Being left out during group work, not knowing how to make up after an argument, and preferring to hide behind a screen rather than interact with classmates — these so-called "social anxiety" behaviors have become a real part of school life in Taiwan.

Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF) released the 2026 Survey Report on Children's Peer Relationships and Social Anxiety Symptoms in Taiwan, based on responses from 1,255 fifth- and sixth-grade elementary school students across Taiwan [1]. The findings show that children in Taiwan are facing a growing social anxiety challenges: 1 in 5 showed symptoms of social anxiety, and even among children who saw themselves as extroverted, 11.2% scored above the cutoff. The data also point to a lack of skills for repairing peer relationships. More than half said they did not know how to break the ice after an argument, and their ability to respond to conflict has declined compared with findings from a similar survey conducted in 2019.

The survey also found that children with social anxiety symptoms tend to withdraw in both offline and online social settings. Some avoid interacting with others in real life, some hold back from expressing themselves online, and some do not know how to respond when they are attacked or bullied. Over time, these repeated interpersonal setbacks have begun to affect both their emotional and physical well-being. Children with social anxiety symptoms were nearly 4 times more likely than their peers without social anxiety symptoms to say they did not want to go to school. More than 60% were also struggling with insomnia, and the proportion reporting insomnia nearly every day (11.9%) was 2.6 times that of their peers without social anxiety symptoms. Even more concerning, 28.9% of children with social anxiety symptoms said they would not seek help from anyone when facing these interpersonal difficulties. When parental attention centers only on academic performance, home can become another source of stress, pushing children to seek comfort online instead. CWLF calls on all sectors of society to take children's social stress seriously and not let them become isolated and unsupported at school.

[1] Between September and October 2025, CWLF conducted a stratified cluster random sampling survey of fifth- and sixth-grade elementary school students across Taiwan, collecting a total of 1,255 valid responses. At a 95% confidence level, the margin of sampling error was within ±2.76%. The sample was evenly distributed, with boys and girls each accounting for 49.4% of respondents, and included both fifth-grade students (50.5%) and sixth-grade students (49.5%), making it highly representative.

In recent years, The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test has become one of the most popular social labels among children. The current survey found that 27.4% of children saw themselves as introverted, while 43.3% saw themselves as extroverted. The data also showed that 18.6% were already showing symptoms of social anxiety, meaning that nearly 1 in every 5 children is facing serious challenges in peer relationships. Yet social anxiety is not limited to children who see themselves as introverted. Even among children who described themselves as extroverted, 11.2% scored above the cutoff [2].

This serves as a reminder to parents, teachers, and the wider public that some lively, outgoing children may be using a "social mask" to get by while carrying significant internal stress. When adults rely too heavily on personality labels to judge how a child is doing, they may easily miss the hidden distress signals beneath an apparently cheerful and outgoing child.

Why are so many children experiencing social anxiety symptoms? One possible reason is the growing weakness of their peer support systems. The survey found that 46.9% of children said their peers rarely comforted them when they felt sad or frustrated, while 36.1% said they rarely received help from peers when they needed it. In addition, 36.2% said they did not have any regular playmates during recess. About 1 in 10 children also reported frequently facing subtle hostility, such as being mocked or excluded [3]. For many children, school life is becoming an increasingly lonely experience.

Even more concerning, a lack of stable peer support may be associated with weaker social skills. Compared with findings from a similar survey conducted in 2019 [4], the proportion of children who said they did not know how to make friends rose sharply from 23.3% to 38.3%. The share of children who said they did not dare express their true thoughts reached 51.6%. Their ability to repair relationships showed a similarly serious decline, with the proportion saying they did not know how to make up after an argument increasing from 42.4% to 56.9%. These findings suggest that even as digital tools become more widespread, children may be becoming less confident in navigating real-life peer interactions.

[3] 8.2% often felt that their classmates made fun of them or picked on them; 11.7% often felt that more classmates disliked them than liked them; 6.5% felt that their classmates excluded them from the group; and 8.9% often felt that their classmates did not want to be in the same group with them during group work.

[4] CWLF's 2019 Survey Report on Interpersonal Relationships Among Children in Taiwan
https://www.children.org.tw/publication_research/research_report/728

Struggles in peer relationships can leave children emotionally and physically exhausted. The survey found that 17.3% of children with social anxiety symptoms said they did not want to go to school because of fear related to social interaction, a rate 3.8 times that of their peers without social anxiety symptoms (4.5%). This suggests that interpersonal difficulties have become a major barrier to children's sense of safety and readiness to enter the school environment.

Beyond school refusal, anxiety also appears to affect children's physical well-being. The survey found that 63.9% of children with social anxiety symptoms had experienced sleep difficulties. Of these, 11.9% said they had trouble sleeping nearly every day, 2.6 times the rate among children without social anxiety symptoms. Together, these emotional and physical pressures suggest that social anxiety symptoms are more than simply "feeling down." It is a serious issue that deserves greater attention.

