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Lack of confidence over looks in top three reasons for schoolchildren still wearing masks after coronavirus face-covering mandate lifted
- Poll by Evangelical Lutheran Church Social Service also finds pupils opting to cover up felt more social anxiety than schoolmates who ditched their masks
- Top reasons for continuing to wear masks after pandemic include health concerns, low confidence in appearance and parental influence
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More than 80 per cent of Hong Kong schoolchildren have continued to wear masks despite the end of a coronavirus pandemic-induced mandate earlier this year, with low confidence in their appearance in the top three reasons for the decision, a survey has found.
The poll by the Evangelical Lutheran Church Social Service also found that pupils who still opted to cover up felt higher levels of social anxiety than schoolmates.
“When the mask mandate was dropped, some social media posts said: ‘Eyes of Hong Kong girls are beautiful. But what will they look like after they remove their masks?’” the charity’s service director Stella Hou Sze-nga said on Monday. “This added a lot of pressure on girls.”
The organisation found 83 per cent of respondents preferred to still wear masks despite the government lifting the Covid-19 requirement from March 1.
More than 44 per cent of pupils quoted health concerns after they were asked to give one or more reasons for their continued use of masks.
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