Abstract The growth and development of children is related to the future of the country and the nation. In recent years, there have been more and more cohort studies in the field of children s mental health. Bymainly introducing the advantages of cohort studies on children in distress and organizes domestic and foreign cohort studies in the field of mental health of children in distress, this article finds that it is mostly used in depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, suicidal ideation and attempts, etc, and mainly explores the risk and prevalence of mental health development in children in distress, and identifies long term negative damage. The research aims to promote the long term development and high quality development of such research by analyzing and summarizing the status quo and prospects of cohort research in the field of mental health of children in distress.