When interpersonal stress becomes too much to bear, children's social behavior can show a striking contrast between offline and online settings. The survey found that when children face provocation at school, many choose to hold back. As many as 32.7% responded with avoidance, such as pretending not to hear it or keeping their distance from the other person. Yet this silence can shift into more confrontational behavior online. When conflict takes place in digital spaces, the proportion of children who choose to fight back directly (21.7%) is noticeably higher than in real-life situations (16.6%). This pattern of staying silent in person but lashing out online suggests that many children now see the internet as a safe haven for releasing emotions and seeking a sense of acceptance.

The data further show that 24% of children said they would rather be alone, 29% felt that chatting with strangers online was easier than meeting in person, and 42.5% said they interacted with classmates more online than face to face. While screens may temporarily shield children from social pressure, they also reduce opportunities to practice resolving conflict in person.

It is worth noting that although online communities may serve as a temporary safe haven for children with social anxiety symptoms, they do not necessarily provide real protection. When faced with online attacks, only 9.6% of children with social anxiety symptoms said they would directly speak up to stop the behavior, compared with 24.4% of their peers without such symptoms. Even in real-life situations, when given a hurtful nickname, only 23.4% said they would directly tell the other person to stop, compared with 35.5% of their peers without such symptoms. In addition, children with social anxiety symptoms were more likely both to withdraw from interaction in real life (16.2%, compared with 8.2% among their peers without such symptoms) and to hold back from expressing themselves online (18.3%, compared with 4.3% among their peers without such symptoms). Together, these findings suggest that children with social anxiety symptoms may lack effective ways to protect themselves in both offline and online social settings.

Family support should be a source of comfort and protection when children face interpersonal difficulties outside the home. However, the survey found that unhelpful parent-child communication can become a new source of stress. Among children with social anxiety symptoms, daily conversations with family members were more likely to revolve around questions about academic performance or parental criticism (18.4%), a proportion noticeably higher than among their peers without such symptoms (11.5%). When this is the main pattern of communication at home, the stress children carry from school may go unrelieved, turning home into an extension of that pressure.

When family conversations no longer provide emotional support, children may become more likely to shut down or look elsewhere for comfort when they face interpersonal setbacks. The data show that 28.9% of children with social anxiety symptoms said they would not tell anyone when facing difficulties. They were also significantly more likely than other children to seek help from online acquaintances (11.7%) or to feel that chatting with online acquaintances was easier than talking with classmates (36.9%). When children lack a sense of safety and support in real-life relationships, they may be pushed to seek acceptance online and may feel even more isolated when facing peer challenges at school.

When children cannot find support in their relationships with others, withdrawing or turning to the internet is often not a real choice, but a sign that they see no better option. This is especially true for children with social anxiety symptoms, who often face even greater difficulties. They may struggle repeatedly in peer relationships and may already be experiencing psychological and physical symptoms such as school refusal and sleep problems. These children deserve urgent attention. In response, CWLF is calling for action in the following three areas:

1. For Parents — Replace Digital Safe Haven with Real-Life Warmth and Build Trust Around Help-Seeking

Parents need to recognize that when conversations at home revolve only around academic performance, children may retreat online because they have no outlet for their emotions. Families are encouraged to set aside time each day for high-quality time together without digital devices, and to shift the focus of conversation from school performance to children's feelings and peer experiences. When children face setbacks, parents can respond first with emotional support rather than criticism or advice. Home should be a safe place where children feel able to ask for help, not an extension of their stress.

2. For Schools — Put Social and Emotional Learning into Practice and Help Children Learn to Handle Conflict and Repair Relationships

A "friendly campus" cannot remain just a slogan. Schools should make social and emotional learning (SEL) [5] concrete and practical. In particular, schools should provide real-life practice in the skills children appear to need most: emotional regulation and conflict resolution. Children need support in learning how to recognize feelings of unease, face conflict, and rebuild connections afterward. At the same time, when signs of exclusion appear at school — such as being left out during group work, being mocked through hurtful nicknames, or experiencing subtle forms of exclusion — teachers should step in actively to address marginalization in the classroom and prevent interpersonal isolation from developing into bullying.

3. For the Public — Build Stronger Support Networks for Children

Social anxiety symptoms are not simply a form of shyness. They reflect real emotional and physical stress. Government agencies and society as a whole should promote accurate mental health education and avoid reducing children's withdrawal to simplistic labels. The Social Anxiety Scale for Children–Revised (SASC-R) can be used to assess children who show signs of long-term withdrawal, sleep problems, or school refusal, so that hidden anxiety can be identified early. Only when support systems at school and at home work together can we create a truly supportive environment for healthy peer relationships.

[5] SEL refers to learning that helps children develop skills in emotional regulation and interpersonal interaction.

CWLF’s resources:

• LINE Chat: For teenagers aged 13-18, search @youthplus_cwlf; for children aged below 12, search @cwlfkid12
• Child Hotline: 0800-003-123 (4:30-7:30 pm, Monday to Friday)
• Youth Hotline: 0800-001-769 (4:30-7:30 pm, Tuesday to Saturday)
• Youth+ Center (Taichung): 04-2220-012

Read More:

• CWLF Survey: Teens Turn to AI First as Stigma Silences Emotional Help-Seeking
• Youth Mental Health in the Digital Age: Highlights from CWLF's 2025 International Conference
• CWLF Survey: Academic Pressure & Social Media Harm Taiwanese Junior High Students' Mental Health