Mental health symptoms among rural adolescents with different parental migration experiences: A cross-sectional study in China
Abstract
In rural regions of China, the rural-to-urban migrant worker population and their left-behind children-60 million children who remain in home villages-have diversified the rural adolescence experience in terms of family life, compounding known mental health disparities. This study examined the impact of a comprehensive panel of home- and school-related variables on the prevalence of three common mental health complaints among rural adolescents. Data were collected using a self-formulated questionnaire administered to 1347 seventh grade students in a rural county of Hunan Province in Fall 2017. The prevalence of mental health symptoms was 10-18%. Bullying, loneliness, and stress from home and school environments were risk factors; good life satisfaction and willingness to reach out to adult and peer social networks were protective. Being a left-behind child was only significantly associated with depression symptoms, and notably, none of the other variables specific to left-behind children were found to be influential on mental health outcomes. These results suggest that the school-related factors included in our analysis accounted for a share of the risk typically explained by home-related factors alone. Schools may therefore be reliable settings for mental health programs in rural areas with ever more unpredictable home environments.
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The GAD-2 demonstrated good internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .85) in Chinese children around 12 years old.
“GAD-2 demonstrated good internal reliability (Cronbach ' s α = .85) in the application to Chinese children around 12 years old (Wang et al., 2019).”
From The Online Strength-Informed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Among COVID-19-Affected Adolescents. (2022) · cites this paper as Wang et al., 2019
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References 28 · Cited by 42
- Authors
- Wang, J., Zou, J., Luo, J., Liu, H., Yang, Q., Ouyang, Y., Hu, M., & Lin, Q.
- Affiliations
- Central South University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Hu, Mi
- Lin, Qian
- Venue
- Psychiatry Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-09
- Volume
- 279
- Pages
- 222-230
- ISSN
- 0165-1781 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2921001783
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 5.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Psychiatry Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Central South University (XYGW-2017-43)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Psychosocial Factors Impacting Youth
- Keywords
- rural adolescents, left-behind children, parental migration, rural migrant workers, adolescent mental health, depressive symptoms, bullying, loneliness, academic stress, life satisfaction, social support networks, school-based mental health programs, rural China
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Child, China, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Parents, Surveys and Questionnaires, Risk Factors, Rural Population, Students, Transients and Migrants, Cohort Studies, Prevalence, Neurodevelopmental Disorders
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