Abstract
BackgroundTo investigate the prevalence of depressive symptoms among left-behind children (LBC) in junior and senior secondary schools and examine the significant predictors of depressive symptoms, which might provide practical intervention measures for the schools.MethodsBy using stratified random sampling, 1076 (LBC) in junior and senior secondary schools were investigated in the study. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the depression self-rating scale (SDS). SDS raw scores 40 or higher were categorised as depressive symptoms.ResultsThe total prevalence of depressive symptoms was 54.74% for LBC in junior and senior secondary schools, with 73.08% for grade 12 students. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that grades, family income, parental relationship, parent-child relationship and teacher-student relationship were significantly associated with depressive symptoms.ConclusionsDepressive symptoms are acommon health problem among LBC in junior and senior secondary schools, and LBC in grade 12 may be at high risk of depressive symptoms. The parents, teachers and schools should pay more attention to LBC, particularly those in grade 12, and provide prevention and early intervention programs such as individual counsel service to prevent depressive symptoms.
Highlights
To investigate the prevalence of depressive symptoms among left-behind children (LBC) in junior and senior secondary schools and examine the significant predictors of depressive symptoms, which might provide practical intervention measures for the schools
The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis The results of the multivariate logistic regression analysis (Table 3) showed that grades, family income, parental relationship, parent-child relationship and teacher-student relationship were significantly associated with depressive symptoms
Depressive symptoms are a common health problem among LBC in the study, and LBC in grade 12 may be at high risk of depressive symptoms
Summary
To investigate the prevalence of depressive symptoms among left-behind children (LBC) in junior and senior secondary schools and examine the significant predictors of depressive symptoms, which might provide practical intervention measures for the schools. With the rapid increase in the number of labour migrants, the number of children who have been left at their original residence and separated from their parents is rising fast to about 23–30 million in rural China [1]. Such migration possibly affects the psychological status of the migrant family members [2], especially the children who are left behind. Knowing the prevalence and associated factors of depressive symptoms can encourage education departments to pay more attention to the mental health status among LBC and provide mental health services to them
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