THE STATUS OF NATIVE FAMILY, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON ADOLESCENTS’ MENTAL HEALTH IN SOUTH CHINA: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Shengqing Zhou, Jiaying Wang, Jialing Deng, Shujie Yang, Haobo Ma, Zhiheng Zhou*

ABSTRACT

Adolescence psychological problems affects their growing and learning, even will cause serious impact on the development of the society. Native family is the place where adolescents usually live and study in, which might have important influence on adolescents mental health. Therefore, 4415 adolescents in South China were investigated by using questionnaire survey, to explore the status of their native family and mental level, and the influence of native family on adolescent mental health. This study found that among the adolescents surveyed, there were 1881(38.1%) of adolescents considered their family atmosphere is harmonious; 876(19.8%)adolescents considered their parents cared too much about them, 886(20.1%) adolescents thinked their parents didn’t care enough about them; only 2291(51.89%) adolescents had good family function; Mental health: Found by the GHQ scale, there were 2052(46.5%) adolescents had psychological disorders, 2842(64.4%) adolescents had previous suicidal ideation or behavior due to mental or psychological problems. Multi-factor analysis found that age, family residence, family type, parenting style, parenting status, family economic status, academic performance, and family function status were the main influencing factors of adolescent mental health. This confirms our hypothesis: Adolescents’ mental health level of South China is low, and a good native family is essential for adolescent mental health.

Keywords: Native family, adolescent, mental health?influencing factor.