HONG KONG — Local children’s happiness index has hit a three-year low, with kids across all age groups and grades saying that last year was the worst since 2011.
The drop in happiness “may be related to the Occupy Movement and the political controversies arising from it,” said professor Ho Sang-lok of the Centre for Public Policy Studies at Lingnan University.
The overall children’s happiness index last year stood at 6.43 out of a blissful 10, down from 7.23 the previous year.
The adverse effect of academic pressure on family life and family happiness has gone up, suggesting that parents might have become more anxious about their children’s academic performance.
Good classmates and teachers made for happy school lives, with two-thirds of respondents saying that they had good teachers and three-quarters happy with their friends.
Among all grades surveyed, Primary 4 students spent the longest hours on homework, averaging 140 minutes a day. Secondary students generally put in 95 to 115 minutes on homework per day.
An adequate, eight hours of rest was also a key factor in happiness, the survey found.
Ten local primary and secondary schools took part in the survey, involving 1,182 students from Primary 4 through Secondary 3 grades.