This study was conducted to explore academic stress and its relationship with the mental health of ninth-standard students. 300 ninth-standard students from Government schools, aided schools self-financed high schools and higher secondary schools in Thiruvannamalai district, Tamil Nadu were selected through simple random sampling and the data was collected with Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents and Positive Mental Health Scale. The results revealed that students from private schools experienced higher academic stress than that of government school students, and private school students have higher mental health status than their counterparts. It was also found that academic stress had a significant relationship with the mental health of high school students. The implications of this are presented in this article.

Keywords: Academic Stress, Mental Health and Ninth Standard Students.