LOS ANGELES –

For too long, the results of tests of international competition have been the sole basis for ranking a country's schools. But these closely watched tests fail to provide a complete picture. The latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) serves as a case in point.

Although Japan 's 15-year-olds scored high in science and math against their peers from around the world, they ranked 42nd among 47 participating countries or regions in "students' satisfaction with life." On a scale of zero to 10, they placed 6.8, which was below the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average of 7.3.

Putting aside for a moment that attitudes are influenced by cultural differences and that the term "satisfaction with life" itself is ambiguous, researchers should not dismiss out of hand these non-cognitive results because of their long-term effect on young people. The more likely cause in Japan is anxiety as a result of unrelenting pressure to excel and persistent bullying.

But Japan is not alone in this regard. The New York Times reported a "nationwide epidemic of school-related stress." Contrary to popular opinion, it exists across the socioeconomic spectrum. According to the American Psychological Association, one in three teenagers said that stress drove them to sadness or depression, with school being the single biggest cause.

Children in early elementary school are not immune. Doctors in the United States say this is a new phenomenon. They attribute the change to performance pressure that only gets worse as children move into the higher grades. At the university level, 94 percent of counselors in a survey in 2015 reported seeing increasing numbers of students with severe psychological problems.

Based on the best available evidence, it's clear that the drive for success is eroding the physical and mental health of young people and undermining their potential in both Japan and the U.S. Failing to deal directly with the problem will eventually be manifested in costs for both countries in the form of disease and shortened life spans.

One way to address the issue is for parents and schools to place greater emphasis and rewards on what are known as "soft skills," such as conscientiousness, adaptability and perseverance that are in demand in today's economy. The trouble is that no standardized test currently in use assesses these outcomes. If they did, Japan would not rank nearly as high.

Although there is no substitute for cognitive skills, those alone are no assurance of success in the workplace. In fact, students with weak soft skills are only about one-third as likely to earn a four-year degree as those with strong soft skills, even after adjusting for their cognitive skills, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In the final analysis, young people need to know that doing their very best is good enough. Accepting that would relieve the stress so many suffer from. When more than 300 schoolchildren take their own lives each year in Japan, it behooves school officials to pay more attention to what they are doing to cause these tragedies. What's the sense of winning the battle but losing the war? Our children's lives are far too valuable.

Walt Gardner writes the Reality Check blog for Education Week in the U.S.