A theory dating back more than 100 years suggested that there is an optimal amount of stress for good performance, based on a study that had nothing to do with humans.
Researchers ran mice through a maze, using electric shocks to punish wrong choices. On harder tasks, moderate shocks produced the fastest learning, while stronger shocks made it worse. Over the years, this got reinterpreted into claims about punishment, reward, motivation and stress in humans.
But the original study was about how animals learn to avoid fear and pain, not about optimal learning at all. Once a mouse learns to avoid a shock, escape itself triggers dopamine release; in other words, the escape – not the discovery – is the reward.
They see their parenrs struggling and see what is possibly in store for them, and their parents may also not believe like previous generations that their kid is destined to be better off than them.
Not surprising if the parents accomplished what the generation before them thought was the key to success of getting educated and choosing the right career path. So they’ve already “succeeded” and hit the ceiling and see it wasn’t all they envisioned it to be and the job opportunities and salaries in relation to cost of living getting worse.
And the kids pick up on that.