ccording to a survey by the Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF). Part of the reason why children are left to themselves to figure out their three daily meals from Monday through Friday is that their parents are simply too busy, explained Wang Yu-ming, CWLF executive director.
The other reason is that these children are living in poverty, he said.
Some of the children surveyed said they even had to take care of younger siblings because of the lack of adults at home throughout the day, which is related to divorce and single-parent homes being on the increase, explained Wang.
According to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, 30 percent of workers work overtime every day, which translates into children being left alone in the house for longer periods of time.
Children who are left alone in the house are in both personal danger and subject to emotional problems. They often feel lonely, and sometimes even run away from home. Households are also more prone to accidents when there are only children in the house, explained Wang.
The foundation's survey was gathered from a sample of 1,700 children in fourth to sixth grade, whose responses were used to represent the estimated 1.84 million elementary school-age children in the country.
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