Writing in China Daily on Nov 20, World Children’s Day, Amakobe Sande, the UNICEF representative to China, asked us to “Listen to Children on Mental Health”.
The 2023 Annual Blue Book on Mental Health in China was released recently, providing many statistics that spotlight the gravity of mental health problems among both young and old in China. From what we know, the problem is universal and is a key reason why fertility rates have declined in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as well as many other countries. Many young couples do not want to have children because they do not see a bright future for them. If they have difficulty facing their own challenges in life, they are not ready to be parents.
The HKSAR government has devoted a great deal of attention to the mental health of our younger generation. Last December, it launched the Three-Tier School-based Emergency Mechanism, and also recently announced that the suicide prevention mechanism for at-risk students will be streamlined and referral processes improved for timely professional support for those in need. All this is laudable.
However, just like most health issues, prevention is much better than remedial measures. Prevention lies principally in building up youngsters’ inner strength. This can be bolstered by promoting Love (a respect for life and caring for both the mental and physical well-being of oneself and others), Insight (the wisdom of seeing the big picture and having a sense of proportion and balance), Fortitude (the resilience built up from reflecting and learning from mistakes and failures), and Engagement (a habit of living each day with a strong sense of purpose) — LIFE, for short. Yet survey results indicate that the percentage of teachers who receive formal training in LIFE education has been declining. Along with this trend, teachers’ interest in LIFE education also appears to have fallen in recent years. In a recent survey for the 2023/24 academic year, only 39.1 percent of respondents among Hong Kong’s teachers reported having had such training, down from 44.1 percent in 2021/22.
We strongly recommend that LIFE education should be part of a core curriculum for all students. In particular, all teachers and prospective teachers should have a solid training in LIFE education. It is sad to see that from time to time there are reports of teachers not only failing to serve as a role model for their students but also doing harm to themselves and to others
At Lingnan University, we have been compiling a Life Education Index since 2021/22. The index is based on the perceived intensity of activities promoting love, insight, fortitude and engagement, the four mental capitals that have been shown to be strongly related to happiness and a sense of self-worth. This index fell from 3.85 in 2021/22 to 3.65 in 2023/24. We have tested our model with two alternative dependent variables. One is an index on happiness as assessed subjectively and reported by students. The other is an index of life worth living. A parallel survey was conducted in Shenzhen, thanks to a collaborative research program between Lingnan University and Shenzhen University. We found that the life worth living index consistently showed statistically very significant results indicating that LIFE education moderates the negative effects of study pressures. LIFE education also independently contributes significantly to a life worth living. The positive independent effects of LIFE education are stronger for boys in Hong Kong and for girls in Shenzhen. The positive moderating effects of LIFE education are always stronger for girls than for boys.
One surprising and puzzling result that emerged from the study is that while schoolchildren in Shenzhen reported lower study pressures, less bullying, more living space, better family happiness, and more open space in the neighborhood, their reported life worth living index was much lower than for schoolchildren in Hong Kong.
One notable variable that might offer some clue as to why Shenzhen student ratings of parental concern for their studies was on average 4.128 versus 3.847 in Hong Kong, on a scale of 0 to 5, suggesting that in Shenzhen parents may put too much pressure on their children.
According to Abraham Maslow, the late American psychologist, “self-actualization” is at the peak of the hierarchy of needs. To me, self-actualization is indeed the key to people finding their lives worth living. In an environment in which one is under pressure to conform to social norms that one does not identify with, life becomes dreary. A highly competitive environment (called neijuan on the Chinese mainland) and a culture of keeping up with the Joneses may have contributed to young people losing a sense of purpose in life.
In view of these results, we strongly recommend that LIFE education should be part of a core curriculum for all students. In particular, all teachers and prospective teachers should have a solid training in LIFE education. It is sad to see that from time to time there are reports of teachers not only failing to serve as a role model for their students but also doing harm to themselves and to others.
Education promoting LIFE and covering parenting and sexuality will, in our view, help boost Hong Kong’s fertility rate, which fell to a mere 0.70 births per woman in 2022, according to World Bank data. Promoting parenting education for adults is often too late because they may have little time or interest. Those who need parenting education the most will not attend the workshops and seminars designed for them. On the other hand, young people who have learned the art of parenting may have more interest in taking up the challenge of becoming parents themselves. This will translate into a boost in Hong Kong’s fertility rate.
The author is an adjunct research professor at Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Institute and Economics Department, Lingnan University.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
