A mixed method study to examine the mental health problems of college students who had left-behind experiences.

Liu, Haixia, Zhou, Zhongliang, Fan, Xiaojing, Luo, Huanyuan, Wang, Duolao ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2788-2464, Wang, Jiu, Shen, Chi and Nawaz, Rashed (2021) 'A mixed method study to examine the mental health problems of college students who had left-behind experiences.'. Journal of Affective Disorders, Vol 292, pp. 149-160.

Preview

Text JAD_13304_session_report - DWang.pdf - Accepted Version Download (425kB) | Preview

Abstract

BACKGROUND
China's rapid urbanization has created a large number of labour transferring from rural to urban areas and large numbers of college students with left-behind experience (LBE). LBE was an important influencing factor on college students' mental health.

METHODS
A mixed method involving quantitative survey and qualitative interview was emplyed to explore the influence of LBE on mental health of college students. In the quantitative survey, 1605 college students from three different universities of Shandong province in China were recruited. Their mental health status was measured using Symptom Check-list 90(SCL-90 scale) compiled by American psychologist Derogatis. In the qualitative interview, 40 college students with left-behind experience from the same three universities were interviewed.

RESULTS
The prevalence estimate of total mental health problems among left-behind students was 2.14 times higher than that among those without left-behindexperience. LBE increased the problems of somatization, obsessive-compulsion (Ocd), international sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, terror, paranoia, psychoticism and other symptoms. The result of qualitative interview showed the mental health problems of the college students with left-behind experience were mainly on anxiety, depression, Ocd, interpersonal sensitive and hostility, which was consistent with the results of quantitative survey.

LIMITATION
Representativeness of the sample is the major limitation of our study. Due to rare similar studies performed in other countries, we could not compare the results in China to that in other countries.

CONCLUSION
Left-behind experience was an important factor associated with the mental health of college students. The mental health of college students with LBE needs more attention.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	WA Public Health > WA 100 General works WA Public Health > Health Problems of Special Population Groups > WA 305 Mental health of special population groups WM Psychiatry > WM 140 Mental disorders (General) WM Psychiatry > WM 20 Research (General)
Faculty: Department:	Clinical Sciences & International Health > Clinical Sciences Department
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.04.087
Depositing User:	Julie Franco
Date Deposited:	06 Jul 2021 10:39
Last Modified:	21 May 2022 01:02
URI:	https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/18153

Statistics

View details

Actions (login required)

Edit Item