More than a quarter of Taiwanese college students suffer from some form of depression, according to the latest survey conducted by the John Tung Foundation.
The foundation surveyed 6,960 college students all over the country in May and June this year and received 6,198 valid responses. In surveys done in the last two years, the foundation found that 24.1 percent and 24.3 percent of students are depressed enough to benefit from professional assistance.
"We have said for years that roughly one in four college students in this country are depressed enough to need help," said Yeh Ya-hsing (
However, of the 25.7 percent of the students surveyed who were put in the category of being depressed enough to benefit from assistance, only 8.2 percent sought help with the university's counseling center.
The top reason students cited for not going to counseling was they did not consider their problems serious enough to merit counseling, followed by the reluctance to discuss personal problems with a stranger.
"Maybe our school counselors seem too `professional,'" said the foundation's executive director Huang Chen-tai (
Hu Ting-wei (
"There is the idea that is instilled by parents that you have to overcome problems yourself, that seeking help for depression is weak," Hu said.
Hu related incidents where parents refused to allow their depressed child to seek medical help because "they did not want her child's medical records to contain evidence that they took anti-depressants."
"Some students cannot get help over the summer because their parents forbid them from going for any kind of psychiatric help," Wu said.
The most common problem students report is academic pressure, followed by anxiety over what they want to do with their lives after graduation.
"It's very easy to get into a university these days," Hu said. "But some students who are weaker academically find it very challenging to keep up with the workload."
"Even beyond passing their classes, some students obsess over how their classmates have done in optional tests such as English proficiency exams because it is such a competitive environment," Hu said.
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22