Over 25% of Taiwan college students show depressive tendencies

Taipei Dec. 18 (CNA) Over a quarter of local university students showed moderate to severe depressive tendencies in 2023, according to a survey released by the Taiwan Counseling Psychologist Union (TCPU) on Monday.

At a press conference, Chen Po-lin (陳柏霖), a professor at National Taipei University of Education's Department of Psychology and Counseling, said 25.5 percent of students surveyed showed moderate to serious depressive tendencies -- almost 10 points higher than pre-COVID-19 levels.

Citing survey results, Chen said only 16.3 percent of respondents in the final survey before the onset of the pandemic in early 2020 reported showing depressive tendencies.

TCPU specialist Hu Yen-wei (胡延薇) said that the impact of the pandemic on Taiwanese university students has been far greater than first thought, with those in their junior year being most profoundly impacted in terms of studies, relationships and hopes for the future.

Chen said that in the pre-COVID-19 era, a majority of local university students sensed a moderate level of happiness and depression, followed by those who sensed a high level of happiness with low depression and those who had a moderate sense of happiness with low depression.

However, the first group remained the majority among local university students after the pandemic in 2023, followed by increasing numbers who began to have a low sense of happiness with high depression and a low sense of happiness with a moderate level of depression at second and third spot, Chen added.

Chen called for greater attention to be given to the mental health of university students, including providing more access to counseling as well as regular monitoring and evaluation of individual cases.

According to Hu, many seemingly well-adjusted third-year university students are highly concerned about an array of challenges, including juggling coursework and relationships as well as time-management worries and anxiety regarding future career development.

Echoing Chen, Taiwan Association Against Depression Chairperson Wu Chia-yi (吳佳儀) called for mental health resources to be better funded on university campuses, expressing hope that the average counselor-to-student caseload ratio could be lowered to 1:900 from the current 1:1,200.

Wang Peng-hsuan (王芃宣), a health ministry official, said those aged between 15-30 were entitled to three free counseling sessions as part of a service launched on Aug. 1 this year.

As of the end of November, Wang said, more than 14,000 people had sought such mental health counseling, with 30 percent of them considered belonging to the high-risk group who need adequate medical assistance.

The TCPU survey was conducted from Nov. 4 to Dec. 1, collecting a total of 1,635 valid samples.