SIBU: The state of youth mental health is drawing global concern.
Bukit Assek assemblyman Joseph Chieng Jin Ek said that recent data from the United Nations Children’s Fund revealed data from the United Nations Children’s Fund showed that nearly 13 per cent of young people aged 10 to 19 have a mental disorder as of 2021.
“In Malaysia, mental illness has emerged as a significant cause of disability and health deterioration, accounting for 8.6 per cent of total disability-adjusted life years.
Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Health Morbidity Survey of 2015 unveiled alarming statistics: 29.2 per cent of Malaysian adults and 12.1 per cent of children were reported to be experiencing mental health problems. Furthermore, research indicates a troubling trend of increasing depression rates among young Malaysians,” he said at the opening ceremony of the 4th International Conference on Youth 2023 (ICYouth 2023) themed ‘Healthy Youth Development in the Digital Era’, at the University of Technology Sarawak (UTS) here today.
The two-day conference, which attracted more than 80 participants, including those from China and Iran, was jointly organised by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and UTS.
Chieng (seated centre) flanked by Prof Shahril (on his left), Prof Haslinda (on his right) with the participants in a photo session.
Chieng further said that suicide attempts have also disturbingly been on the rise, making suicide the second leading cause of death among adolescents aged 15 to 19.
These concerning trends, he said, are not isolated to Malaysia but are occurring on a global scale; for example, in the United States, the suicide rate among individuals aged 10 to 24 has soared by nearly 60 per cent between 2007 and 2018.
While the debate over the harms and benefits of digital technology among youth rages on, he noted that few have been able to determine the root cause of the crisis.
According to him, a myriad of factors have been pointed to as contributors to this decline in mental health and subjective well-being: societal changes, such as increased academic pressures, the rapid advancement of technology, the pervasiveness of social media, economic uncertainties, and the erosion of traditional beliefs and social support systems, undoubtedly all play a role.
The interplay of these factors, he said, has created an environment where young people are more vulnerable to mental health challenges than ever before.
“Many people say digital technology as the villain that is causing immeasurable harm to our youth. If so, how do we balance young people’s need to be online to conduct their daily lives with their safe use of digital tools? This is a complex question with no singular explanation,” he said.
Present were UTS’s Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mohammad Shahril Osman, UPM’s Director of Institute for Social Science Studies Prof Dr Haslinda Abdullah, and Conference Chair Prof Dr Mohd Zairul Mohd Noor.
