Taiwan teens are lost and suicidal
Friday, November 20, 2009
About 60 percent of young people in Taiwan have considered suicide and more than third lack direction in life.
The results, a magazine survey claims, are because of a lack of public role models and weakened family support.
Taiwan-based CommonWealth magazine's first ever Life and Education Survey of 4,475 students between 15 and 22 found that most had thought about suicide, with 23 percent still considering it, survey center director Huang Ching- hsuan said.
About 34 percent of respondents said they had no idea what to do in life, the survey found.
“We were extremely surprised by the results,” Huang said, noting the high response rate.
In recent years teens in Taiwan have lost public role models including the 2008 death of Taiwan super-tycoon Wang Yung-ching and the conviction of ex-president Chen Shui-bian for graft this year, Huang said.
“This is an age of no role models. Teens today just know to get into good universities, but then what?”
Family ties have weakened over the same period as numbers of children per household decrease while both parents work.
Children are often sheltered to the point where they can't handle setbacks, even the death of a pet, said Huang.
CommonWealth, an authoritative privately funded magazine, has published surveys for about 10 years on trends in Taiwan.
After years of inflation and income stagnation that put pressure on common families, Taiwan unemployment surged to record levels earlier in the year as the economy went into recession.
As many as 4,400 people commit suicide every year.
REUTERS
