簡介
Listen to #Hashtag Hong Kong every Sunday morning at 8.15
Focussing on issues affecting civil society, we'll hear from representatives of NGOs, associations, statutory bodies, and non-profit groups.
(Sundays 8.15am - 8.25am)
最新
Jacqueline Wu - Clinical advisor in the Youth Programme at Mind HK
Good morning.I’m here today to discuss adolescent’s mental health in HK, specifically, some patterns I’ve noticed lately in my own practice working with young people.
Since we’re coming up to the exam periods, it’s understandably a stressful period for many as these exams may be a key determinant factor for how their future may pan out. Indeed, I have noticed an increase in referrals in recent weeks for many different reasons, including anxiety, low mood, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, suicidal ideations, personality difficulties, self harm, people refusing to go to school, etc. Although I have just listed a plethora of different mental health difficulties. There is a consistent theme that I’ve noticed, that is underlying all of the issues- and that is ‘perfectionism’.
What I mean by ‘perfectionism’ is the tendency to set excessively high expectations for oneself. While this can be seen as a positive trait as it may help increase motivation or achieve goals, it can actually have the opposite effect when it becomes excessive. I’d like to point out the difference between ‘perfectionism’ and ‘striving for excellence’. When we strive for excellence, we’re focused on growth, development and improvement, we set realistic and achievable goals for ourselves, and we perceive setbacks as opportunities for growth. Perfectionism, on the other hand, is often driven by fear, especially fear of failure and the need for external validation. Similar to my observations, a CUHK study that was published in 2022, examining secondary school students in HK found that perfectionism, and social-oriented achievement motivation (i.e. a desire to gain social approval from significant others), were the key dominant drivers of academic stress in students in HK. This demonstrates the tendency for HK students to evaluate their success/ failures against approval received by others.
Why does this happen? If we start from understanding our internal factors (i.e. internal experiences such as thoughts, feelings, personality traits), some individuals may have developed less helpful thinking styles such as ‘all or nothing thinking’. For instance, they may think “I didn’t do well in one test, this means I’ll fail in all future exams”. They may have low self-esteem or have become self-critical, which would increase the chances of experiencing low mood or anxiety. But if we zoom out a little, there are also many external factors that may contribute to the development of perfectionism, such as family pressure/ expectations, having perfectionistic parents who are high achievers, social media, societal pressures or comparisons, leading to adolescents striving for the perfect appearance, life, grades, friends, materialistic possessions, you name it. Just as an example, according to a study done in 2024 by researchers from CUHK that evaluated factors associated with mental health among children in HK. They found that students who had parents with high parental expectations were at high risks of experiencing psychological distress among primary and secondary school students. Additionally, research from HKU (2023) linked excessive social media use to higher rates of anxiety and poor self-esteem in students.
So what can we do to help? From a professional level, early interventions and prevention work is essential to improve adolescent’s mental health. It is important to normalise help seeking behaviours, and to improve access to psychological therapies. For instance, speaking to school counsellors or accessing free of charge, low intensity interventions such as iACT programme provided by Mind HK is a great option for students with mild to moderate mental health difficulties to alleviate any psychological distress using an acceptance commitment therapy framework.
On a societal level, it is important to help students develop resilience and reduce mental health stigma through school or public awareness. For instance, we are currently working in collaboration with Hong Kong Jockey Club on the LevelMind project, which is a three year project that aims to improve students’ mental wellbeing in up to 130 local schools, by supporting students to develop mental wellness activities within schools, and by launching city wide events and campaigns. The idea is to encourage youth to care for themselves and others.
From a parents’ perspective, it would be beneficial to create a safe space for open communication by being validating, encouraging, compassionate and non-judgmental, and to encourage them to strive for more while embracing the imperfections. This can help your children set more realistic expectations for themselves and become more self-compassionate.
On that note, I’d like to dedicate this song called ‘Youth’ by Glass Animals to you. At the end of the day, we want to make sure that our young people thrive and not just survive! Thank you for listening.
重溫
John Ng, Careers Master of St Paul's College
How has life treated you? Each of you may have a different answer at different stages of life.
When I was small, I wished to stand tall.
I asked my teacher, “What will I be?”
Here’s what my teacher said to me,
“Any dream will do.”
I’m sure many of you have been encouraged to do the same: pursuing your own dreams. But I doubt whether many adolescents have dreams of their own in this day and age. For those who do, I am wondering whether the dreams contribute to genuine happiness. The World Happiness Report 2024 sounds alarm on the mental well-being of the youth. Our youth’s happiness has hit a new low.
Many teenagers are living with the mundanity of daily routines, and worryingly, lack long-term plans of their own. With a lack of personal life goals, these youngsters go with the flow, and tend to follow a fragmented path, which is not sustainable in the long-term. When facing headwinds, they can become disoriented and experience mental breakdown easily. Their setbacks in life include unsatisfactory academic results, huge pressure from parents and the deprivation of social life. To our dismay, despair often leads to tragic stories.
Career and life planning is particularly important for our youth. Gone are the days when we were burdened with making important life decisions, such as choosing university courses or applying for a job, in the nick of time. Life is a journey and it should be perceived this way.
Now I have students of my own,
they ask me, “What will I be?”
I say to them, “Whatever will be will be.”
Of course, I am not encouraging them to engage in inaction. What I am telling them is that they should plan ahead without excessive planning.
There is a world of opportunities awaiting them. I usually tell them this: go all out and explore. Yet nothing should be set in stone to start with. Nor should they overwhelm themselves with as many experiences as possible. Remember, it is not the more, the merrier. They should embrace new opportunities while committing themselves to a few experiences at a time. Gradually, they will form their own goals, work towards the goals, review them from time to time, form new life priorities and build career resilience. It’s okay to face hardships. Don’t be failed by the future but let future find us. Life planning is a perennial and dynamic process.
To be future ready, we are often told that we should adapt to the emerging AI world. I am not worried about Gen Alpha’s preparedness for the AI world because they are generally tech-savvy. What I am worried about is their exposure to the real world experience. When some youngsters have spent too much time in the virtual world, they only know how to write fragmented sentences as social media messages instead of composing proper emails; or they only know how to customise their online experience without feeling the need to collaborate with others. Worse still, some of them only know how to input commands in order to generate music and artworks while losing human creativity. I hope none of these will become the norm or else our future will be bleak.
Our future will be bleak because the youth is our future. If they thrive, we thrive. That’s why I encourage NGOs, schools and businesses to work together to organise experiential activities for our youth so as to connect their learning experiences with the real world. Nothing is more valuable than providing them with mentorship and internship. Giving them a flavour of the workplace allows them to appreciate the beauty of teamwork and gain practical experiences making them more humanistic. In fact, many of our students are grateful for the enlightening and life-transforming experiences of learning from mentors experienced in the field. Their experiences are conducive to their career planning.
At the end of the day, we are reduced to a name, or slightly better, a character. I hope when we reach that note, we can proudly say:
“I lived a life that's full
And traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way”
These few lines are taken from the song “My Way” by Paul Anka. “My way” does not denote a solitary journey. Rather, it means that we, especially our youth, should navigate the world ourselves, have forward planning and chart a course that suits us best. If we can, Hong Kong will prosper.
