Research On Relations Between Xi'an High-grade Pupils' Mental Health And Their Parents', Teachers' Mental Health

Mental health education in primary school is a focus of concern in education field. It has been a consensus to strengthen mental health education in primary school and facilitate the development of pupil's mental health. Although many researchers have done a lot of beneficial researches on present status of pupil's mental health and how to improve the effectiveness of mental health education which have yielded some valuable results, the aspects of the researches are limited and the contents are not comprehensive and systemic enough, especially the studies on the relationship between parents', teachers' mental health and primary scholars' mental health are still not deep enough. In fact, parents and teachers are the significant others in the process of pupils' growing and their mental health level has enormous effects on pupils which can not be neglected. Therefore, this study investigated mental heath status of high-grade pupils scholars in Xi'an, their parents and teachers, examined the effects that parents' and teachers' mental health have on pupils, and provided theoretical basis and practical strategies for improving school mental health education and raise pupil's mental health level effectively.Using the method of survey, this research measured 646 high-grade pupils (grade 4-6) in Xi'an with Mental Health Test (MHT) and surveyed their parents and teachers with The Self-report symptom inventory symptom Check List (SCL-90), Affect scales: Positive Affect, Negative Affect, Affect Balance (PANAS), and The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). On examining the relationship between parents', teachers' mental health and high-grade primary scholars' mental health and exploring the influences which parents' and teachers' mental health have on pupils, we find following conclusions:1. Although majority of high-grade pupils in Xi'an are in good mental health status, there are a small number of students who have certain problems; more problems exist in study anxiety.2. Gender differences of high-grade pupils' mental health exist in lonely tendency and terror tendency; on the differences in grades, the mental health conditions of 5-grade pupils are better than 6-grade students.3. The mental health status of parents has gender differences, fathers' mental health status is better than mothers'.4. High-grade pupils' mental health is closely correlated with their parents' mental health. The score of pupil' mental health is significantly positively related with their fathers' score of obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, psychotism, SCL-90 in all, their mothers' score of somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobivanxeity, psychotism, SCL-90 in all, negative affect, and remarkably negatively correlated with their father's life satisfaction score.5. High-grade teachers' mental health level of primary school in Xi'an is significantly lower than national norm.6. High-grade pupils' mental health is closely correlated with their teachers' mental health. The score of pupil' mental health is significantly positively related with their teachers' score of somatization, depression, hostility, parnoilideation and SCL-90 in all.7. Father's depression, anxiety, hostility, parnoilideation, SCL-90 total average, mother's anxiety, hostility, psychotism, interpersonal sensitivity, teacher's obsessive-compulsive, somatization, life satisfaction, negative affect predict high-grade pupil's mental health remarkably.Based on the results, 4 proposals are suggested on how to promote the development of pupil's mental health:1. Parents should improve themselves in different ways. They have to respect the fundamental rights and psychological needs of children, establish right conceptions on education and use correct educational methods.2. Teachers should study continuously and improve their own mental health status. They must establish a relationship full of respect, equality and understanding with students, and become supporters, guides and facilitators of students' mental health development.3. Schools must pay attention to the education and counseling of parent's and teacher's mental health and take a variety of ways to improve their mental health, while creating well psychological environment for primary scholars.4. Propaganda about mental health should be strengthened. Community must take measures to enhance parents' ability to educate, care about the living conditions of teachers, improve their mental quality in order to create favorable environment for healthy growth of pupils.