(NBC News) Junior year of high school can be a very stressful time for students who are already worrying about college, but psychologists say there are things parents can do to make their teen a little less stressed out.
Students in their junior year are trying to juggle advanced placement classes as well as jobs, sports and volunteer work in an effort to stand out from the crowd of college applicants.
School-related stress is one large reason anxiety has been growing among young people in recent years.
Psychologists say many teens fear not getting into the very best universities and even if they do, there is no guarantee it will make things any easier.
Often the most pressure comes from parents, who psychologists say should keep track of how often the subject of college is brought up in conversation and allow teens to express their stresses and fears without judgment.
Parents should also let their teens fail and learn how to get past failures on their own.
"What we've done in this world of sanitizing everything is nobody gets a failure experience, so the notion of getting rejected to colleges is horrifying because nothing bad has happened up until now," says clinical psychologist Dr. Jody Kussin.