IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v175y2025ics0190740925002178.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Changes in Chinese primary school students’ mental health during 2001–2021: a cross-temporal meta-analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Li, He
  • Fan, Mengxu
  • Xu, Liu

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the changes in mental health among Chinese primary school students from 2001 to 2021. We conducted a cross-temporal meta-analysis including 93 studies (43,199 Chinese primary school students) to evaluate the relationship between the year of data collection and the total Mental Health Rate Scale for Pupil (MHRSP) scores and the scores of each factor. We found that their correlations were strong and negative (p < 0. 05). Over the past 21 years, the mental health of Chinese primary school students has generally been improving with time. Primary school students’ MHRSP total scores and factor scores decreased by 0.28–4.94 points, or 0.20–0.59 standard deviations. Male pupils mostly scored higher than female pupils on MHRSP total scores and factor scores. The factor scores and total scores were not significantly correlated with the years for urban pupils, and there was a significant negative correlation between behavioural disorders and the year for rural pupils. The mental health of students in grades 5–6 have been steadily improving over the years, while the upward trend is weaker in grades 1–2 and least pronounced in grades 3–4.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, He & Fan, Mengxu & Xu, Liu, 2025. "Changes in Chinese primary school students’ mental health during 2001–2021: a cross-temporal meta-analysis," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:175:y:2025:i:c:s0190740925002178
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2025.108334
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740925002178
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2025.108334?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:175:y:2025:i:c:s0190740925002178. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.