Analyze the reasons for secondary students to commit suicide in Hong Kong
By Vincent Chow
In Hong Kong, many students face different problems. Some of them may use pessimistic methods to solve the problems. And for those secondary students, committing suicide is not special at all. In fact, there is a lot of news about secondary students committing suicide in every year. The chief executive of Hong Kong Education Department also point out that we should pay attention on the youth suicide (Mingpao, 20-4-1999, A20). What is suicide? Delmas defines that suicide is the act by which a “fully competent” man “kills himself”; he is “able to live” but he chooses, without any “moral obligation”, to die (Delmas as quoted in Baechler, 1975,p.10). Why those secondary students commit suicide? There are a lot of reasons. However stress is still the main reason for the secondary students committing suicide. Different stress will also cause secondary students commit suicide.
The stress of study is one of the main reasons that cause the students committing suicide. As we know, the secondary students need to take two public examinations. Besides the public examinations, the students also need to have a lot of homework, tests and inter-school examinations. All of them can cause a huge stress on the students. Secretary for Education and Manpower points out that the workloads of Hong Kong students are very heavy. We can’t find that in other developed countries or cities. From the research done by The Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong in 1999, we can find that one of the main reasons cause the secondary students unhappy is study (SBHK, 1999). 17% of the interviewees have considered about committing suicide because of the problems of study. Therefore we are easily to have the conclusion that the stress of study is one of the main reasons for the secondary students commit suicide.
The stress of family problems is also the reason for the secondary students committing suicide. According to the research done by The Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong in 1999, family problems are the second main factors affecting the students (SBHK, 1999). There are actually many family problems, relationship between the students and their parents, the relationship between the students’ father and mother. Both of them affect the students easily. Lack of communicates easily cause the disputations between the students and their parents. The relationship between the students’ father and mother will cause the students feeling upset and depress. Many parents divorce without consider the feeling of their children. They will easily affect the children, especially the secondary students who reach the age of puberty. According to the statistics gathered in 1992 to 1993 by Hong Kong Education Department, there are 70% of students committed suicide because of stress of family problems (SBHK, 1999). It will certainly increase the chance of secondary students committing suicide.
The pressure come from peers is also the factor cause the risk of secondary students committing suicide. According to the research done by The Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong, about 13% of the interviewees are perplexed by making friends (SBHK, 1999). The students need others’ consent, so that they can build up their image (SBHK, 1999). If the students can’t find any agreement from their peers, they will loss confidence. Many secondary students expel the others who are different from them. The group of weaklings will be the attacked target. Therefore the weaklings are isolated. The mentalities of them are become unstable. The discrimination and the expellant will not only affect their growing, but also cause a huge pressure on the secondary students. For those who cannot analysis problems, they may be very upset and misery. So it is one of the stress cause the students committing suicide.
The pressure come from the perplexities of puberty is also a main reason for the secondary students committing suicide. According to the research done by the Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong, nearly 42 % of the interviewees considered about committing suicide because of the perplexities of puberty (SBHK, 1999). The perplexities of puberty are including the problems of love, sex and so on. The psychologies of the secondary students, who reach the age of puberty, are very unstable and frail. They need to be concerned with the others. They, then, thirst for the love so that they can always be loved by his or her lover. However, the setback of love will easily hurt the secondary students. Because of the effect of puberty, they always compare with the others. For example, the students strongly concern with their appearances, the examinations result. It also will put a huge stress on them.
In conclusion, secondary students committing suicide is very serious problem in Hong Kong. The main reason for the secondary students committing suicide is stress. We can find out that there are actually four main types of stress. They are the stress of study, the stress of family problems, the pressure come from the peers and the pressure come from the perplexities of puberty. If the government, parents and schools don’t do something to help the students, the problem will become more serious.