One in Five Chinese Children Depressed

Fierce social pressure and excessive care have pushed about 20 percent of Chinese children into depression in the world’s most populous country, experts at a psychology convention said on Wednesday.

Fierce social pressure and excessive care have pushed about 20 percent of Chinese children into depression in the world’s most populous country, experts at a psychology convention said on Wednesday. “In one-child families, Chinese children suffer from excessively high expectations and pressure from their parents,” Dr Wang Wei, of Central Queensland University of Australia, was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency. Some 20 percent of Chinese children had shown symptoms of depression, while 4 percent had clinical depression demanding medical treatment, the experts said at the 28th International Congress of Psychology. In the early 1980s, China launched stringent rules on family planning, which allow couples to have just one child, at least in the cities, and limit numbers elsewhere. (Source: 28th International Congress of Psychology: Reuters Health News: August 2004.)