The Extent, Contributing Factors and Responses to Depression and Suicidal Ideation 
in Modern South Korea James Taylor1
1University of Oregon
Abstract Correlative Factors of Mental Health for Specific Populations
The Republic of Korea (Korea) has seen a high rate of economic development in the post- Policy Proposals
WWII era and is currently the country with the 11th highest GDP worldwide (International General
Monetary Fund).1 At the same time, Korea is beset by a mental health crisis more severe than Alcohol use to depression11 Korea periodically collects data on mental health as a result of the 1995 Mental Health Act, 
similar countries in the world. Korea has the highest rate of suicide both in the South-East Of suicide attempts in past year... including the prevalence of various mental diseases.12 More recently, Korea has focused on 
Asian region and in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), at 50% of males had experienced alcohol usage disorders12 improving access to mental health services at a community level.9 While these improvements are 
26.6 people per capita as of 2018 (compared to the regional average of 10.8 people per 50% of females had experienced mood disorders (including depression)12 substantial, there is still relatively high antipathy from politicians and citizens towards issues of 
capita in 2015 and the OECD average of 11.4 in 2017).2-5 Other mental health problems, High alcohol consumption to suicide per capita13 mental health. According to one survey, urban residents and lawmakers tended to agree that 
including depression, alcohol dependence and mood disorders, correlate to suicidal ideation; Lack of treatment of mental health with suicide14 suicide was caused by personal beliefs (not external factors), was usually done as a cry for help, 
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as a result, the prevalence of these disorders exacerbate the core issue of suicidal ideation. Mental illness with suicidal ideation14 and viewed it as a nonserious problem - therefore, not worth addressing sin the public sphere. 
This literary review evaluates the extent of these mental health issues in Korea, identifies Students Collecting data and performing research on the issue of mental health and suicide identifies the 
correlatory factors relating to mental health, and presents current policies and approaches Increased screen time (TV, computer games, etc.) to depression15 issues, but public or governmental support has to lead the way towards creating public policy 
addressing mental health in part or in whole. In addition, it focuses on the population in Decreased hours of sleep to depression16
alternatives to address the problem’s various correlative factors.
general but also through four specific lenses: students, full-time employees, the elderly, and Youth in counseling suffered from:17
For each of the factors correlating to increased risk of mental illness and suicide, there are 
celebrities. The significance of this research mainly focuses on improving the quality of life for Interpersonal relationships
specific policy solutions that can help reduce the severity of factors and by extension reduce the 
people in South Korea by identifying factors associated with mental health and proposing Education and career advancement
risk of suicide. A recent law implementing a shorter work week, from 68 hours maximum to 52, 
solutions that reduce the frequency and severity of mental health disorders. Mental health problems paved the way for future legislation that limits mental illness stemming from workplace 
Mobility rate and dropout rate correlated to depression18 malpractice.33 Other legislative ideas in the works are laws that would criminalize “malicious 
Full Time Employees online commenting”, as well as a law that proposes an online identification system connecting 
Long working hours with depressive symptoms10 citizens to their comments19 - both laws aim to address factors leading to celebrity suicide.
Research Questions Average of 45.9 hours/week
49.5% of Korean workers work more than 48 hours/week A general review of policy options addressing suicide found that public education, providing 
Female correlates to depressive symptoms accessible treatment (both pharmaceutical and therapeutical) and restricting access to the 
1. To what extent is South Korea experiencing a mental Precarious employment (non-permanent jobs) correlate with depressive symptoms10 means of suicide all help reduce the risk of suicide at a public level.14 Furthermore, the study also 
Celebrities proposes the education of so-called ‘gatekeepers’ - individuals trusted and present within the 
health crisis? Sexism and standards on women with suicide19 community, including medical personnel, institutional personnel, and clergy - on mental health 
2. Harassment (online) with suicide19 identification and intervention options.14 As an extension of this idea, some researchers have 
Celebrity suicides correlates to increased copycat suicides (Werther effect)20-21 also proposed targeting specific high risk populations with interventions, including elderly 
What factors contribute to a mental health crisis in High levels of scrutiny in public sphere22 Koreans living in poverty and Korean students, as effective strategies for decreasing the risk of 
South Korea? Elderly suicide or mental illness.
31,36
Limited and restrictive social networks with depression and mental health23
3. Problem drinking with a lower quality of life24 Deciding the direction and priority of policy implementation is a challenging task, especially if 
What solution/policies have been proposed or politicians and citizens are reluctant to address the issue of suicide. Figure 2, a survey of Korean 
citizens asking them to rate the need for specific programs by priority, identifies the perceived 
implemented to address a mental health crisis? necessity of specific social services. As a result, implementing programs based off of both public 
acceptance and effectiveness may be a more effective policy approach than simply implementing 
Left – Figure 1 the most effective policy because it more immediately addresses the factors correlating to 
suicide and can help support a shift of attitudes on mental health in Korea.
