ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R
主办:中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

Advances in Psychological Science ›› 2022, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (5): 978-990.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.00978

• Section: Prevalence of mental health problems of Chinese students • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Prevalence of mental health problems among senior high school students in mainland of China from 2010 to 2020: A meta-analysis

YU Xiaoqi1, ZHANG Yali1, YU Guoliang2()   

  1. 1School of Education, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
    2Interdisciplinary Platform for Mental Health Education, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
  • Received:2021-08-25 Online:2022-05-15 Published:2022-03-24
  • Contact: YU Guoliang E-mail:yugllxl@sina.com

Abstract:

High school is the key period of psychological development, and it is also the frequent period of a variety of psychological problems. The mental health problems of senior high school students not only come from adolescents themselves, but also should attract extensive attention from families, schools and society. In order to improve the mental health of senior high school students and ensure the effective development of follow-up mental health work, it is necessary to understand the detection rate of mental health problems of senior high school students in China, so as to master the basic situation of mental health of senior high school students. Although many previous studies have involved the detection rate of mental health problems of senior high school students, there is no consistent conclusion on the detection rate of mental health problems of senior high school students in China in recent ten years. In order to clarify the detection rates and influencing factors of mental health problems of senior high school students in China in recent ten years, this study makes a comprehensive and systematic meta-analysis of the relevant detection rate articles of senior high school students (including higher vocational students) in recent ten years, so as to form a clearer understanding of the general situation of their mental health. Because there are too many indicators involved in mental health problems, this study focuses on the detection rate of two common problems in senior high school students: internalizing problems (including anxiety, depression, sleep problems, somatization, suicidal ideation, and suicide plan) and externalizing problems (including self injury and suicide attempt. In addition, this study also investigated the regulatory effects of publishing age, relevant factors of measurement tools (measurement tools, detection standards, detection time), and demographic variables (grade, region, gender, only child or not, birthplace) on the detection rate of mental health problems.
By searching the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure database and Web of Science core collection database from 2010 to 2020, 252 effective literatures were finally obtained, including 48 articles on anxiety, 99 articles on depression, 21 articles on sleep problems, 14 articles on somatization, 29 articles on self injury, and 41 articles on suicide. The results of meta-analysis showed that (1) The prevalence from high to low were depression (28.0%), anxiety (26.3%), sleep problems (23.0%), self-injury (22.8%), suicidal ideation (17.1%), somatization (9.8%), suicide plan (6.9%), and suicide attempt (2.9%); (2) In the past ten years, the mental health problems of senior high school students in China have deteriorated with the passage of time, especially anxiety; (3) The detection rate of mental health problems of senior high school students is affected by the relevant factors of measurement tools (measurement tools, detection standards and detection time); (4) The mental health problems of senior high school students increased with the increase of grade, especially sleep problems; (5) The mental health problems of senior high school students were affected by regions, especially in economically underdeveloped areas. It can be seen that the prevalence of mental health problems of senior high school students in China was affected by the year of publication, measurement tools, detection standards, detection time, grade and region. In the future, efforts should be made to prepare standardized evaluation tools, build a long-term mechanism of mental health education, and focus on the mental health problems of senior class and underdeveloped area senior high school students.

Key words: mental health problems, prevalence, senior high school students, meta-analysis