To understand the habits of young people in using masks before and after Covid-19 pandemic, and to further understand the relationship between mask wearing and social anxiety, Evangelical Lutheran Church Social Service – Hong Kong sent out questionnaires to more than 2,000 primary and secondary school students in May and June, and the results showed that nearly 40% of the respondents had social anxiety problems, and nearly 10% of them had severe social anxiety.
At today’s press conference, Principal Mr. WAN said that the school would respect students’ decisions, but would refer to the results of the survey, pay more attention to students who are unwilling to remove their masks, and intervene in a timely manner for a talk or refer professionals for follow-up. KIANG Sin-hang, a Secondary 5 student from our school, also shared at the meeting, saying that wearing a mask under the epidemic made it difficult for her to recognize the facial expressions of others, and creating misunderstandings in social interactions. She believes that masks rationalize apathy between people, or may make it easier for some youngsters with social anxiety to hide from people.
Evangelical Lutheran Church Social Service – Hong Kong advises parents, teachers and even social workers to encourage young people to appreciate themselves and pay less attention to the comment of appearance.