Extent
In Korea, suicide, denoted also as ‘intentional self-harm’, was the number one cause of References
death for age groups 10-19, 20-29 and 30-39, the second highest cause of death for ages Right-Figure 2
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40-49 and 50-59 and the fourth highest cause of death for ages 60-69. On the other hand, 2.World Health Organization. (2020). Health Information Platform for the WHO South-East Asia Region. Retrieved from https://hip.searo.who.int/dhis/dhis-web-commons/security/login.action3.Korea National Statistical Office. Annual report on the cause of death statistics 2018. Daejeon: Korea National Statistical Office; 2019.
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overall.7 With this information in min, suicide and suicidal ideation in Korea is a universal 15. Yoon, M. S., Cho, H. J., and Lee, H. J. (2009). Effects of internet use and alcohol use on the adolescent’s depression. Social Science Research, 25(4), 347-370.Factors 16.Fredriksen, K., Rhodes, J., Reddy, R., and Way, N. (2004). Sleepless in Chicago: tracking the effects of adolescent sleep loss during the middle school years. Child development, 75(1), 84-95.17. Longenecker, L. (2019). Suicide, Precarity, and Korean Media: A Sociocultural Analysis of the Adolescent Suicide Epidemic in South Korea. Thesis, University of Texas, Austin, TX. Available from 
issue that severely affects a large portion of the population. https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/75054/LONGENECKER-THESIS-2019.pdfStudents Full Time Employees 18.Park S., Lee D., Jung S., et al. (2019). Four-year trajectory of Korean youth mental health and impacts of school environment and school counselling: an observational study using national schools database, BMJ Open, 9. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027578
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20.Niederkrotenthaler, T., Fu, K., Yip, P., Fong, D., Stack, S., Cheng, Q., & Pirkis, J. (2012). Changes in suicide rates following media reports on celebrity suicide: A meta-analysis. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 
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depression, according to one study, affects approximately 3.6% of the population.8 More Korean youth are under significant pressure to succeed academically. Time use patterns 25 22.Simon, S. (2019). Two Stars' Suicides Draw Scrutiny To Pressures Of K-Pop Industry, Fans. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/11/30/783819921/two-stars-suicides-draw-scrutiny-to-pressures-of-k-pop-industry-fansworked per week after Mexico, at an average of 1,993 hours per worker per year. 23.N.S. Park, Y. Jang, B.S. Lee, D.A. Chiriboga, S. Chang & S.Y. Kim (2018) Associations of a social network typology with physical and mental health risks among older adults in South Korea, Aging & Mental Health, 22(5), 631-
reflect this pattern well: on average, Korean youth spend about 8 ½ hours daily studying, 638, DOI: 10.1080/13607863.2017.1286456
problematically, only 2.2% of those with MDD visited a doctor for reasons relating to Even those statistics do not illustrate the full extent of working hours in Korea; 24.Yoon, M. (2009). Problem Drinking and Mental Health among the Elderly in Korea, 알코올과건강행동학회학술대회, 93-102.including time at public or private school, independent study, and Korean hagwon (학관), a 25.OECD. (2020). Hours worked (indicator). doi: 10.1787/47be1c78-en (Accessed on 04 March 2020).frequently, employees are required to work off the clock to complete tasks or achieve 26. Lee, S. & May, T. (2018). Go Home, South Korea Tells Workers, As Stress Takes its Toll. The New York Times. (Accessed on 04 March 2020).
depression, although those with MDD were twice as likely to visit a doctor in the past 12 common form of after-school tutoring. Interestingly, at an individual level studying 10 27.Wolf, S., Aber, J. L., and Morris, P. A. (2015). Patterns of time use among low-income urban minority adolescents and associations with academic outcomes and problem behaviors. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44(6), promotions. As a result, workplace stress has a large overall impact on the mental 1208-1225.
