Taipei, March 9 (CNA) An annual poll found that nearly 80 percent of Taiwanese schoolchildren are happy although the sky-rocketing divorce rate and increasing academic pressures have made a strong impact on children, the monthly magazine Better Life announced in a press conference Thursday.
The survey, conducted on Grade 4, 5 and 6 students in 42 elementary schools around Taiwan, found that 79 percent of schoolchildren said they felt happy. A total of 2,107 valid samples were collected in the survey, with a margin of error of 3 percent.
Surprisingly, only 76.2 percent of schoolchildren in central Taiwan said they were happy, the lowest among the three regions and an astounding 5.8 percent drop from last year. Southern Taiwan showed the highest percentage of happy children at 80 percent.
"The deterioration of public order in central Taiwan is one of the possible reasons, " explained Chai Sung-lin, a national policy advisor to President Chen Shui-bian.
Fifty-four percent of respondents thought their parents were happy. However 33.2 percent-- up from 17.2 percent last year -- of those who felt their parents were unhappy said their parents' separation was the main reason.
"Forty years ago, Taiwan had one of the lowest divorce rates in the world. Today it's among the highest. At the current pace, in six or seven years it will be the country with the highest divorce rate, which will undoubtedly affect children," said Chai.
Meanwhile, "academic performance" and "scolding by parents and teachers" ranked as the top two reasons for unhappiness among schoolchildren, at 25.2 percent and 25.9 percent respectively.
"It tells us that, after all these educational reforms, academic pressure is still mounting and taking its toll on schoolchildren, " said Tsai Wen-che, a psychiatrist at National Taiwan University Hospital.