Comparative Study On Mental Health Between Obesity And Normal Weight Students In Junior And Senior High School

With the rapid development of the social economy and the changes of the life-style,the obesity rate in the adolescents was becoming higher and higher, which formed a new serious problem recently.The mental health was important to the adolescent health,and obesity,as one of the vital influencing factors,went against the development of the intelligence,the forming of good character quality and favorable interpersonal relationship.More and more reports demonstrated that the obesity adolescents were easier to be lonely,angry, nervous and sensitive in self-esteem,some students even became short of initiative associating with others,more boredom,timid or suspicious,and then initiated a series of mental diseases.Therefore,to do the comparative study on the mental health between obesity and normal weight students in the middle school is meaningful for finding the social and psychological determinants of adolescent obesity,controlling and preventing the obesity and some related diseases.On the basis of much literature review,this article elaborated in detail the concept of obesity,the classification,the diagnosis standard,the concept of adolescent obesity and its determinants,the concept of adolescent mental health and its determinants,and the relationship between obesity and mental health.The study sampled parts of 13～16 year-old students from 4 middle schools in Tongliao city to carry on the physical examination,then the obesity and the normal weight students were grouped.Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and Symptom Checklist 90(SCL-90) were used to do the test on the two groups.In the EPQ tests,the obesity students' scores of E scale(introversion and extroversion) and the L scale(conceals nature) were higher than the normal weight students,which explained that the obese students had higher concealment. The male obese students' scores of E scale(introversion and extroversion) were higher than the normal weight students,which explained that the boys were crude,bold,unconstrained and careless of the appearance.The female obese students' scores of E scale(introversion and extroversion) and the L scale (conceals nature) were higher than the normal weight students,which explained that the female students cared much about the appearance,have more pressure on obesity.The low age group was different from the high age group in the character too,which was influenced by the obesity.In the SCL-90 tests,the obesity students were different from the normal weight students in somatization, interpersonal sensitivity,depression and anxiety.There were also significant differences in these indexes in different groups of genders and ages.The conclusions followed as:1) the sample's obesity rate was 15.72%;2) the obesity students were much extrovert and more concealing than the normal weight students;3) the obesity students were different from the normal weight students in somatization,interpersonal sensitivity,depression,anxiety and phobia. The social psychological factors leading to the obesity were also studied,such as: 1) imperfect of the personality;2) the family;3) the teachers;4) the defects of the school education;5) social factors.At the same time,some prevention and treatment measures for obesity were presented:1) to act and prevent as early as possible;2) to strengthen the physical training;3) to form a good dietary habit;4) to watch TV and use computer regularly.Finally,some suggestions were presented,such as:1) to strengthen the mental health education in school;2) to make the students form good character quality and perfect personality;3) to guide the mental health behavior;4) to create a well school environment;5) to create a well family environment.