The Child Welfare League Foundation announced the results of a survey on the family lives of urban children yesterday.
The foundation expressed concern over the study's finding that parent-child interaction in the home is decreasing.
The foundation also called for parental supervision in light of growing use of the Internet and viewing of television by children.
The survey, conducted in randomly chosen elementary schools in Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung, indicated that 40.1percent of the 893 respondents "rarely, or never" ate dinner with their families, and that 56.7percent almost never consulted their parents about personal issues.
"It is worrying that young children may be growing up without the guidance of their parents. We ask parents to try to pay more attention to and spend more time with their children," foundation Executive Director Alicia Wang (
The results also showed that while about 50percent of children questioned participate in cram-school programs after school, 61.4percent of the students say that they would prefer to stay at home instead.
The study showed that over half of the children living in Taipei receive tutoring in three or more subjects, whereas students in Kaohsiung and Taichung generally take one to three subjects.
According to the study, English is the top subjects in all three areas, taken by 80.6percent of the children in Taipei, 71.5percent in Taichung and 77.3percent in Kaohsiung. Math came a close second.
"Parents in northern Taiwan put more emphasis on a rounded education and have more money," said Wu Yueh-o (
Another indication of the economic gap between the regions is the allowance that the children surveyed receive.
"On average, allowances are higher in Taipei than in Kaohsiung by NT$100 per month," said Yu Mei-ren (于美人), a talk show host.
The foundation called attention to the amount of time children are spending online and watching television. The percentage of children watching TV over three hours a day is 24.4percent , with over 50percent of those preferring to watch variety programming, according to the study.
The percentage of children who spend more than three hours a day online was 13.5percent.
Citing the large numbers of children using electronic media in their spare time, the foundation called on parents to supervise the content of the television shows and the Web sites their children see.
The foundation is a nonprofit organization that conducts research on child welfare and seeks to educate the public on children rights' issues.
The foundation provides training for child welfare workers and lobbies for child welfare legislation.
It also works on missing children cases.
The foundation encourages children or parents who need advice to call their hotline at 0800-003-123.
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