Mental health status and internet-surfing behavior among rural adolescents
10.3969/j.issn.1000-6729.2018.02.011
- VernacularTitle:农村青少年的心理健康与网络行为
- Author:
Yang LIU
1
;
Chenhui DENG
;
Yuanyi JI
;
Yu ZHANG
;
Qiaolan LIU
Author Information
1. 四川大学华西公共卫生学院
- Keywords:
rural adolescents;
mental health;
internet-surfing behavior;
structural equation model
- From:
Chinese Mental Health Journal
2018;32(2):148-154
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective:To investigate the prevalence and influencing factors of mental health status and internet-surfing behavior among rural adolescents in Sichuan province,and explore the mutual effects between mental health status and internet-surfing behavior.Methods:Totally 2745 junior and senior high school students of grade seven and grade ten from two rural schools were selected.Mental health status,self-esteem and social support of students were assessed with Mental Health Inventory of Middle-school students (MMHI),Rosenberg self-esteem scale (SES) and social support rating scale (SSRS) respectively.Demographic characteristics,internet-surfing behavior were obtained using cross-sectional survey.Non-recursive structural equation model was applied to analyze the effects of other variables on mental health status and internet-surfing behavior and the mutual effects between them.Results:The mean score of MMHIwas (2.1 ±0.7),and the dimensions including academic stress (2.4 ±0.9),emotional instability (2.4 ±0.8) and anxiety (2.4 ± 1.0) got the top three.The total prevalence of long-time internet-surfing was 32.8% (899/2745).The structural equation model showed that female and increasing age had positive effects on score of MMHI (β =0.058,0.058,P < 0.001),and male and increasing age positively influenced internet-surfing behavior (β =-0.171,0.149,P < 0.001).The scores of SES and S SRS were directly negatively related to the score of MMHI (β =-0.300,-0.263,P < 0.001),and indirectly negatively affect internetsurfing behavior through the mediating effect of mental health (βi =-0.074,-0.065,P < 0.010).The score of MMHI had positively effects on long-time internet-surfing behavior (β =0.246,P < 0.001),and long-time internetsurfing behavior had positively effects on the score of MMHI in reverse (β =0.008,P < 0.001),but much weaker.Conclusion:There are mild mental health problem among rural adolescents,and internet-surfing behaviors are prevalent among this population.Poor mental health and long-time internet-surfing behavior are risk factors mutually.