The psychological problems faced by teenagers in large cities are increasingly worrying and warrant more attention from the public, experts have said.

A recent survey showed that 12.1 percent of teenage students in Shenzhen have thought about committing suicide; 6.6 percent of them have made plans for suicide and 2.2 percent of them have taken measures to commit suicide in the past year, Zhou Li, a director in charge of students' mental problems with the Shenzhen Disease Control and Prevention Center, said on Thursday.

The survey polled 4,350 students from the age of 11 to 23 in 18 schools. Respondents consisted of 2,350 junior high school students, 900 senior high school students, 500 polytechnic students and 600 college students.

"In the survey, 24.4 percent of respondents ranked excessive pressure from their studies as the reason why they have thought about committing suicide," Zhou said.

"As far as I know, the psychological problems are equally common in other cities," she said.

According to findings of the survey, 12.8 percent of students polled have often felt lonely and 25.9 percent have felt unhappy because of pressure from their studies or poor performance in school in the past year.

Similarly, 11.6 percent of the students polled have suffered from insomnia, while 11.9 percent of them have had difficulties in leading a normal life and experienced desperation or disappointment for two consecutive weeks or even longer, in the past year.

"Students' psychological health has not seen evident improvement in China, especially in big cities, in the past couple of years," Li Ping, an associate professor with South China Normal University's psychology department, told China Daily.

(China Daily October 11, 2008)