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Government troubles the youth

"Values are topsy-turvy in today's society, and our youths are the innocent victims of it all."

Liao Cheng-hao, director of the Tosun Public Interest Foundation

The top five factors causing anxiety among the Taiwanese youth are social outlook, future personal development, school environment, family influences and how the government runs the country, according to the results of a survey released yesterday.

A total of 2,015 students between the ages of 13 and 20 participated in the survey conducted by the Tosun Public Interest Foundation, a non-profit organization which helps school drop-outs and disadvantaged youths.

The same survey was conducted last year and the trends remained the same. The way the government is running the country ranked first in the anxiety stakes, followed by their future personal development and societal outlook. School envir-onment was in fourth place, with family influen-ces causing least anxiety.

Director of the foundation, Liao Cheng-hao (廖正豪), said that these figures indicated the dissatisfaction of the nation's youth with soc-iety as a whole.

Liao said that the string of illegal governmental proceedings that was uncovered recently, the bad spirit in which the three-in-one election campaigns were held -- with a focus on personal attacks rather than plans for political reform -- were a disappointment for the public.

"Values are topsy-turvy in today's society, and our youths are the innocent victims of it all," Liao said.

This year's overall anxiety score for students suggested by the survey's results was 61.29 compared with 61.56 last year, out of a total of 100.

However, compared with last year, there was an increase in anxiety about governmental operations and societal outlook, while there was a decrease in anxiety in the other three categories. The biggest decrease was seen in anxiety about the educational environment.

Each category of anxiety was further split into more specific sub-categories. Under anxiety about governmental operations, the biggest anxiety was over environmental pollution, with anxiety about political instability next and fears about the inability of the law to protect citizens coming third.

"With concerns about environmental pollution higher than last year, it suggests that as far as the youth is concerned, the government have not solved pollution issues effectively," said the foundation's executive director, Hsu Fu-sheng (許福生).

Concerning societal outlook, most students expressed their concern over violence in society.

A student nicknamed Mantou said, "What worries me most is the number of cases of child abuse by adults. I really hate that."

On the positive side, under the category of anxiety over the educ-ational environment, there was a big decrease in anxiety about school rules.

"This proves that governmental initiatives to make schools more democratic and to respect students' rights, such as lifting restrictions on hair styles, has lead to students experiencing more freedom in the school environment," Hsu said.
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