#71. Mental Health Consequences of an Obsession with Schooling and Test Scores: The Case of South Korea

The good news, though, is that the obsession seems to be declining.

Flag of S. Korea

Dear friends,

I’ve been writing, in some of these letters, about the relationship between national school policies and kids’ mental health. In Letter #51 I presented multiple lines of evidence that the Common Core Curriculum, which took effect in most U.S. states in 2011-2012, played a major role in the sharp increase in students’ and teachers’ reports of distress related to schooling and the sharp rise in anxiety, depression, and suicide among U.S. school-aged kids beginning at that time.

Then, in Letter #69 I presented evidence that a new UK National Curriculum, which took effect in 2016-2017 and narrowed students’ choices of courses and increased the weight of high-stakes end-of-year tests, resulted in increased reports of school stress and sharply reduced mental wellbeing among UK students. And then, in Letter #70, I turned to Sweden and found that a dramatic change in schooling law there—which dictated a narrower curriculum, more testing, and a much tighter grading procedures that teachers had to follow—resulted in a decline in Swedish kids’ mental health beginning in 2012, when that law took effect.

It is not a coincidence that, in the U.S., the UK, and Sweden, the increased rates of anxiety, depression, and other indices of poor mental health coincided with the time when government mandates made schooling more unpleasant and stressful than it had been before. Nor should it be surprising.

What I seem to be documenting in this series of letters might be stated as a social psychological law: When governments dictate what teachers much teach and increase the weight of testing, the psychological suffering of school-aged kids increases.

Study after study, some involving dozens of nations, reveal that wherever such data have been collected, the leading cause of anxiety and depression for kids is pressure created by schooling (for reviews see Cosma et al., 2020; Hogsbert et al., 2021; Marquez et al, 2022; Pascoe et al, 2020; Steare et al, 2023). That, as I said, should not be surprising. Kids spend more time at school than anywhere else except home, and at school they are not free. They are micromanaged and continuously judged in relation to their peers, in a setting where many are led to believe that failure to excel means failure as a person. All of us in such a situation would feel anxious and depressed. So, it’s not surprising that national laws reducing teachers’ abilities to lighten up and find ways of making school a bit more pleasant and less stressful have the effect of reducing kids’ mental wellbeing.

Now, with this letter I turn to South Korea (henceforth, termed just Korea). The story here is different from that for the U.S., UK, and Sweden, but lends yet more support to the social psychological law stated above. For decades before the school “reforms” I’ve described for the U.S., UK, and Sweden, Korea had what appears to be the most onerous schooling system in the world, and it also had the most unhappy kids in the world, at least among the dozens of nations included in international surveys of kids’ mental health. But beginning around 2012, just as things were getting worse for kids in the US and Sweden, things began getting a little better in Korea.

Some Intertwined Korean Superlatives

Korean students, by various accounts, spend more time studying than students anywhere else in the world (Ahn & Baek, 2013); regularly score at or near the top of the chart on the International PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) tests (OECD, 2023); and kill themselves at rates higher than has been recorded for schoolchildren in any other nation (Kwaka & Ickovics, 2019). Korea has also been ranked as the most expensive nation in the world to raise a child (Ryall, 2023) and, in recent years, as the nation with the lowest birth rate (Kobara, 2024). All this follows from the nation’s obsession with a single test that ostensibly, and to a considerable degree really, determines the future for most students.

World’s Most Intensive System of Schooling

After the devastation of the Korean War (1950-1953), South Korean authorities vowed to raise the nation from ashes and devastating poverty into the modern world through education. Education (though I prefer to call it schooling, which is not the same as education) became the mantra. A rigorous, highly competitive schooling system was developed, designed to enable the brightest and hardest working young people to rise to the top. The end of secondary schooling was and still is marked, for all who wish to advance socially and economically, by a grueling 8-hour test, the Suneung, also known as the Korean SAT and, by students, as the Test from Hell.

Scores on this test determine who makes it into the most prestigious universities, for which there is a clear hierarchy, and, at the other end, who doesn’t get into any university. Companies recruit for top positions primarily from the most prestigious universities, so scores on the Suneung largely determine kids’ future livelihood. Given this, it is no wonder that even parents who resent the Korean system of schooling pressure their kids relentlessly to study; and even parents who can’t afford it, pay great sums of money for private courses and tutoring to supplement their kids’ regular schooling. The whole system is driven by the test and by companies’ entrenched patterns of recruiting.