8 supported academic development and so was a net positive; however, overall Korean 28.Lee, M., and Larson, R. (2000). The Korean ‘examination hell’: Long hours of studying, distress, and depression. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29(2), 249-271.months (31.9%). In addition, around 21% of Korean men and 7% of Korean women have health and suicidal ideation of full time employees, so much so that there is a word 29.Byung D. (2005). “일반청소년학습장애청소년의우울및자살충동에미치는다변적요인예측 [Multivariate Predictive Factors on Depression and Suicidal Thoughts in Adolescents with Learning Disabilities],” 청소년학연구students were found to study longer and experience more negative feelings than American [Korean Journal of Youth Studies], 12(1): 207.in Korean for death by overworking - gwarosa (과로사). Beyond hours worked, 30. Williamson, L. (2011). The Dark Side of South Korean Pop Music. BBC News. (Accessed 04 March 2020).
alcohol use disorders, about 14% of the total population with drinkers consuming an students.27-28 In addition, poor relationships between students and their parents strongly 31.OECD (2014), "Reducing income inequality and poverty and promoting social mobility", in OECD Economic Surveys: Korea 2014, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/eco_surveys-kor-2014-6-en.Korean companies - particularly dynastic-like monopolies, known as chaebol (재벌) - 32.Ju, Yeong Jun, Park, Eun-Cheol, Han, Kyu-Tae, Choi, Jae Woo, Kim, Jeong Lim, Cho, Kyoung Hee, & Park, Sohee. (2016). Low socioeconomic status and suicidal ideation among elderly individuals. 28(12), 2055-2066.
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average of 16 liters a year per capita.9 As the second most compensated disease by the correlates to suicidal ideation. Essentially, the high academic standards of Korea and the 33.Wamsley, L. (2018). South Korea Shortens “Inhumanely Long” Workweek. NPR. (Accessed 04 March 2020).frequently nurture toxic work environments in which senior employees hold 34.Lee, W. (2019). Comparisons in the attitudes toward suicide among urban residents, lawmakers and community mental health workers in South Korea. Psychiatry Research, 276, 278-282.
constant pressure to succeed at a social and familial level create an environment that 35.Jeong Yee Bae, Seung Hyun Lee, Eun Ha Kim (2016) Development of Community Mental Health Program Using Evidence-Based Practice, Journal of Safety and Crisis Management, 6:1, 1-5
South Korean Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance, mood disorders also have a significant power over their subordinates. Practices like hweshik (회식) - mandatory 36.Park, S., Lee, D., Jung, S., & Hong, H. (2019). Four-year trajectory of Korean youth mental health and impacts of school environment and school counselling: A observational study using national schools database. BMJ Open, contributes to deteriorated mental health and increased risk of suicidal behavior. 9(11), E027578.company outings with coworkers - further raise the hours working in practice without 
high prevalence.10 All of these diseases have various degrees of positive correlation to increasing the numbers on paper.25 Thus, Korean corporate culture plays an 
suicide. With the high prevalence of both mental disorders and suicide, Korea faces a environmental role in mental health and by extension suicidal ideation.
severe mental health crisis. Celebrities Elderly Acknowledgments
Relative to the world, Korea’s rate of mental health disorders compared to its suicide rate Celebrities in Korean’s public entertainment sphere face overwhelming pressure, both from In Korea’s rapidly aging population, poverty and weak social networks plague the elderly, 
the companies they work for and from the public, that contribute to celebrity suicides. For correlating to increased risks of suicidal ideation and mental illness. Approximately 50% of 
per capita is terribly unproportionate, even more so when considering that countries with one, high levels of scrutiny from the public at all times places a lot of pressure on celebrities elderly Koreans live in poverty.31 Furthermore, low food security, low household income, 
comparable rates of suicide tend to be far more economically barren than Korea. to maintain their appearance with little downtime.22 Cyberbullying of celebrities also has and living alone - all factors of poverty or weak social networks - correlated to increased risk 
22 32
According to data collected by the WHO, Korea’s suicide rate far outstrips the global harmful effects on celebrities’ mental health. Also highlighted are elements of sexism that of suicidal ideation. At the same time, the social network of elderly Koreans also impacts I would like to thank Matthias Vogel of the German and Scandinavian department for his 
create strict and unhealthy beauty standards and behavioral expectations, reinforced their mental health: social networks comprised of distant or restricted friends and family consistent support throughout this project
average of 10.6 deaths per capita or the regional average of 10.2 deaths per capita. In formally by companies and informally by public backlash.19 In line with this, Korean correlate strongly to poor mental health and depression.23 Particularly because of the how 
fact, this same data ranks Korea as the country with the 4th highest suicide rate in the entertainment companies often underpay performers, collecting large portions of their quickly Korea’s elderly population is growing, improving the mental health and reducing the 
world at 26.6 people per capita. profits as payment for training, managing and living expenses.
30 This system, placing rate of suicide for the elderly demographic begins with addressing low socioeconomic status 
celebrities under high pressure for little reward, and public pressure has been cited by and insufficient social networks.
experts in Korean affairs as key factors that contribute to high profile celebrity suicides.19