Investigation on mental health of left-behind primary and secondary school students in northern remote rural of Hebei Province

Objective To investigate the mental health status of the left-behind primary and secondary school students in the northern remote rural of Hebei Provice and to clarify the problems and their related factors and to provide the basis for making effective intervention measures.Methods The questionnaire survey was made by using the self-made general situation questionnaire,MHT scales and stratified cluster sampling among 2 040 students aging 10-16 who were from five secondary schools and two primary schools in Weichang county in the northern remote rural of Hebei Province in which the left-behind students were over 50%.The effects of both parents being migrant workers on the left-behind students were analyzed.Results In the northern remote rural,the left-behind rate of the primary and secondary school students was 65.69%,the left-behind students were in poor mental health and the detection rate of their mental health problems was 34.50% while the detection rate of non-left-behind students was 14.50%.There was statistically significant difference between two groups(P0.05);the detection rate of mental health problems of the left-behind students whose parents were both migrant workers(38.23%) was higher than that of the students whose father or mother was a migrant worker(29.09%),the difference had statistical significance(P0.05).The result of multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that the migrant working of mother or both parents were dangerous factors of the mental health problems for the left-behind primary and secondary school students.Conclusion The left-behind students easily present mental health problems which indicates that the mental health problems of left-behind primary and secondary students deserves social attention.