Best questions for high school sophomore student survey about stress and anxiety

Here are some of the best questions for a high school sophomore student survey about stress and anxiety, plus pro tips on crafting questions that lead to real insight. With Specific, you can instantly generate your custom survey—no coding or research degree needed.

Best open-ended questions for high school sophomore student survey about stress and anxiety

Open-ended questions invite deeper, more personal responses—they’re your go-to when you want students to elaborate on their feelings, triggers, and coping strategies. These questions are especially valuable when trying to understand the lived experience behind the stats: with 45% of high schoolers feeling stressed nearly every day, we need more than just numbers. [1] Use open-ended questions at the start of a survey to break the ice, or after specific topics to dig for context and nuance.

1. Can you describe a recent time when you felt especially stressed at school?

2. What are the main causes of stress or anxiety for you as a sophomore?

3. When you feel anxious or overwhelmed, what do you usually do to cope?

4. Are there particular classes or activities that trigger your stress?

5. How does stress affect your mood, motivation, or schoolwork?

6. What support have you found helpful when managing stress?

7. If you could change one thing about your school experience to help with anxiety, what would it be?

8. How do you think teachers and staff could better support students dealing with stress?

9. What advice would you give to other sophomores who are struggling with stress and anxiety?

10. Is there anything else you’d like to share about how stress or anxiety impacts your daily life?

These questions set the stage for honest dialogue, capturing the kind of answers that go beyond a box-tick—giving you the context needed to make real improvements. Want to see what this looks like in action? Try our AI survey generator where you can customize and fine-tune every question.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for high school sophomore student survey about stress and anxiety

Single-select multiple-choice questions are ideal when you want to quantify responses or help students get into the flow. They’re useful early in a survey to reduce overwhelm—or as a branching point for follow-up questions. Sometimes, picking from defined choices is cognitively easier than jumping straight to a written answer. These questions are backed by the need to clarify key trends, especially given that 61% of teens are stressed about grades alone. [1]

Question: How often do you feel stressed at school?

• Rarely

• Sometimes

• Almost every day

• Every day

Question: What is your biggest source of stress as a sophomore?

• Academic workload

• Social relationships

• Extracurricular activities

• Family expectations

• Other

Question: When you feel anxious, do you talk to anyone about it?

• Never

• Sometimes

• Always

• Only with certain people

When to followup with "why?" If a student selects that they feel stressed 'every day', adding “Why do you feel this way?” as a follow-up unlocks rich explanations. The ‘why’ turns a simple check into a real conversation, helping you discover underlying causes or patterns you’d otherwise miss.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Including “Other” lets you capture experiences you hadn’t anticipated—often the most surprising or actionable insights. If a student picks ‘other’ for ‘biggest source of stress’, a follow-up like “Can you tell us more about this?” allows you to uncover new stress factors you might not have listed.

NPS survey question for high school sophomore student stress and anxiety

NPS (Net Promoter Score) isn’t just for products—it works beautifully in student settings too. For stress and anxiety, the NPS-style question might ask, "On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend your school’s support services to a friend facing stress or anxiety?" This not only benchmarks satisfaction but signals where improvements are most needed. It’s fast to answer and easy to follow up, allowing you to get both numbers and reasons behind them. Build a tailored NPS survey for high school sophomores about stress instantly with Specific.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions transform data from surface-level to deep insight. With automated AI followups, every reply gets the context it needs—probing gently when the initial answer is vague or incomplete. Specific’s approach means responses are clearer, richer, and less work for everyone involved. Our AI asks just like an expert, adapting to each answer in real time—no human intervention needed.

• Student: "Sometimes schoolwork gets overwhelming."

• AI follow-up: "Can you share a recent example when you felt overwhelmed by your schoolwork?"

If we don’t ask for specifics, we only get partial stories: was it exams, group projects, or deadlines that caused the stress?

How many followups to ask? Usually, two or three targeted follow-ups are enough. With Specific, you can set limits—collect just enough information, and skip as soon as you have the context you wanted. This keeps the survey short yet informative.

This makes it a conversational survey: The interaction feels natural, like a chat—not an interrogation—which boosts completion rates and honesty.

AI survey analysis, AI-powered response analysis, how to analyze open-ended responses: Even if you collect tons of open-text feedback, analyzing it is easy. With Specific’s AI survey response analysis, you can instantly summarize key themes, spot outliers, and even chat about survey results like you would with ChatGPT. For a tutorial, see our guide to analyzing high school sophomore survey responses with AI.

Automated follow-up questions are a new concept—try generating a conversational survey and see the improvement in quality and depth.

How to prompt ChatGPT to write great survey questions

Want to use ChatGPT or another GPT to brainstorm survey questions for sophomores about stress? Start simple:

First, try prompting:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for high school sophomore student survey about stress and anxiety.

To get better results, always give more context—about your audience, your objectives, what you plan to do with the information:

I’m creating a survey for 10th grade students at a public high school. The goal is to better understand sources of stress and anxiety, how it affects academic and personal life, and what can be done to support students. Can you suggest open-ended questions that invite honest answers?

Once you have initial questions, ask the AI:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Pick the most relevant categories, then prompt:

Generate 10 questions for categories "Coping strategies", "School-related stress", and "Support systems".

By refining your prompts, you go from generic to truly targeted survey questions. Or make it even simpler—use the Specific AI survey maker to do all this in one interactive flow, including editing questions with natural language using our AI survey editor.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys are an evolution beyond standard forms—they feel like a chat. Respondents answer naturally, one question at a time, with dynamic follow-ups probing for details where needed (instead of forcing them to write a one-size-fits-none essay). It’s the best way to gather nuanced feedback—especially from high school students, who often open up more over chat than on paper forms.

How does this compare to old-school surveys? Let’s break it down:

Why use AI for high school sophomore student surveys? When 36% of high schoolers experience moderate to severe anxiety [2], we need feedback that’s accurate, trusted, and actionable. AI survey generators adapt instantly, asking smarter questions and turning responses into themes you can actually use. It’s the fastest route from “what’s happening?” to “how do we help?”

See more about how to create a high school sophomore student survey about stress and anxiety on our blog. Specific’s platform delivers best-in-class conversational surveys—engaging for both creators and students, and designed for real insight.

See this stress and anxiety survey example now

Try an AI-powered conversational survey for high school sophomores today—you’ll get deeper answers, richer insights, and the most natural feedback experience anywhere. Create your custom survey and make every response count.