Here is how one journalist (Vidwans, 2024) described the Suneung experience on a day when she visited near a school in Seoul:

“When I arrived at the entrance of Gyeongbok High School in the city center on Nov. 15 (2023), the day of South Korea’s infamous college entrance examination, a group of parents was already waiting under the overhang of a nearby church. It had been raining all day and there were still hours to go before their children would exit the gates with the test finally behind them. Rather than chit-chatting to pass the time or sheltering in a nearby cafe, the relatives stood stiffly and silently apart under umbrellas and awnings, eyes fixed on the sloping hill leading up to the school.

“The day of the 8-hour … test is an event of national concern in the country, which unites to ensure it goes as smoothly and predictably as possible. Schools stage elaborate ceremonies to cheer on their students while politicians and celebrities release statements wishing them luck. Banks and stores close and police officers are out in force to control traffic and offer rides to late students. Ensuring silence during the listening portions of the test is paramount. Flights are grounded across the country to help students keep their focus, and this year, with its wet forecast, meteorologists rushed to reassure families there would be no thunder to worry about, either.”

Training for this test begins not long after children are out of diapers and intensifies as they go through elementary and secondary schooling. Most students attend private tutoring or “cram schools” after school every weekday, often into the late evening. According to a 2009 report by the Korean Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Family (Lee, 2009), the average Korean 12-year-old at that time was spending 58 hours a week studying, and the average 18-year-old 79 hours a week. For the 18-year-old, this included 59 hours at school, 8 hours at tutoring or cram school, and 12 hours at self study.

Highest Rates of Teen Mental Suffering

At least since 2003, suicide has been the leading cause of death among Korean teens, outranking even deaths in automobile accidents, and Korea has outranked all the other 34 OECD nations in the rate of teen suicides (Kim et al, 2020; Kwaka & Ickovics, 2019). Korean teens also consistently top the list of OECD countries in rates of depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts, and Korean teens ovewelmingly rate school pressure as the primary cause of their psychological suffering (Ahn & Baek, 2013; Kim et al, 2020; Kwaka & Ickovics, 2019).

Most Expensive Nation to Raise a Child and Lowest Birth Rate

The YuWa Population Research Institute has, in recent years, consistently rated Korea as the world’s most expensive nation in which to raise a child from birth to age 18 (Ryall, 2023). The primary contributor to that distinction is the money parents spend on tutors and private cram schools in the attempt to increase their child’s Suneung score. It is a trap that most parents would like to escape, but most see no way to do that without jeopardizing their child’s future.

It is surely no coincidence that in a country where child raising is so expensive and where children are kept so busy and unhappy with schoolwork, that the birth rate has been continuously going down. By the most recent estimate, the birth rate is just 0.7 children per woman in the country. In other words, for every 100 women in the present generation, only 70 children will be born. To maintain a population at its present level, in a modern nation with good medical care, a birth rate of 2.1 is needed. A recent article in The New Yorker (Lewis-Kraus, 2025), about the declining birthrate throughout most of the world but especially in Korea was titled The End of Children.

Some in the business world in Korea, worried about the effect on the economy of the decline in young people, have been pushing in various ways to reduce the schooling demands, so having children will become a more pleasant prospect (Kobara, 2024).

The Good News for Korea

Here’s the good news. Korea may be on a path to recovery from its schooling disorder. In recent years, the view that high Suneung scores are the only route to success has softened. As Korea has become wealthier economically and richer in the diversity of ways of making a living, some parents have come to recognize that their sons and daughters can succeed without attending a prestigious university. Some of what were cram schools for the Suneung have begun to offer opportunities in dance, art, and other enjoyable realms of life. Moreover, most likely because of the declining number of children, and hence of high school graduates, competition for admission to prestigious universities has been declining (Kim et al., 2020). A result is that for the past 15 years or so there has been gradual but consistent improvement in Korean teens’ mental health and some decline (a good thing!)) in their PISA scores.

