Hong Kong children in cramped flats have poorer mental health: survey

Hong Kong children who feel they lack study and play areas at home have poorer mental health and academic results, a poll has found.

Survey results published on Monday also showed that about 40 per cent of children living in subdivided flats said they did not have enough of the spaces at home, a rate that was higher than those in other types of housing.

Hong Kong Metropolitan University and the Society for Community Organisation (SoCO) jointly conducted the poll.

“We hope to look into what impacts the environment in subdivided flats could have on children’s mental health, academic results and cognitive development,” said Terence Shum Chun-tat, acting head of the department of social sciences of the university who led the study.

The first phase of the three-year study ran from June 2023 to August 2024 and covered 1,032 children aged 9 to 12.

Around half of them lived in subdivided flats, with the rest in public rental homes, transitional housing, private flats and subsidised housing.