Taiwanese children’s self-reported life satisfaction fell for the third straight year this year to the lowest level on record, an annual survey released yesterday by the Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF) showed.
In its 2024 Health Behaviors in School-Aged Children Survey, the foundation found that the subjective life satisfaction score for Taiwanese children in grades 5 to 9 (ages 11 to 15) was 68 out of 100, down 5.5 points from last year and 11.2 points from 2017.
The score was also seven points below the international average, it said.
Photo: CNA
The foundation blamed the low scores on a combination of factors, including increased feelings of psychological alienation, stress from school, insufficient sleep and addiction to digital devices, which it said were borne out by the survey’s targeted questions.
In terms of psychological alienation and loneliness, 37.4 percent of children said they agreed with the statement “if I was not in the world, it would not make a difference.”
Another 13.7 percent of respondents described themselves as “unhappy” with their lives.
Other factors measured children’s satisfaction with their daily routines.
For example, three-quarters (75.9 percent) of the children said they felt stressed by their schoolwork, up more than 30 percentage points from the 44.5 percent reported last year, the survey showed.
The CWLF did not state whether it viewed the increase as a statistical anomaly or as related to specific trends or changes in Taiwan’s education system.
Respondents also reported sleeping an average of 8.01 hours on weekdays and 9.59 hours on weekends, falling in the lower end of the daily eight to 10 hours of sleep recommend by experts for children aged 13 to 18, the foundation said.
Regarding their engagement with digital devices, 20.8 percent of those surveyed said they played screen-based games at least six hours a day, while 9.4 percent said they played more than eight hours daily.
Nearly one-quarter of the children (24.5 percent) said they were so fixated on a game they could not think about other things, while a similar number said they had trouble reducing screen time even after being asked.
The survey also showed some positive developments in the area of family relations, with 70.8 percent of children saying they believed they could talk to their mother about their feelings, while 55.4 percent said they could talk to their father, the CWLF said.
Sixty-three percent of respondents said they shared at least one meal per day with their family, the foundation said, adding that each of the three metrics had risen “substantially” over the past year.
The CWLF has yet to release the details of the survey’s methodology. In previous years, it used a sample size of at least 1,500 students, as recommended by the WHO, which collaborates with more than 50 countries to administer the survey every four years.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS