A nationwide survey by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation's technical centre of about 20,000 youths aged 15-21 years has highlighted four major problems ahead of National Youth Day this Wednesday.
Nathaya Boonpakdee, director of ThaiHealth's children, youth and family health promotion office, said Covid-19 has continued to have negative effects on youths from single-parent families with low incomes, and skipped generation families in rural areas where grandparents raise children in the absence of parents.
There had been no specific measures to uplift the quality of life of young people in this group, she said.
The second problem was that the learning ability of youths of all levels in areas of reading, mathematics, science and social studies had declined considerably because they had to study online throughout the three years of the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of them had studied online from the lower to upper secondary education levels.
Thirdly, youth mental problem as a result of online learning. Many of them had suffered from stress and depression, and they had limited access to treatment.
Fourthly, many children had become victims of violence, including sexual harassment. About 46% of young people had problems with violence in their homes. Moreover, in a survey of 30 countries, Thailand was ranked 29th in terms of children being threatened in the online world.
Ms Nathaya said that in only about 30% of young people's families were conditions deemed favourable, while the rest were considered vulnerable. This provided a challenge to efforts to promote the well-being of Thai youth.
