Barbara Feldman: Health Effects of Over Scheduling Kids

Health Effects of Over Scheduling Kids

I was thrilled to read that Marilee Jones, the dean of admissions at MIT, believes that the increasingly stressful competition to get into elite colleges is harming our teens. To help spread the word, she's teaming up with the American Academy of Pediatrics to document the health effects of over scheduling kids and teens.

"There is a growing sense in the medical community that the over-scheduling required by colleges and driven by the economics of two working parents is creating a vast array of stress-related symptoms like depression, anxiety disorders, gastrointestinal issues like ulcers, and . . . eating and sleeping disorders in children as young as middle-schoolers." Jones was quoted yesterday in the Boston Globe.