When Good Grades Hide the Pain — Why Top Students Struggle Too
In September 2026, the University of Hong Kong's Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention (led by Director Paul Yip) released figures that deserve our full attention: Hong Kong recorded 15 suicides among children under 15 in 2025, more than double the 6 cases in 2024. Looking closer at the 2022–2025 data, 32% of these under-15 cases studied at Band 1A schools, the highest share of any group; together with Band 1B (24%), a total of 68% belonged to Band 1 (the top group). Roughly half chose to fall from height.
The most heartbreaking part of these figures is that they break a long-held assumption: that children who study well and earn good grades are somehow less at risk. The truth is, a Band 1A student can be the one hurting the most.
🚫 Drop the Label: High Achievers Hurt Too
Society has long carried a label, assuming suicide risk belongs only to students with poor grades. That label makes adults look at a child who tops the class and automatically think she is fine, and then stop looking. But 32% are Band 1A. That number proves one thing: labels stop us from seeing the real person in front of us.
Traditional Western psychology is highly skilled at using screening mechanisms and scales to assess suicide risk, and these tools have saved many lives. But these scales have a blind spot: they tend to look for risk factors, so a child with good grades, no behavioural problems and no teacher referrals slips straight past them. What holistic psychology seeks to add is precisely this layer — not just whether a child shows risk, but the whole person standing behind the score.
A good grade is just a number. It is not a person.
🧩 The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts
Holistic psychology rests on one core idea: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. A student is not a single number called grades, but a whole made up of academics, family, peers, body and environment. When we only look at the report card, we are only seeing a very small slice of that person. The more polished that slice looks, the more easily the pain in every other part gets hidden.
🔬 Evidence: Curran and Hill (2019), in a meta-analysis published in Psychological Bulletin, found that perfectionism has been steadily rising across recent decades; Flett and Hewitt (2002) further linked perfectionism to depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation. The more a child strives for perfection, the more likely they are to be gasping for air behind the mask of good grades.
🤝 Belonging: The First Two Weeks Are the Most Fragile
There is another easily overlooked danger point: the first two weeks of a new school year. Across the summer, children live in a loose, relaxed state; when term begins, they must suddenly rebuild their social world all at once. That shift from looseness to tension is exactly when belonging feels most fragile. Baumeister and Leary (1995) argued long ago that the need to belong is one of the most fundamental human motivations. When a child cannot find their place in the new year, it is not that they refuse to speak, but that they genuinely feel they belong nowhere.
What pushes a child to the edge is rarely a report card. It is the loneliness of feeling I do not belong here.
If you are a parent, a teacher, or simply an adult who cares, the most powerful step is not asking what rank they came, but letting them know that no matter their grades, they are wanted and accepted. If the situation is serious, please seek professional support immediately.
📞 24-Hour Helplines
- The Samaritans Hong Kong: 2896 0000
- Suicide Prevention Services (Life Hotline): 2382 0000
- The Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong: 2389 2222
- Caritas Family Crisis Support Centre Hotline: 18288
References
- Curran, T., & Hill, A. P. (2019). Perfectionism is increasing over time: A meta-analysis of birth cohort differences from 1989 to 2016. Psychological Bulletin, 145(4), 410–429. (Perfectionism has been rising steadily, a key risk factor for student mental health.)
- Flett, G. L., & Hewitt, P. L. (2002). Perfectionism: Theory, research, and treatment. American Psychological Association. (Links perfectionism to depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.)
- Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529. (The need to belong is a fundamental human motivation.)
