Teachers’ Academic Demands on Performance and Mental Health among High School Students in Embu West Sub County, Embu County, Kenya

Formal education is common for growing children. Teachers play a very important role in preparing and promoting the academic life of learners. The learners on their part are expected to respond to the efforts of the teachers. Teachers place academic demands to learners which may elicit anxiety to the learners. Many studies have been done on the causes and remedies of low performance of learners in high schools. Little has been done concerning the mental health of learners in relation to academic demands from their teachers. The study adopted a correlational research design with a quantitative approach. The sample population was 300 consisting of 141 males and 159 females aged 13 – 17 from Embu West sub county. Convenience sampling design was used to get the final sample from potential participants. Data was collected using GAD-7 standardized questionnaires on mental health and researcher’s designed questionnaire to measure teachers’ academic demands on learners. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis. The study findings indicated a significant correlation between teachers’ academic demands and the mental health of the learners. The findings are significant in drawing attention to the gaps in knowledge in low performance among the high school students.