The Experience Of Left-behind And The Mental Health Of College Students

Since the reform and opening up in the last century,with the rapid development of China’s overall economic level,the process of national industrialization and urbanization has been accelerating.Under the regulation of market economy,a large number of rural labor force has entered the major cities,making important contributions to the modernization of the city.Because of this,some children are forced to separate from their parents and stay in the family,becoming the left behind children.According to the time line,the left behind children born at the end of last century are now adults,and with the expansion of college enrollment in recent years,a considerable number of them with relatively good results have grown into college students.Based on the survey data of Panel Study of Chinese University Students(PSCUS)of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2019,and this paper focuses on the influence of College Students’ left behind experience on their mental health.This paper explores the influence of gender,registered residence and family conditions on left behind experience and mental health status of college students through contingency analysis and OLS regression analysis.It clarifies the different influence and heterogeneity of various left behind stages on college students.Finally,it establishes intermediary model to explain the mechanism of interpersonal interaction on mental health of college students.The study finds that the left behind experience of college students is heterogeneous,and the reasons of their mental health problems are manifold,including gender,registered residence and other demographic factors,family environment factors,left behind experience factors,social interaction factors and so on.First,College students’ left-behind experience is different at the individual level.in terms of gender,men’s psychological endurance is relatively higher than women’s.At the same time,increasing age relieves depression,the older the college students are,the lower their depression level is.With the growth of age,the individual experience is gradually enriched,and the mind is gradually mature,the influence of past experience is also gradually weakened,and their psychological endurance is also gradually improved.Compared to students who registered residence in rural areas,the depression level of urban registered residence students is lower.Moreover,the depression level of one-child families is higher than that of non-one-child families.Second,the left behind experience is an important factor that causes the difference of College Students’ mental health.Third,it is worth noting that the influence of left behind experience on College Students’ mental health has obvious heterogeneity.With the change of the left behind stage,the mental health level of college students shows a trend of first decreasing and then increasing.The students who start to stay at home in preschool stage are more likely to have poor mental health level,followed by those who start to stay at home in primary school stage and those who start to stay at home in junior high school stage.However,when they start to stay at home in senior high school stage,the possibility of poor mental health level increases.Fourth,social interaction and family environment are the important mediating factors leading to the mental health problems of college students who have left behind experience.Therefore,maintaining harmonious interpersonal communication and happy family atmosphere are key means for college students who have left behind experience to maintain mental health.