Professor Robert Rudolf (Left) and Professor Dirk Bethmann (Right). Provided by KU.

By Park Jaewon (jaewonpark02@korea.ac.kr)

A team led by Korea University (KU)'s Professor Robert Rudolf (Division of International Studies) and Professor Dirk Bethmann (Department of Economics) published a study on the Springer's Journal of Happiness Studies that demonstrated the negative correlation between a nation's wealth and the subjective well-being of teenagers caused by increased educational pressure.

Researchers analyzed 500,000 fifteen-year-old teens from 72 medium to high income nations. The study showed that the higher a nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is, the lower teenagers' happiness levels tend to be. This sharply contrasts with the positive correlation between GDP and the well-being of grown adults generally observed worldwide.

The discrepancy between GDP and teenagers' happiness was particularly stark for South Korea, where happiness levels were already comparatively lower than other members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The authors pointed towards the exhausting lifestyle that is expected of students in East Asia as the cause of this problem, stating that the lack of sleep and leisure time experienced by many students is detrimental to a teenager's physical and mental development. "We need to start treating students' study hours like laborers' working hours. Just as governments implement policies to prevent overworking, they should restrict studying hours to protect the rights and well-being of children," said the research team.
출처 : 고려대학교 고파스 2025-08-12 18:40:26: