High school senioritis: advice for parents

What is Senioritis?

According to Urbandictionary.com senioritis is “A crippling disease that strikes high school seniors. Symptoms include: laziness, an over-excessive wearing of track pants, old athletic shirts, sweatpants, athletic shorts, and sweatshirts. Also features a lack of studying, repeated absences, and a generally dismissive attitude. The only known cure is a phenomenon known as Graduation”.

Though this description is meant to be funny, the condition is definitely not amusing if it happens to you, or more specifically to your child in senior high who is looking to get into college. If you notice an ebbing of motivation and effort in a usually conscientious student - incurring absences and being tardy and worse, getting lower grades, most likely senioritis has set in.

What causes it?

To teachers, and certainly to parents, senioritis is a very real problem and can affect even well adjusted teens. Knowing what causes it is the key to providing guidance and support so your senior can cope with it with as few negative consequences as possible.

Often, boredom may cause it. It may seem paradoxical because senior year is supposedly full with tests, sports, extracurricular activities, and time jobs filling up a student’s time. However, in the second half of the year, the workload may dwindle for some of their classes and seniors are often left feeling “unchallenged” and their lessons may fail to keep them interested in learning.

Fear of change may trigger it. High school is familiar and safe. Although teens look forward to moving on and growing up, they also fear getting out of that comfort zone where things are more or less predictable and where they have their friends.

As mentioned earlier, senior year is a full year with loads of activities further made hectic with college or technical school visits and applications, search for scholarships, senior projects and job or career searching. All these can cause burnout. It is important to help your teen manage his stress levels to prevent from burning out.

Expectedly, graduation is something seniors are looking forward to. It is afterall, the culmination of their high school life. But this can also cause slacking off. Fortunately graduation-used slacking off is short lived and mostly manifests itself during the last week of school. And most high schools have remedied this by graduating seniors a week before the end of school.

The Consequences

Senioritis can lead to potential serious problems and consequences. It is a good idea to share this with your teen and perhaps this can help him avoid getting senioritis. What are these?

1) Falling grades. 2) School discipline, detentions or suspension 3) Loss of credits which could lead to not graduating 4) If an athlete, loss of standing in a varsity team 5) Rescinding of acceptance to the college of their choice (Major serious consequence) 6) Less financial aid or reworking of an already approved financial aid package 7) Being placed on academic probation even before starting college.

Managing Senioritis

Striking a good balance between letting your teen enjoy all the fun, excitement, and sense of accomplishment that senior year offers, while also emphasizing the importance of a strong finish academically is an important role that a parent must play. Your role as parent in helping your child keep a sharp focus on admission to college in a gentle way is key during this critical time.

Head of admission at Purdue University Pamela Home says, "The first three years of high school may get a student into college; senior year will ensure that a student can succeed in college." This is because an important lesson learned here is self-discipline and how to handle enticing distractions.

Contrary to what some may think that senior year grades are not really relevant when it comes to college admission, in some cases, especially for selective schools, they can be critical. As mentioned above, some colleges may rescind acceptance to their school should they find less than stellar senior year grades from an applicant.

Here are some suggestions on how to keep your teen motivated and on track:

1. Set boundaries. According to Dr. Jack Wetter, Ed.D, Associate Clinical Professor Emeritus at UCLA School of Medicine, and an expert on mental health in school-aged children, “Most parents have some kind of vision for their kids and it can be difficult to watch them go down a different path,” If behaviors become destructive, it is important to “keep them from veering too far off course by consistently imposing consequences.” He suggests taking away privileges that are most impactful such as taking away their phone or access to the car. He says “Losing those things will give them pause next time they’re thinking about acting in a way that could be harmful.” However, it is also important to recognize improved behavior with praise and reinstatement of the privileges.

2. Make your expectations clear. Closely related to the first guideline, it is likewise important to talk to your teen and clearly explain what grades you would like to see and what their rules are for the school year regarding grades and attending classes. While you would not want to be a dictator and not take your teen’s input into consideration, be aware that it is your responsibility to set rules and enforce them. Make it clear, too that extra privileges come with increased responsibility. It is important, however, to still allow certain freedoms. Much of the behavior associated with senioritis is about your teen asserting his newfound freedom. If he is not given enough freedom to have fun or assert himself, he may rebel in any way he can just to show you that he can make his own decisions.

3. Breakdown goals and create manageable goals to attain throughout the year. It is important to make goals do-able. For example, a goal might be getting good grades or perhaps sending out applications to a certain number of colleges per month. The thing to remember is that the goal must be specific and have a time limit. The purpose of this exercise is to train your teen to focus on their goals. This increases his motivation to do things that need to be done.

4. Check up on your teen. You might not have done this for a long time now. However, know too that senioritis can happen even to teens who have had no previous problems before. If they know that you are checking up on them, this could be motivation enough to keep up with school work.
   On the other hand, it is likewise important to know when to pull back. Micromanaging your teen’s activities is a mistake you need to avoid. Rather than helping him become responsible, micromanaging can backfire and make him more irresponsible.

5. Reward your teen for good behavior by allowing him to celebrate accomplishments throughout his senior year. So long as you are clear on your expectations and his responsibilities, it is important to allow your teen to enjoy both time with his friends and his senior year. When he sees that you see him as a young adult and that you trust him, he will be more able to appreciate and value your expectations in terms of schoolwork, grades and responsibilities.

Senior year for your teen is a time of great changes. It can be very easy for him to get lost and lose focus. As parents, it is important for you to provide him guidance and support so he may be able to achieve his full potential.

If you have any tips you’d like to share with other parents, please feel free to comment here.