Adolescents Considering 'Extreme Choices,' Most Common Among 2nd Year Middle School Students

Adolescents Considering Extreme Suicide Attempts Increase for 2nd Year
KCDC Surveys Over 50,000 Middle and High School Students
Over 40% of Students Recognize Stress Levels

The proportion of adolescents who have considered extreme choices had been decreasing for a while but has recently turned to an upward trend over the past two years.

According to the Ministry of Education and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on the 10th, a health survey conducted on 51,850 middle and high school students nationwide found that 14.3% of students seriously thought about suicide in the past 12 months. In particular, female students (17.9%) showed a more serious problem, with nearly 2 out of 10 thinking about suicide, compared to male students (10.9%).

The suicide ideation rate revealed by the adolescent health survey exceeded 20% for three years from the first survey in 2005, then dropped to the 10% range in 2008 and generally showed a downward trend. In 2020, it recorded an all-time low of 10.9%, but it has been rising every year since then, reaching 12.7% in 2021 and 14.3% in 2022.

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By grade, the suicide ideation rate was highest among 2nd-year middle school students at 15.8%, followed by 1st-year middle school students at 15.2%, and 3rd-year middle school students at 15% for both genders combined.

As the proportion of those thinking about suicide increased, the rates of planning and attempts also rose annually during the same period, recording 4.5% and 2.6%, respectively, last year.

The stress recognition rate among middle and high school students was 41.3% last year. The stress recognition rate refers to the proportion of people who feel 'very much' or 'a lot' of stress in their daily lives, indicating that 4 out of 10 students suffered from severe stress.

The experience rate of depression, meaning having felt so sad or hopeless that daily life was disrupted for two consecutive weeks in the past 12 months, was 28.7% last year.

The proportion of students who frequently or always felt lonely in the past 12 months also increased for two consecutive years since the survey began in 2020, reaching 18.9% last year. Additionally, 12.7% of students experienced 'moderate' or higher anxiety (scoring 10 or more out of 21 on the Generalized Anxiety Disorder screening tool). The rate of moderate or higher generalized anxiety disorder has continued to rise since the survey started in 2020 (11.2%).

Meanwhile, as mental health issues among the entire population, including students, have not been easily resolved, the government announced a mental health policy innovation plan on the 5th, aiming to strengthen the system for early detection and counseling support for mental health problems among elementary, middle, and high school students. In particular, the plan includes increasing community-based counselors for youth in mental health crises such as suicide attempts, self-harm, depression, and anxiety to assist with counseling and treatment. Currently, 1,398 community-based counselors affiliated with Youth Counseling and Welfare Centers are active.

※ If you have difficult concerns such as depression or know family or acquaintances experiencing such difficulties, you can receive 24-hour expert counseling through the Suicide Prevention Hotline ☎1393, Mental Health Counseling Hotline ☎1577-0199, Lifeline ☎1588-9191, Youth Hotline ☎1388, Youth Mobile Counseling app 'Da Deureojul Gae,' KakaoTalk, and other channels.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.