Research On Macao Secondary Students' Stress Level And Coping & The Relative Research Between Them

Secondary school students are going to play important roles in Macao society in the future.Good mental health is not only beneficial to the student's present personal needs,but it will also be advantageous to these students who will deal with a lot of challenges later on in life once they begin functioning in the society.Students' life and study are affected if their mental health is not at a standard level,or if they become depressed and psychologically unstable when faced with difficulties.With this in mind,the paper hopes to give insight and valuable recommendations on caring for the psychological well-being of Macao's teenagers.Objectives:To gain insight into the mental health of the students in middle schools in Macao and to investigate the factors that may affect their mental health,a set of questionnaires is developed.In addition,the research will also aim to analyze the students' present psychological problems.This will enable the researcher to make some suggestions or recommendations to promote good mental health,therby reducing negative psychological obstacles among the middle school students.Methodology:Questionnaires were given to 314 students studying in 20 different secondary schools in Macao.A simple questionnaire format was used. The questionnaire included a Symptoms Checklist 90(SCL-90),life event scale, coping style and collection of the general information of the student.Only 278 of the returned questionnaires were usable.The data were analyzed with SPSS15.0 software.Analyzed data were then subjected to t-test to assess significance,and Pearson's correlation coefficient to measure the degree of relationship between variables.Result:Descriptive statistics:The order of the factors and their corresponding average scores in the students' SCL-90 are:education(3.38±3.56),interpersonal(2.96±2.59),socio-cultural(2.64±3.38),school education(2.59±2.31),family environment(2.00±3.38).Tested by t-test, the average of the nine factors of the SCL-90 scores are higher than the Chinese norm.The students' total SCL-90 score of 169.9±71.12,compared with the norm,is significantly statistical.That is,secondary school students in Macao have significantly Which means they may have poor coping mechanism (P＜0.001).In addition,psychological symptoms,type of school(whether denominational or not),grade and gender show no significant difference; similarly,different religious affiliations,grade and gender and coping styles were not significant.Correlation analysis shows that total score of life events and symptoms score are positively correlated.The main relevant factor is the school of education,and the socio-cultural and interpersonal relationships, which indicate a significant correlation(P＜0.01).Symptom scores and problem-solving strategy,availability of help,retreat from peers are associated with(P＜0.05),which was significantly associated vent(P＜0.01).In dealing with problems,secondary school students tend to avoid addressing them.This can be seen in the way students respond to a non-positive attitude towards problem-solving,thus increasing the psychological pressure and thereby affecting their mental health. Conclusion:(1) Mental health problems among secondary school students can not be easily identified,but can not be ignored;coping styles and life events affect the mental health of secondary school students.(2) Troubled students demonstrate the major psychiatric symptoms: interpersonal sensitivity,depression,and retreat from social contacts of students facing difficulties.(3) Secondary school students' pressure at school is the main source of stress.(4) In order to enhance the level of the mental health of students,schools need to regularly reinforce the psychological quality of students by teaching them the skills to relieve the pressure.