Nearly 20 percent of fourth-graders in Taipei City and Hsinchu County have had suicidal thoughts at one time or another, according to a research paper released yesterday.
Chiang Yi-chen (江宜珍), a doctoral student at National Taiwan University's Institute of Public Health and Welfare, interviewed a total of 2,075 fourth-graders from Taipei City and Hsinchu County, as well as 1,841 mothers and 1,652 fathers of these 10-year-olds, as part of her research into the factors behind suicidal tendencies among elementary-school students.
According to her survey, 26 percent of the Taipei fourth-graders interviewed said they have thought about committing suicide, while 13 percent of the Hsinchu students said that they have.
This indicates that children in urban areas are more likely to succumb to the stress in their daily lives resulting from school or family relations or other personal reasons, Chiang said.
Chiang also found from the survey results that girls are more likely to have suicidal thoughts.
She further concluded that children who live in big cities and often feel lonely or depressed, or who are not on good terms with their family members, or have violent tendencies, are more likely to think about committing suicide.
Chiang said she found that most of the 10-year-olds that she interviewed are genuinely aware of the meaning of death and what suicide is.
Family-related factors, including violence or low income, are major factors prompting the fourth-graders to think about killing themselves, according to Chiang's report.
The one child that Chiang found to be the saddest among those she interviewed was a boy in Taipei City who said he has attempted suicide three times over the past 17 months, including jumping from a building, slashing a wrist and trying to hang himself.
The boy, who suffers from tongue problems due to a genetic defect, said he often feels depressed and bullied, particularly at school. Influenced by his family's religious beliefs, the boy said that he believes in reincarnation and that he is not at all afraid of dying, according to Chiang.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS