OBJECTIVETo study the mental health problems in the adolescents aged 11-18 years in Chengdu, China.

METHODSYouth Self-Report (YSR) and the General Information Questionnaire were administered to 1802 students who were randomly selected from schools in Chengdu City.

RESULTSThe overall rate of mental problems was 15.1% in the adolescents, 15.2% in boys and 14.9% in girls if 90th percentile of total scores and/or 98th percentile of syndromes scores were assigned as the cutpoint of norms. The overall rate of mental problems was 27.2% in the adolescents, 27.6% in boys and 26.8% in girls if 75th percentile of total scores and/or 98th percentile of syndromes scores were assigned as the cutpoint of norms. The rates of mental problems were not significantly different between boys and girls (chi-squared = 0.042, P = 0.838; chi-squared = 0.126, P = 0.723). Mental problems tended to be increasing with age (P = 0.000). There were 29 items that the percentiles were higher than 50% but 5 items were under 10% in all the 101 items of YSR. 3.1% of the adolescents often had suicidal intention, and 6.1% of the adolescents often thought of becoming opposite sex identity.

CONCLUSIONThe rates of mental problems in adolescents aged 11-18 years in Chengdu, Chana were 27.2% or 15.1% respectively,if 75th or 90th percentile of the total scores were assigned as the cutpoint of total scores. The mental problems in the adolescents tended to be increasing along with age.