Arecent survey conducted by Wofoo Social Enterprises found that Hong Kong’s general happiness index dipped to 5.87 out of 10, down 0.08 points from last year. The city’s millennials, namely those born between 1980 and 1995, reported lower happiness scores than other cohorts. More alarming is that over 40 percent of respondents this year showed moderate to severe depressive symptoms.

The Education Bureau, aware of the seriousness of young people’s mental health problems, launched the 4Rs Mental Health Charter in the 2024/25 school year to tackle the problem. The 4Rs are:

Rest: Help students develop healthy habits from an early age, including getting enough rest and adequate sleep, and taking part in leisure activities.

Relaxation: Teach students to take time to relax, care for their mental health, and practice self-compassion.

Relationship: Strengthen relationships among students, between teachers and students, and between parents and children to enhance their sense of connectedness; help students understand their roles and importance in these relationships so they willingly take on responsibilities and make contributions.

Resilience: Equip students to adapt to the inevitable stress and setbacks in life, and teach them to manage emotions, cope with stress, and overcome difficulties with a positive attitude.

Of these, relaxation matters most. If people cannot relax and are stressed out, then rest, relationship, and resilience are all out the window. This is why creating an atmosphere that supports relaxation must be the focus of any serious drive to revive young people’s mental health. Beyond fostering such an environment, young people’s mindset, or “mental capital”, needs to be strengthened. This requires a good dose of life education.

An environment that fosters relaxation requires a culture that focuses on doing one’s best instead of getting ahead of others. As an economist by training, of course, I believe in competition and selection by merit, as this best serves the public interest. If someone else outperforms us in a job bid, for example, we should graciously bless that person and wish them all the best in their new role. This is the ethics of fair competition. Each of us must, of course, do our very best in any competition. Society needs to nurture a culture that appreciates and respects each individual’s honest effort. Parents and teachers naturally hope that their children and students will shine. But our responsibility is just to do the best we can while also balancing our need for rest. Anyone who makes an honest effort, and then takes time to reflect on how they can do better while balancing their personal needs, deserves a thumbs-up. All of us, including parents, teachers, and everyone else, need to know that an excessive focus on results is often counterproductive. In fact, athletes who compete in high-intensity events are often reminded to focus on doing their best in a competition.

Hong Kong’s age-standardized suicide rate in 2025 is estimated to be 9.8 per 100,000, slightly higher than the global average of 8.9 and trending down. However, the suicide rate among youths under 15 is rising, especially among males, which escalated from 0.3 to a concerning 4.0 in 2025. The data, according to the Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention at the University of Hong Kong, show that among suicide cases involving youths under 15, the majority were attending schools with higher academic performance, suggesting that a highly competitive environment in these schools may have contributed to this increase in the suicide rate among hard-driven youths. So nurturing a culture that respects honest effort and fair competition, rather than pushing young people to pursue “excellence” at all costs, may help. We should nurture a culture of honest self-discovery and self-actualization. Young people who make such an effort deserve our applause, regardless of the academic results. Everybody should be encouraged to explore their potential and realize it. Instead of competing for glamor, we should put the focus on encouraging young people to pursue their interests by fully exploiting their potential, with the only bottom line being that they must stay within the law and never attempt to gain an advantage at the expense of others’ suffering.

So Hong Kong needs to step up the implementation of the “4Rs Initiative”, and encourage young people to voice their concerns and views freely and to refocus on self-actualization instead of merely academic excellence.

The author is an adjunct professor at the Academy for Applied Policy Studies and Education Futures, the Education University of Hong Kong; and an honorary research fellow at the Lingnan University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.