A survey published by China Youth Daily says secondary school students are the most vulnerable to emotional abuse, particularly verbal bullying.
The survey, which was published, on Thursday, said no fewer than 86 per cent of respondents said emotional abuse existed in schools, while 15.8 per cent regarded it as a common problem.
According to the survey, students in secondary schools are more vulnerable to irony, taunts and mockery, among other emotional abuse, than those at different stages of study.
The phenomenon was attributed to the nature of children’s psychological development by Ma Zehui, a high school teacher from Baoding city in Hebei Province.
“Secondary and high school students who are not fully psychologically mature are easier to react to external stimulus, combined with ratcheting study pressure,’’ Ma said.
According to the survey, 62.1 per cent of the nearly 2,000 respondents believe the rise in school emotional abuse stems from the rise in individualism in recent years.
“Other reasons for school abuse include a lack of family education and the one-child policy, which was adopted in the past few decades and abolished in early 2016,’’ the survey said. (NAN)