Left Behind Children’s Mental Health And Its Influencing Factors: From The Perspective Of Family Care

The childhood stage is an important stage in the development of life,during which time children’s physiological and psychological states are rapidly involving.The development in this period sets the tone for the adult life.The stressful life events in family,society,school,interpersonal relationship,and other aspects become the stressors,which makes the individual suffer from the negative feelings of anxiety,depression and so on.Excessive negative events will have harmful effects on the psychological state of the left-behind children.This research explored the psychological health and the influential factors of the left-behind children from the perspective of family care with the Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Check List,Mental Health Inventory of Middle School Students,Family APGAR Index and Self-Esteem Scale using a sample of 816 left-behind children.This research was divided into four parts:Research one: The investigation of the psychological health state of left-behind children.It adopted the measurement Mental Health Inventory of Middle School Students made by Wang Jisheng and performed psychological assessment of 816 left-behind children in 3provinces and municipalities including Zhejiang,Chongqing and Hubei.This research found that(1)the psychological health state of left-behind children was in relatively low level.The scores on factors of compulsion,paranoid,hostility,interpersonal sensitivity,depression,anxiety,learning pressure,unstable emotion and so on were significantly higher than the national norm;the score on psychological unbalance of left-behind children was significantly lower than the national norm;(2)significant differences were observed in the total scores of the psychological health of left-behind children on five demographic parameters,namely,grade,the starting age of being left behind,monthly parent-child communication times,family economic status,and score differences.Research two: The individual case interviews on the psychological health problem and influential factors of left-behind children.The research subjects were twelve left-behind children from rural junior high schools and primary schools in Zhejiang,and the interviews regarding their psychological health was conducted from the perspective of family care to verify the current psychological health state and conclude on the influential factors.The individual case interviews discovered that(1)the "psychology and behavior mode" of left-behind children showed significant differences among individuals;(2)they had strong helplessness and weak family support in the face of emergency;(3)their psychological health was driven by multi-dimensional influential factors,including inner factors like self-esteem and the external factors like parent-child communication.Research three: The correlation between negative life events of left-behind children and their psychological health: the effect of parent-child communication.This research inspected the relationship among negative life events,psychological health,and communicating with parents of left-behind children.The research found that(1)significant correlation existed among the life events,annual home visits of parents,monthly parent-child communication,and psychological health of left-behind children;and(2)the monthly parent-child communication times had a major mitigating effect on the influence of life events on left-behind children’s psychological health.Research four: The correlation between negative life events of left-behind children and their psychological health: the effect of family care index and self-esteem.This research found that(1)strong correlation existed among the stressful life events,self-esteem,family care,and psychological health;and(2)the self-esteem and family care index provided chain mediation effect on the influence of stressful life events on the psychological health of left-behind children.This research uses the methods of interview and questionnaire to explore the mental health status of left behind children from the perspective of family care,and constructs the model of influencing factors of left behind children’s mental health,so as to provide academic basis for exploring left behind children’s mental health.