35% of junior, senior high students have appearance anxiety: Survey

Taipei, Oct. 1 (CNA) A recent survey has shown that 35 percent of junior and senior high school students in Taiwan experience anxiety over their appearance, including almost half of girls, the Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF) said Thursday.

Of the 10,345 junior and senior high school students surveyed earlier this year, 35.4 percent agreed with the statement that they "had appearance anxiety," the foundation said.

The results sharply differed by sex, however, with 48.7 percent of girls saying they had appearance anxiety, compared to only 20.6 percent of boys.

According to the foundation, 23.5 percent of survey respondents said they wore a face mask for more than half of every day for appearance-related reasons, while nearly 40 percent wore a mask during gym class or exercise.

In response to these feelings, almost 20 percent of students said they had considered undergoing some form of cosmetic procedure, while nearly 10 percent said they would be interested in GLP-1 injections, which can reduce appetite.

The CWLF explained that appearance anxiety is not merely a matter of "overthinking," but often has at its core feelings of loneliness and negative self-perception.

Comments by family can exacerbate these feelings, with 42.8 percent of students saying they had had their appearance, figure or clothing criticized by their parents.

Moreover, of the students who described themselves as having "severe appearance anxiety," 10.8 percent said their parents regularly criticized their appearance, while only 3.3 percent said their parents rarely did so, the survey found.

Regarding the connection with psychological health, the survey found that 90.4 percent of students with "low" appearance anxiety had never had thoughts of suicide, while 29.6 percent of those with self-described "high" appearance anxiety had had such thoughts.

Teng Shan-ting (鄧善庭), a counseling psychologist, told a press briefing that appearance anxiety goes beyond the normal human desire to look good, and is often connected to feelings that "I'm not good enough" or "nobody likes me."

Students who wear face masks for long periods frequently do so for a feeling of "psychological safety." Parents should approach this behavior by trying to understand their child's emotional needs, rather than focusing on the face masks themselves, Teng said.