Addressing the Problem of Mental Health in Singapore
Academic stresses around the PSLE and how it got us to started on our passion project
One time, when I was getting dinner with my friend, his mom called him from out of the country to say hi. He mentioned he was with me and explained that we’re friends from school; somewhere in the conversation, he also mentioned that I was Singaporean. Once he got off of the phone, he laughed and the first thing he said was, “She asked me if you’re good at math.”
Now, even though I moved to the US when I was two years old and never had formal schooling in Singapore, the first thing that came to her mind was that I must be good at math because I’m Singaporean. That’s the stereotype: that all Singaporeans are study-smart. Although it may seem that out of all the stereotypes a country can have, this might not be so bad, it’s actually had very serious consequences for Singaporean children due to the sheer difficulty of meeting these incredibly high expectations.
A growing problem
According to a CNA Insider report, studies indicate that depression may affect up to 18 percent of youth in Singapore. As the most common mental illness in Singapore, depression is just one of several mental health issues that students face resulting from high demands for academic success. Anxiety, self-harm, and adjustment issues are also common problems found among youth nowadays. Unfortunately, the concern doesn’t stop there. Statistics from the Samaritans of Singapore (SOS), an organization aimed at providing confidential emotional support to individuals in crisis, show that suicide is the leading cause of death among those aged 10 to 29 in Singapore.
Singapore and the PSLE
Given that mental health is an important aspect of students’ lives, the 55 Minutes team feels our strength in UX design gives us a unique advantage to be part of the solution concerning students’ well-being. Through our own initiative, we started the “Lemons project”; we hope to boost parents’ confidence in building a positive and resilient child. To start, we want to bring awareness in parents they have an important role to play in their child’s mental well-being, rather than solely focusing on their grades. To do so, one of the topics we are focusing on is how to help working parents support their children through the PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination).
When the PSLE is taken, students are typically 12 years old. At this age, children are not only studying each day until this major exam, but they’re also managing their regular schoolwork, challenges associated with adolescence (e.g. peer pressure, bullying, establishing friendships, self-image, etc.), and in some cases, puberty. With such a heavy load, and not being equipped to articulate their feelings, it’s not surprising that these children are prone to developing mental health issues.
The fast track to success
Singapore is known for its rigorous academics, where the pressure to score well is undoubtedly felt by most, if not all. To those outside of Singapore, it seems unlikely that one exam at the young age of 12 years old is so important, but PSLE results have a considerable effect on students’ future studies. Scores are used to determine which secondary school they would be eligible for, and which academic track they are placed on. As a result, students feel an enormous amount of pressure to score well to appease their parents and live up to society’s expectations.
The parents’ perspective
For many parents, the logic goes as so: if my child scores well on the PSLE, they’ll go to elite schools, which will give them a good reputation, and, ultimately, they’ll be happy. To accomplish this, parents send their children to tuition (private or small group tutoring) several times a week, or in some cases, everyday, and always push them to study harder. In Singapore, roughly 80 percent of students are in tuition, with more than 50 percent starting before the age of 10. This style of parenting, is that of a “tiger mom”.
However, parenting styles in Singapore are beginning to change. A study in 2018 found that only 29 percent of Singaporean respondents indicated being “old school” parents, where their main focus is on school grades. 30 percent of the respondents fell in the middle ground and reported being “loving lion” parents (wanting to provide a happy environment but also wanting good results), while 34 percent reported being “new school” parents (more hands-off, focusing on building character rather than worrying about academic results).
Despite the changing landscape in parenting, there still exists a strong culture of academic success when it comes to having “face” among family and friends in Asia. Because parents feel pressured to “look good” in their social circles, they often use their children’s academics as a way to show off. In doing so, parents create a potentially dangerous cycle because in their efforts to impress by showing how successful their children are, they impose expectations upon their children to live up to these high standards. This can produce high amounts of stress for students because they’re pressured to either meet society’s expectations or risk disappointing their parents. Therefore, while parents only have the best intentions in mind, they sometimes don’t realize that their social endeavors can do more harm than good.
What’s going on under the surface?
With the weight of the PSLE looming over the heads of early adolescent children, it’s no wonder that mental health problems are widely found among youth in Singapore. One reason why students experience anxiety is due to perceived academic conditional positive regard (PACPR), which is a socializing strategy where parents provide more affection, esteem, and attention than usual when their child studies hard and achieves in school. This practice has been shown to produce psychological costs because it teaches children that the only way to receive approval from their parents is to be academically successful.
