Students can learn to cope with failures  and deal with stress from parents.

Teaching thinking and problem-solving skills to children may be the critical role of parents in the days to come.

According to leading international research studies, the current school students are at a higher risk for depression than any previous generation. As many as 9% of children will experience a major depressive episode by the time they are 14 years old, and 20% will experience a major depressive episode before graduating from high school.The rising student suicides during the result announcement period of the final exams bear testimony to this alarming trend that needs to be arrested. Having suffered from depression as children, these young people are much more vulnerable to depression as adults.

Most psychological research has focused on treating depression after it begins. But can parents play a role in  attempting to prevent depression before it starts?.The parent can teach their children  how to be optimistic in their thinking and problem-solving, thereby reducing stress and staving off depression. 

Specifically, children can be taught to become aware of  negative beliefs they hold about themselves, others, and the world, and then guided on how  to replace their pessimistic beliefs with more positive ones. 

Children can also be taught to view failures and setbacks as temporary, instead of permanent; as specific to a time and place, instead of general. 

Encouraging children to have the courage to fail and to help them to view their failures  more in he context of circumstances, rather than due to personal defects. For example, children can be taught that one poor test grade doesn't mean they are dumb; it means they have to study harder for the next test.

The parental role in helping their children develop these skills to cope wi stress inducing situations caused by the academic rigour, can be significantly enhanced if the parents  were to act as role models themselves in demonstrating these thinking and problem solving  skills in the everyday life situations in the family context.

Research studies suggest that once young people have had a stressful episode, they are much more likely to become depressed in the future. Arming children with stress busting thinking skills may provide a cost-effective, longer-lasting, drug-free alternative to enable children deal with stress.