Academic stress, loneliness, and a lack of sleep and exercise have been identified as the main reasons for unhappiness in Taiwanese children, a survey conducted by the Child Welfare League Foundation showed yesterday.
The foundation released the results of its annual survey on Children’s Day yesterday.
The survey of nearly 2,000 fifth to ninth-graders nationwide found that their average satisfaction score was 73.1 out of 100, meaning that they achieved a “medium level” of happiness, the foundation said.
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About 79 percent of respondents gave their life satisfaction score a passing grade of 60 points, half a percentage point lower than last year and 8.9 percentage points lower than the average score in the WHO Health Behavior in School-Aged Children study, it said.
Nearly 45 percent of respondents reported that they experienced academic stress, 2.9 percentage points higher than last year and 9.5 percentage points higher than the WHO study average, the foundation said.
The result further explained why 28.8 percent of respondents told interviewers that they do not like school and only 14.4 percent said that they like school, the foundation said.
The percentage of students who reported that they like school was nearly 14 percentage points lower than the WHO study average, it said.
“Although schools began to adopt new curriculum guidelines in 2021, students’ academic stress shows no sign of easing,” the foundation said.
However, more than 70 percent of respondents reported feeling safe on campus, and that other students are friendly and willing to help, it said.
The survey also found that 26.3 percent of respondents exercise for more than 60 minutes less than two days per week.
The average sleeping time for respondents was 7.62 hours per day, lower than the eight to 10 hours recommended by international studies, the foundation said.
That the COVID-19 pandemic deprived many of the opportunity for in-person interactions over the past three years appears to have taken a toll on the mental health of students as well, with 15 percent of respondents saying that they felt lonely, it said.
About 28 percent said that they felt the world could go on without them, while only 27.9 percent said that they like the life they have now, it said.
Meanwhile, 46.2 percent of respondents told interviewers that they eat with their family every day, which was close to the WHO study average of 50 percent.
Nearly 62 percent said that telling their personal problems to their mothers was easy, up from 56.6 percent last year, while nearly 49.5 percent said telling their problems to their fathers was easy, up from 45.2 percent last year, the foundation said.
The pandemic appears to have facilitated communication between children and their parents in some families, it said.
“Children and parents face new problems and challenges in the post-pandemic era,” foundation executive director Pai Li-fang (白麗芳) said. “Everyone has to rethink the type of lifestyle we want to pursue to make our children happier.”
The survey, which was conducted from Dec. 9 last year to Jan. 13, collected 1,875 valid samples from students aged 11 to 15 nationwide and it had a margin of error of 2.26 percentage points.
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