Survey: Nearly 70% of secondary students highly pursue perfection; 31% fear failure may become negative pressure, scholars urge teaching them to face success and failure

The UNICEF Youth Ambassadors research team surveyed 378 secondary students aged 12 to 17 across Hong Kong, finding 67% considered themselves to have higher perfectionist tendencies, with 31% attributing this to fear of failure. Over 83% had experienced academic burnout or sustained pressure, while 60% showed depressive moods or severe procrastination behaviour. Lo On-ting, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Lingnan University, said the causes involve innate sensitive personalities and conditional love from families, and suggested parents and teachers teach teenagers to face success and failure.