For perspective on parental neglect; Australia has had a handful of infant deaths due to gambling addiction, and most countires have tens or hundreds of infant deaths per year due to alcohol addiction.
S Korea has lots of student suicides due to pressure to perform in education;
Numbers from the National Statistical Office indicate that more than 1,000 [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/GK30Dg01.html] students between the ages of 10 and 19 killed themselves from 2000 to 2003
And this is considered normal for a 'good' 16-year-old high school student ;
He wakes up every weekday at 6 a.m. and is at school by 7:20. He does not return home until 1:30 a.m. the next morning [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/world/asia/08iht-korea.html], after an evening spent in after-school classes and tutorial sessions at a private institute.
Given all that pressure leading up to the CSAT exams at age 18/19, plus massive sleep deprivation, plus massive social detachment because of a lack of time, it's no wonder that Korean students tend to blow up when they do get time to themselves.
We had the same thing at my Grammar School in England; once we'd been put through the wringer to get outstanding A-Level exam results (we were expected to get minimum A A B B vs A B C national average), 30% of the class dropped out in the first year of university due to overconsumption of recreational substances and/or too much partying.
