Helping Parents Combat Middle School Blues

“Middle school blues”—a situation in which parental mental health declines to its lowest point during their children’s middle school years—is widespread yet often overlooked. Deteriorating parental mental health disrupts effective parenting and negatively impacts children’s outcomes. However, there is limited research on how to improve parental mental health. We fill this gap using data from a unique cluster randomized controlled trial conducted in Chinese middle schools. In this trial, parents in the treatment classes were offered a four-month parental involvement program on empathy and positive parenting. We find that the program led to a 0.17 standard deviation increase in parental mental health for treated parents, as measured by the GHQ-12 score. The effect size indicates that the program is significantly effective in helping parents combat middle school blues. We attribute the program’s impact on parental mental health to improvements in parenting skills, increased time investments, better children’s mental health, and the development of positive personality traits. Notably, at a cost of only $30 per class, our results indicate that this program is highly cost-effective.