Assisting the ‘iGen’ in finding well-being
By Chao
Nan-hsing 趙南星
A user on the National Development Council’s Public Policy Participation Network Platform wrote that the number of teenagers with depression has tripled over the past few years, and that up to 84 percent of Taiwanese teenagers have experienced depression, suggesting that junior-high schools should address mental health as part of their health and sports curriculum.
The proposal drew the support of thousands of people. However, before a solution can be developed, the cause must be found.
In her 2017 book, iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood and What That Means for the Rest of Us, US psychologist Jean Twenge called those born in the mid-1990s or later “iGen,” because they were the first generation to spend their entire adolescence in the age of the smartphone.