Exams, peer pressure and part-time jobs can all create pressures for today's teenagers, but do girls and boys handle them differently? Education reporter Haydn Lewis dropped in at Canon Lee School, in York, to speak to Year 11 students about what stresses them most.

YOUTHFUL angst is not a new phenomenon, but for teenagers today balancing their school work with their life can be a constant battle.

A recent study of Year 11 pupils - 15 and 16 year-olds about to study their GCSEs - has challenged concepts that girls are more obsessed with friendships than their school work.

The survey carried out by South Wales teacher Alison Owen-Yeates showed almost nine out of ten girls were worried about their exams, as opposed to only 70 per cent of boys.

In contrast, boys spent more time talking in lessons to make more friends.

The study was based on responses from 140 Year 11 pupils - 64 girls and 76 boys.

The pupils, from a South Wales comprehensive, were each given a questionnaire listing 30 elements of school life, and asked which made them nervous or upset.

But the consensus of the pupils we spoke to from that year group at Canon Lee School was that it depends on the individual, and is not gender specific.

Toby Gordon, 15, works part-time in a shoe shop as well as studying for his GCSEs.

He said: "Gender really doesn't determine what you get stressed out about.

"My work outside of school stresses me out. Trying to balance that with school can be hard work."

Nadia Alsarami, 16, said: "It depends what type of person you are, not whether you are a boy or a girl.

"You don't know how hard it is going to be until you get into this year, but you have so much to think about and there's a lot of revision.

"It's not really about what your friends think, but doing the work."

Elliot Sawyer, 15, who also has a part-time job as a waiter, said: "I've cut down on my job.

"It's the thought of course work piling up and exams that stresses me out more than anything."

Joe Maud, 15, said: "School work is most important this year, and there are no real stresses apart from school."

Toby said: "I'd like to say school work is my top priority, but I'd probably be lying - there are bits of it that seem pretty irrelevant, and I do like spending time with my friends.

"But if there's an aspect of school that interests me, I do focus on it."

Head of Year 11 Dave Foster said: "I don't think gender makes a difference.

"At this school, I think it's definitely balanced out - you get some boys who are image conscious and some girls who are too.

"Both sexes go round in groups, and then there are individuals of each gender.

"When Joe said school was his top priority now, I think he hit the nail on the head.

"They are all realising that in the long run friends and family will probably be more of a priority, but just now school work has to be number one."

Updated: 10:56 Wednesday, January 25, 2006