Here are some relevant data:

Between 2006 and 2019, the annual Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey revealed that the percentage of teens reporting a high level of depression declined gradually from 38.4% to 26.5%; the percentage reporting suicidal ideation in the past year declined from 20.0% to 12.2%; and the percentage reporting at least one suicide attempt in the past year decline from 4.6% to 2.2% (Cho et al., 2024). Those are big improvements over a 13-year period. Since 2019, following COVID, these numbers have remained stable, neither increasing nor decreasing significantly.

And, from 2006 to 2018, the average Korean PISA score declined from 556 to 514 for reading and from 547 to 526 for math, though it remained relatively unchanged for science (from 522 to 519). For science, the significant decline occurred before 2006, going from 552 in 2000 to 522 in 2006.

Hey, if these trends continue, Korean adults may discover that having children can be fun after all.

Further Thoughts

The irony is this. At the beginning of the 21^st century, when the first PISA tests brought worldwide attention to differences among nations in scores on academic tests, politicians and ignorant educational leaders in the Western world were embarrassed to see how much lower their students’ scores were than the scores of kids in Korea and certain other East Asian countries. So, some countries, including the US, U.K., and Sweden tried to emulate Korea and those other countries, by mandating tougher schooling. The result has been no significant increase in PISA scores, but a large increase in rates of anxiety, depression, and other indices of mental suffering, moving in the direction of levels already present in Korea. Meanwhile, in Korea, the schooling system softened a bit and suffering began to decline.

And now, what do you think about all this? This Substack is, in part, a forum for discussion, and your questions and comments are treated with respect by me and other readers, regardless of whether we agree or disagree. Readers’ thoughtful comments and questions add to the value of hese letters for everyone.

With respect and best wishes,

Peter

References

Ahn, S-Y, & Hye-Jeong Baek, H-J (2013). Academic achievement-oriented society and its relationship to the psychological well-being of Korean adolescents. Ch 13, pp 265-279 in C. C Yi (ed), The psychological well-being of East Asian youth. Quality of Life in Asia 2, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-4081-5_13, Springer Science&Business Media Dordrecht.

Cho, J., et al. (2024). National trends in adolescents’ mental health by income level in South Korea, pre– and post– COVID–19, 2006–2022 Scientific Reports, 14. 2501.

Cosma, A. & eleven other authors (2020). Cross-national time trends in adolescent mental well-being from 2002 to 2018 and the explanatory role of schoolwork pressure. Journal of Adolescent Health 66, S50-S58.

Högberg, B., et al. (2021) Consequences of school grading systems on adolescent health: evidence from a Swedish school reform. Journal of Education Policy, 36:1, 84-106, DOI: 10.1080/02680939.2019.1686540

Kobara, J. (2024). South Korea birth rate squeezed by entrance exam pressures: central bank. Nikkei Asia. August 28, 2024 Online.

Kim, K.M., Kim, D., & Chung, U.S. (2020). Investigation of the trend in adolescent mental health and its related social factors: a multi-year cross-sectional study for 13 years. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 17, 5405; doi:10.3390/ijerph17155405

Kwaka, C.W., & Ickovics, J.R. (2019). Adolescent suicide in South Korea: Risk factors and proposed multi- dimensional solution. Asian Journal of Psychology 43, 150-153.

Lee, B. J. (2009). The current state of Korean children and youth. Seul: The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family.

Lewis-Kraus, G. (2025). The end of children. The New Yorker, Feb, 2025.

Marquez, J., Inchley, J., & Long, E. (2022). Cross-country and gender differences in factors associated with population-level declines in adolescent life satisfaction. Child Indicators Research, 15:1405 1428.

OECD (2023). PISA 2022 Results (Volume I and II) - Country Notes: Korea. Online

Pascoe, C.M., Hetrick, S.E., & Parker, A.G. (2020). The impact of stress on students in secondary school and higher education. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 25, 104–112

Ryall, J. (2023). South Korea most expensive country in world to raise kids. DW Asia Newsletter 5/18/2023. Online.

Steare, S., Munoz, C.G., Sullivan, A., & Lewis, G. (2023). The association between academic pressure and adolescent mental health problems: A systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders 339. 302–317

Vidwans. P. (2024). South Korean students still struggle under a draconian system. Institute of Current World Affairs. Jan. 27, 2024. https://www.icwa.org/south-korean-students-struggle/