Anxiety state and its related factors in Shanghai high school students / 中华预防医学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the anxiety state in high school students and related factors in order to get reasonable suggestions for prevention.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The mental health test (MHT) for high school students, and the living environmental and parental style were used in this study.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>MHT served as an assessment scale of anxiety. The efficiency sample was 3,050, aged 11 to 18 years old. The level of total anxiety and its each contents was low to moderate (0.24 to 0.54). The percentage of moderate to high of total anxiety was 16.7%, the percentage of moderate to high of each anxiety aspects were 8.8%-21.8%. The mostly high aspects were self-blame, schooling anxiety, social anxiety and over sensitiveness. In general, the girls' anxiety level was higher than boys', but the boys' lonely feeling was higher than the girls'. The total score of anxiety was decreased with age. Except of the over sensitiveness, the decrease tendency of each anxiety contents was significant in boys. For girls, the lonely feeling was deceased and the over sensitiveness increased with age. The age of fifteen seems as a significant changing age. The related disadvantage factors of students' anxiety were the low education level, the parents' anxiety and depression characters, the authoritarian or neglecting parental style, the often contradiction parental styles between mother and father, parents often quarrel, the experience of often being scalded and physical punishment, lacking in care of others when in difficulties.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The schooling pressure should be decreased to an appropriate level. The students' self-confidence and social ability should be emphasized. Good family environments and the support outside the family should be quite important for adolescents' mental health, these factors might decrease the adolescents' anxiety.</p>