| Objective: To understand the family environment,everyday life,academic affairs,and mental health status of left-behind high school freshmen students,To explore the factors associated with the mental health status of the left-behind adolescents in order to provide scientific guidance to promote a healthy growth of left-behind children.Methods: Multi-stage cluster sampling method was used to obtain the research sample.A field investigation was carried out at a senior high school randomly chosen from a county of four areas in a larger scale of the floating population in Hubei Province.All freshmen students,their parents,and class supervisors were selected as participants.The questionnaire consists of three parts: children's form,parents' form and teachers' form.General family environment,life and learning status,parent-child relationship,mental health status,family education and teacher's evaluation of students' psychological and behavioral aspects were investigated respectively.The statistical methods used in this study included exploratory factor analysis(for establishing a questionnaire structure),t-test,variance analysis,correlation analysis,multiple linear regression analysis(for exploring the influencing factors of mental health of left-behind children),and bootstrap method(for testing the mediation effect).Results:(1)In this study,the mental health questionnaire for shigh school freshmen students was extracted five common factors through exploratory factor analysis,which measured children's adaptation of learning,living habits,ideals and planning,emotional health and interpersonal communication,the total score refered to mental health level of children.The Cronbach'? coefficient of total questionnaire was0.933,and the Cronbach'? coefficient of each dimension was between 0.787 ~ 0.850,the internal consistency was good.Correlation coefficient of split items was 0.897,split-half reliability was good.Correlation coefficient o feach dimension score and total score questionnaire was between 0.752 ~ 0.889,and the correlation coefficient among the dimension was between 0.483 ~ 0.621,well structure validity was also represented.(2)1737 valid samples were collected,including 848 LBC(48.8%)and 889NLBC(51.9%).There were statistically significant differences in educational background and occupation of parents between LBC and NLBC(P<0.01,P<0.001).Poorer economic conditions appeared among LBC(P<0.001).Parents of NLBC were more intimate with their children(P<0.01).There were no difference in the academic performance between LBC and NLBC(P>0.05),most students had a medium or poor academic performance.LBC had less academic counseling from their parents(P<0.001),and experiences less care from others in their lives.(3)Significant variances existed in the score of mental health and its all dimensions between LBC and NLBC.The emotional health scores showed significant gender difference,that girls was lower than that of the boys,and difference was significant in the living habits among school types,mental health level of vocational students lower than the ordinary high school students.(4)The scores of mental health of left-behind children had significant differences in father's and mother's educational background,family type and family economic status.Mental health status of LBC was better if they had fathers or mothers with higher education level(P<0.05,P<0.01).The mental health score was obviously lower of single-parent families and remarried families than that of complete family children(P<0.001).Besides,mental health of LBC in poor and warm families was worse than that of wealthy families(P<0.05).Mental health score differed significantly in the type of parental migration,children's willingness on their parental migrantion,and concern from others.Maternal absence led to the worst mental health of children.The differences in mental health scores of LBC also reached significant levels in terms of academic performance,the objects of help-seeking,parental tutoring,parental academic expectation and parental discipline.(5)Both authoritative partenting and parent-child relationship score of LBC were notably lower than comparison group.Parent-child relationship score significantly lower in lower level of responsiveness than that of high and medium level,while parent-child relationship score was significant difference only betweenthe lower and moderate levels of demandingness,not different with high levels.Authoritative parenting and parent-child relationship showed positive correlation with mental health.The direct effect of authoritative parenting style on mental health was0.362,the indirect effect was 0.119,the coefficients were statistically significant.Parent-child relationship was a partially mediator between the relation of authoritative parenting and mental health,the effect of mediation accounts for 24.74% of the total effect.(6)Multivariable linear regression demonstrated that the school type,educational degree of mother,academic performance,family type,children's perception of care around,parent-child relationship and authoritative parenting style were significant predictors of mental health of LBC.Conclusions: Our research found that relatively weak family environment,troubling life and learning status,lack of education in adolescence,and some defects in family education of left-behind children in Hubei province lead to generally lower mental health level than non-left-behind children.Relevant units should attach importance to improve living environment and educational quality of left-behind children in order to promote their mental development.A series of scientific intervention based on the characteristics of left-behind adolescent is required to be implemented. |
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