Research On The Mental Health Of Contemporary College Students From The Perspective Of Horizontal Stratification In Higher Education

Nowadays,the mental health of college students is not optimistic,and there are data showing that it is deteriorating year by year.In recent years,there have often been many reported negative psychological and vicious incidents about college students,superimposed on the sudden impact of the COVID-19 epidemic,so the mental health of college students have increasingly attracted social attention.In addition,in the past few decades,higher education has expanded globally,new higher education institutions have emerged,the scale of college students has continued to expand,and the internal differentiation of college students has become increasingly prominent.Campus is an important place for individual socialization,which has an important impact on individual development.In particular,campus,as the entity on which higher education relies,will also give new characteristics to individual growth and development under the changes of expansion.The theory of horizontal stratification in higher education is one of the important theories to explore the influence of internal differences in higher education on the development of educated people.The theory of horizontal stratification in higher education believes that with the expansion of higher education,higher education has a considerable internal differentiation.Under the traditional sociological concept of "capital-return",different types,qualities and fields of higher education will affect many college students’ inequality,which in turn affects the development of students.Inequality in health is currently an important topic of academia.Due to college students as the backbone of future construction,their mental health is not only a key part of personal health,but also related to the development of the country and society.It is of great significance to pay attention to the development of college students’ mental health,and to explore the possible impact and mechanism of horizontal stratification in higher education on college students’ mental health under the expansion of higher education.Therefore,this study chooses the data of Panel Study of Chinese University Students(PSCUS)in 2020,uses descriptive statistics(contingency analysis),regression analysis(Ologit regression,OLS regression)and other methods,based on the theoretical perspective of horizontal stratification in higher education,to explore in the context of higher education expansion,the impact of higher education stratification(college location,college ranking and college major)on the mental health of college students and the role of perceived campus climate(college environment satisfaction and campus interpersonal support)in it.This study first explores whether there are differences in college students’ mental health under the horizontal stratification of higher education,and further explores whether campus climate plays a mediating role on these differences.This study has the following five findings.Firstly,the mental health of college students is generally good,but there are still some students whose mental health is bad and worthy of attention.Secondly,there are internal differences in the mental health of college students under horizontal stratification in higher education.The lower the level of the city in which the college is located,the less the psychological distress of college students;the psychological distress of college students presents a "High at both ends,low in the middle" distribution similar to "V"-shaped in terms of the college ranking,and the psychological distress of ordinary college students is the lowest;the psychological distress of students majoring in humanities and social sciences is significantly higher than that of students majoring in STEM.Thirdly,horizontal stratification in higher education will significantly affect students’perception of campus climate.The college location and the perceived campus climate are in a"Low at both ends,high in the middle" pattern which looks like an inverted "V" shape;the college ranking is positively correlated with the perceived campus climate;the perceived campus climate is better for college majors that are related to STEM.Fourthly,the perceived campus climate plays a full or partial mediating role among college location,college majors and the mental health of college students.The perceived campus climate shows the differences in college environment satisfaction and interpersonal support of college students in different regions and different majors,and the differences in perceived campus climate also affect the mental health of college students.Fifthly,it is worth noting that the two types of perceived campus climate variables,college environmental satisfaction and campus interpersonal support,do not show a mediating effect,but a masking effect,between college ranking and college students’ mental health.Overall,the perceived campus climate will significantly expand the differences in the mental health of students in key universities and other students who are in ordinary colleges and vocational colleges.In short,this study confirms that horizontal stratification in higher education affects the mental health inequality of college students through the intermediate mechanism of campus climate.