Jul 8, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min · 12 segments
Dr. Maurice Elias, Rutgers Psychology Professor and Director of the Social-Emotional and Character Development Lab, explains how teachers and administrators can positively enhance their school…
Maurice EliasGuest
Mary CooganHost
But given all your experience, right, and many years of working with students, because we used to have students come to ACNJ as interns, working in the community and at schools, all the conversation we hear about increased level of stress and anxiety and depression in students, are we facing a mental health crisis in New Jersey?
And this is something that happens and starts back in the elementary school, middle school, high school days.
Our kids really do need to be able to learn without having to worry at the same time.
They would be telling me about their responsibilities, the issues they were facing because of COVID.
But then when I asked them what were things like before COVID, they were also pretty bad and pretty stressed with the fact that they had to work along with being in school, that so many students had to care for siblings, they had to care for parents, and then dealing with immigration-related issues.
So I think what COVID opened up for us is an understanding of just what the stress levels are that are affecting our students.
And then we learned about the stress levels affecting our teachers and in our schools.
Well, teachers are always having to deal with new things, right? They had to deal with remote learning.
You've got schools that are being asked to do more, create this thing called portraits of a graduate.
But given all your experience, right, and many years of working with students, because we used to have students come to ACNJ as interns, working in the community and at schools, all the conversation we hear about increased level of stress and anxiety and depression in students, are we facing a mental health crisis in New Jersey?
And this is something that happens and starts back in the elementary school, middle school, high school days.
Our kids really do need to be able to learn without having to worry at the same time.
They would be telling me about their responsibilities, the issues they were facing because of COVID.
But then when I asked them what were things like before COVID, they were also pretty bad and pretty stressed with the fact that they had to work along with being in school, that so many students had to care for siblings, they had to care for parents, and then dealing with immigration-related issues.
So I think what COVID opened up for us is an understanding of just what the stress levels are that are affecting our students.
And then we learned about the stress levels affecting our teachers and in our schools.
Well, teachers are always having to deal with new things, right? They had to deal with remote learning.
You've got schools that are being asked to do more, create this thing called portraits of a graduate.
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