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Depressive symptoms and associated factors among left-behind children in China: a cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: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. METHODS:By 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. RESULTS:The 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. CONCLUSIONS:Depressive 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.

SUBMITTER: Tan M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6108138 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Depressive symptoms and associated factors among left-behind children in China: a cross-sectional study.

Tan Meijuan M Chen Mengshi M Li Jing J He Xinyun X Jiang Zhiyong Z Tan Hongzhuan H Huang Xin X

BMC public health 20180823 1

<h4>Background</h4>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.<h4>Methods</h4>By 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 sc ...[more]

PMID: 30139363

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Project description:BackgroundThe situation of mental health and discipline behaviors of left-behind children's caregivers were not optimistic in rural China. Caregivers' depression might increase the risk of using violent discipline. However, the specific ways in which depressive symptoms impact violent discipline have rarely been explored in rural areas. This study aims to assess the prevalence of violent discipline among left-behind children under 6 years of age in rural China and explore the potential mechanisms of how caregivers' depressive symptoms affect violent discipline.MethodsWe enrolled a total of 396 pairs of left-behind children and their caregivers in our study, which was conducted in 5 counties of Hebei, Henan, Jiangxi, Guizhou, and Sichuan provinces in China. The depressive symptoms of caregivers were measured by using Zung Self-rating Depression Scale (ZSDS) and violent discipline was assessed by the Child Discipline Module of Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). A self-designed questionnaire was utilized to measure caregiver's parenting attitude. Based on the cross-sectional data, controlling for potential confounders, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess the direct and indirect effects of the mediation models by applying the weighted least squares with mean and variance adjusted (WLSMV) estimate.ResultsThe prevalence of violent discipline, psychological aggression, and physical punishment was 72.7%, 59.3%, and 60.4% respectively of left-behind children under 6 years of age. According to the results of SEM, parenting attitude acted as a suppressor, suppressing the association between caregivers' depressive symptoms and physical punishment/psychological aggression/violent discipline. The caregivers' depressive symptoms positively influenced all the outcome variables by affecting parenting attitudes (p = 0.002, p = 0.013, p = 0.002).ConclusionsThe presence of depressive symptoms in caregivers increases the use of violent discipline through negative parenting attitudes. The mental health status of primary caregivers of left-behind children in rural China needed emphasis and improvement.

Project description:BackgroundWith rapid development of China's economy, there were over 68.7 million left-behind children (LBC) in China whose mental health has become a problem of public concern. The present cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the status of mental health and its associated factors of LBC aged 3-16?years old in both rural and urban areas.MethodsA total of 4187 children (aged 3-16), including 1471 LBC and 2716 non-left-behind children (NLBC), were recruited from 50 communities (22 in urban areas and 28 in rural areas) in Guangdong, China in August, 2014. The mental health problems were assessed using the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).ResultsNo statistically significant difference of SDQ subscales scores about difficulties were found between LBC and NLBC on the whole participants as well as in rural areas or in urban areas within the same age group after adjustments were made (all p?>?0.05). However, compared with NLBC in the same areas, urban LBC tended to have higher prosocial behaviours scores, while rural LBC had the lowest prosocial behaviours scores not only in the whole age group but also in different age subgroups (p?<?0.05). Besides, compared with urban LBC, rural LBC were not worse in SDQ subscales scores except for prosocial behaviour at 7-9 age group (p?=?0.003). Furthermore, higher paternal educational level and longer duration of parental absence, were associated with less difficulties in both rural and urban LBC. Besides, shorter duration of talk per-time but higher communication frequency were associated with less difficulties in rural LBC.ConclusionsThe present study demonstrated that in general, no difference of mental health problems were found between LBC and NLBC. Besides, longer duration of parental absence, shorter duration of talk per time but more communication frequency, and higher paternal educational level tend to have better development of mental health. The findings reinforce the importance of the stability of caregivers and the effective parent-child communication for Chinese rural LBC.

Dataset Information

Depressive symptoms and associated factors among left-behind children in China: a cross-sectional study.

Publications

Depressive symptoms and associated factors among left-behind children in China: a cross-sectional study.

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