Relationship between parental rearing styles, self-directed learning ability and depressive symptoms among high school students during the COVID-19 outbreak / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#Explored the characteristics of parental rearing styles, and its association with depressive symptoms and the self-directed learning ability among high school students during COVID-19 epidemic, while providing a basis for family intervention in the area of adolescent mental health and students learning abilities.@*Methods@#A total of 2 893 high school students from the southern, central, and northern regions of Anhui Province were selected using a stratified-cluster sampling method in Feb. 2020. The online questionnaire survey regarding depressive symptoms, self-directed learning abilities, and rearing styles was administered using the smartphone application Questionnaire Star.@*Results@#The prevalence rate of depressive symptoms was 38.9% among high school students during the COVID-19 outbreak. The parental rearing styles of high school students who reported depressive symptoms were characterized as followsthe scores of the parental emotional warmth factor, while relatively high scores of other factors, except the preferred factor. In addition, all of the factors showed statistically significant differences(P<0.01). The parental rearing styles of high school students with a weak self-directed learning ability were characterized as low scores in parental emotional warmth, parents prefer, and paternal over-protection(P<0.05). Ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed that the negative correlation between depressive symptoms, low self-learning ability and parents emotional warmth(father OR=0.95, mother OR=0.95) and father over involvement(OR=0.95), the positive correlation between depressive symptoms, low self-learning ability and father rejection(OR=1.07) and over protection(OR=1.06).@*Conclusion@#Depressive symptoms and the self-directed learning ability of high school students might be associated with paternal rearing styles, particularly in the case of emotional warmth.