indicators of neurophysiological stress reactivity, including autonomic nervous system dysregulation and stress-response patterns. The findings demonstrate a strong association between elevated parental pressure and increased levels of anxiety, depressive symptoms, sleep disturbance, emotional dysregulation, and academic burnout among children and adolescents. Patterns of stress reactivity observed across psychological and physiological indicators were consistent with chronic stress exposure and dysregulated stress-response systems. Qualitative findings further revealed prominent themes of fear of failure, emotional suppression, performance-based self-worth, social comparison, and limited psychological safety within the home environment. This study concludes that sustained parental pressure and chronic psychosocial stress constitute significant upstream public health determinants of child and adolescent mental health vulnerability. The findings support the urgent implementation of family-based stress-reduction initiatives, parental mental health education, school-based screening, and early psychological intervention strategies. This research provides evidence to inform national child mental health policy, community-level prevention programs, and integrative, family-centred public health intervention models.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20560750
