BACKGROUND: The middle-school stage is the key period of personality figuring and taking shape.The mentation in this period is filled with a lot of special psychological contradictions and conflicts. Long-term psychological worry will affect the formation of perfect personality.OBJECTIVE: To understand the psychological health status in the middle-school students of Zhuang nationality and the main factors of influence.DESIGN: Randomized cluster sampling and questionnaire investigation based on middle-school students.SETTING: Department of Preventive Medicine, Youjiang Medical College of Nationalities.PARTICIPANTS: 2 000 middle-school students of 34 classes from 3 middle schools in Baise City and Longlin County were selected to attend the investigation with randomized cluster sampling method in November 2003.METHODS: The psychological health statuses of middle-school students were evaluated with symptom checklist (SCL).The list contained 90 items,including 9 factors of psychological symptom such as somatization,compulsion,sensitivity to human relations,anxiety,depression,hostility,dread,paranoia and psychosis.The grading system from 1 to 5 grades was used and the standard of the adult norm of the whole country was refered to:Factor score＜1.8 was normal;Factor score from 1.8 to 2.0 was mild abnormality;Factor score from 2.1 to 3.0 was moderate abnormality;Factor score＞3.0 was severe abnormality. Instructive words were unified.The investigative method and behavior were normalized.The questionnaires were filled in without recording the names and taken back from the spot and then compared with the norm of the whole country.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The evaluated result of psychological health in middle-school students.RESULTS: 2 000 questionnaires were provided and 1 855 were valid after return with the effective rate 92.75%. ①The average scores of each factor of SCL were all higher in the middle-school students of Zhuang nationality than in the norm of the whole country. The significance of difference existed(P=0.000).②The scores of somatization,depression,anxiety,dread and psychosis were all higher in the schoolgirls than in the schoolboys.The significance of difference existed (P=0.000).③Except hostility factor,the scores of other factors were higher in the senior middle-school students than in the junior middle-school students.The difference was statistically significant(P=0.000).④The arranged sequences(from bigness to smallness) of each factor that affected psychological health of middle-school students of Zhuang nationality in Baise were depression,somatization,compulsion,anxiety,sensitivity to human relations,psychosis,paranoia,hostility and dread.The sensitivity to human relations ranked 4th and the anxiety ranked 6th in the schoolboys,but the orders of the 2 factors were just the opposite in the schoolgirls and the orders of other factors were the same in both the schoolboys and the schoolgirls.The first 3 factors all were:depression,somatization, compulsion.CONCLUNSION: The psychological health status was lower in the middle-school students of Zhuang nationality than in the norm of the whole country and the first 3 factors that affected their psychological health were:depression,somatization and compulsion. The levels of psychological health on somatization,depression,anxiety,dread and psychosis were lower in the schoolgirls than in the schoolboys. The psychological problems were more serious in the senior middle-school students than in the junior middleschool students. The levels of psychological health in middle-school students of Zhuang nationality were relatively lower and the psychological education and intervention study should be provided aiming at psychological characteristics of different population.