Now, we all know that it’s impossible to be perfect; all of us have made mistakes in the past and we’ll make mistakes again in the future. In the same vein, it’s unrealistic to expect a child to always perform at their best, which is why researchers suggest that parents try to provide an unconditional positive regard toward their children. By doing so, children will feel encouraged to succeed without the fearing neglect in times of failure.
Parental stress has also shown to increase children’s stress; it occurs when the stress that parents experience from their job, finances, marriage, and/or time demands negatively affect their ability to meet the demands of parenting. During normal times this is a common occurrence, but now, during the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s especially true. A recent study conducted in Singapore found that “parents who reported a greater impact of Covid-19 also reported higher levels of parental stress,” and that “higher parental stress was associated with increased use of harsh parenting and less parent-child relationship closeness.” It can be very difficult for parents to notice how their actions affect their children when they have so many responsibilities to juggle. However, awareness can go a long way, and that’s why it’s important for parents to be able to acknowledge that their children are also experiencing troubles of their own.
In their final year of primary school, students reach young adolescence, where they’re under stress not only from their studies, but also from managing changes in their personal lives. Puberty can be a difficult time of change for any child, but in Singapore, many are facing puberty at the same time they’re studying for the PSLE. Findings indicate the dangers of this combination because hormonal changes partially account for the risk of anxiety and mood disorders. Coupled with the stress of intense studying, young adolescents in Singapore are uniquely prone to developing mental health problems. Another worry is that these adverse childhood experiences can result in negative health outcomes later in life. However, by engaging in unconditional positive regard and limiting the amount of stress they impose upon their children, parents can combat the chances of this happening. In addition, it’s possible that less strict parenting can encourage children to adopt intrinsic motivation, which in this case, means that they’re studying because they want to and not because they’re trying to gain external rewards or avoid consequences. This is beneficial both for parents and their children because while extrinsic motivation has been found to predict shallow cognitive engagement, intrinsic motivation predicts meaningful cognitive development.
Human-centered design: where UX meets psychology
As a human-centered design studio, 55 Minutes is committed to understanding our users’ needs, which in this case, are the parents who are seeking ways to help their children. Given the current social climate, where academics continue to play a crucial role in the Singaporean society, the company is currently working to apply these practices to address the mental and emotional wellness of students by equipping their parents with the knowledge and tools to support their children through the PSLE process. Our efforts to do so include applying our understanding of human emotions, behaviors, and goals toward developing solutions. As UX blogger, Odair Faléco, states,
“UX Design (and Psychoanalysis) is about listening to people, observing their behavior, their language, their reactions, their choices, understanding what motivates them, understanding what people need, what their desires are, their frustrations.”
As a psychology major, this is what I love about UX design, because it has the power to transform lifeless hardware and software by instilling in them a sense of humanity. With this approach, the goal is to make a product that people can trust and use knowing that it was made with their needs in mind.
Supporting you supporting them
In Singapore, the PSLE is synonymous with long days of studying and stressful preparation. If unchecked, students’ stress can develop into more serious conditions, like anxiety, depression, or self-harm, which all can have short- and long-term consequences for their health. While students feel the brunt of the work, we know that they’re not the only ones that feel the effects of the PSLE. Parents also experience stress in encouraging their children to study and score well so that they can continue on to study at elite schools and gain a good social standing. We understand that there are many layers to parenting and that it can be overwhelming to have to battle personal obstacles while also trying to parent a rising teenager.
This is why we want to examine the frustrations behind the needs of working parents of primary school students. To design effective and context specific solutions, we’ve conducted user interviews and focus groups with parents to accurately assess the scope of the problem when it comes to your challenges and goals in motivating your children to be successful. As mental health is becoming an increasingly common topic of conversation, 55 Minutes is dedicated to helping parents be a part of facilitating this positive change in Singapore.
This article is part one of a two-part series on 55 Minutes’ Lemons project. Stay tuned for part two to learn more about the app they are designing.
Erica had her internship with 55 Minutes and is a recent graduate of Santa Clara University, where she studied Psychology and Public Health. She enjoys research and learning more about the link between her two areas of study. In her free time, she loves watching television and movies. Whether it be an action movie or a romantic comedy, she loves them all!
