Blue Book Report | "2022 Survey Report

The Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Social Sciences Literature Publishing House jointly released the third blue book on mental health in China. In the book, there is a special report on the "Investigation Report on the Mental Health of Adolescents in 2022" . The mental health status of Chinese adolescents and its influencing factors in different aspects, and based on the survey results, relevant countermeasures and suggestions for further promoting the mental health of Chinese adolescents are put forward .

Adolescence is an important stage of rapid physical and mental development and faces multiple growth issues. Adolescents are a group of people with frequent mental health problems on a global scale. The mental health problems of adolescents will not only cause personal pain and family burden, but also have potential negative impact on social development. There is an urgent need to conduct investigations to find problems and carry out targeted mental health services.

"China Children's Development Outline (2021-2030)" and "Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Issuing the "14th Five-Year Plan" National Health Plan" emphasize the need to improve the mental health of children and adolescents. Since 2020, departments at all levels have successively introduced targeted measures and policies such as "double reduction". At the same time, with the development of normalized prevention and control of the epidemic, within a period of time in 2022, primary and secondary schools in most parts of the country will resume normal study and life. In this context, from March to June 2022, the National Mental Health Evaluation and Development Center of the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted a survey of more than 30,000 primary and middle school students aged 10-16 in 29 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) in my country.

1. The detection rate of adolescent depression risk has decreased compared with 2020

Depression is the most common mental health problem among adolescents. It is an important risk factor for suicide, and it can also negatively affect adolescents' cognitive, social, and academic development. According to the report, about 14.8% of adolescents have different degrees of depression risk , of which 4.0% belong to the severe depression risk group, and 10.8% belong to the mild depression risk group. Compared with the depression risk detection rate in 2020 (19.0 %) has decreased .

Detection rate of adolescent depression risk in 2020 and 2022

2. The mental health level of adolescents with western or rural household registration is generally lower

As the remote environmental factors of mental health, region and place of household registration also show some small effects in the report. After controlling the socioeconomic status of the family (father and mother's education level and family economic status), there are still significant differences in the mental health scores of adolescents in different regions and different places of household registration. From a regional perspective, the scores of depression, loneliness, and mobile phone addiction among adolescents in the western region were slightly higher than those in the eastern and central regions. Regarding the location of household registration, the scores of depression, loneliness, and mobile phone addiction of adolescents with rural household registration are slightly higher than those of urban household registration. However, the effects of these differences were small.

3. Family factors are closely related to adolescent mental health

The most important thing in youth mental health work is to prevent problems before they happen, and we must pay attention to the impact of some important risk factors on the mental health of primary and middle school students . The report pointed out that adolescents who live in school, or whose parents go out to work, lack parental care and companionship, have more problems of depression, loneliness, and mobile phone addiction. Teenagers with tense family relationships and discordant parents are at higher risk for mental health.

Loneliness is an important indicator of mental health, and it is a negative emotional experience that occurs when an individual's social relationship is not satisfied. Overall, about 40% of teens sometimes or often feel unfriended, left out, or isolated from others.

Proportion of loneliness among adolescents

4. Adequate exercise and sleep can help improve the mental health of adolescents

Sleep and exercise are closely related to brain development and mental health. The report shows that compared with 2020, the sleep insufficiency of teenagers has improved, but the sleep duration of teenagers who have reached the sleep time for students advocated by the Ministry of Education is still a minority, and the sleep status of teenagers still needs to be improved. In addition, more adequate sleep and exercise can help reduce adolescent depression, loneliness, and mobile phone addiction, and it is also necessary to pay attention to the interaction between adolescent sleep, exercise, and mental health.

5. Some teenagers may become psychologically dependent on mobile phones

In today's society, mobile phones have become a necessity, and the popularity of the Internet has also made mobile phones an important tool for young people to obtain information, socialize, learn, and entertain. Excessive dependence on mobile phones or mobile phone addiction will have many negative effects on the growth and development of young people . In the report, 33.4% of teenagers agreed to varying degrees with "I can't stand not having a mobile phone", which indicates that these teenagers may have developed a psychological dependence on mobile phones. At the same time, teenagers will spend more time on mobile phones, and more than 1/3 of teenagers may have affected their learning and tasks in reality due to the use of mobile phones.

According to the survey results, the report puts forward five suggestions for promoting the mental health of adolescents:

(1) Further improve the youth mental health screening and detection mechanism.

(2) Focus on strengthening the mental health of young people in western and rural areas.

(3) Strengthen precise prevention and intervention for the mental health of high-risk groups.

(4) Further ensure that teenagers get enough sleep and exercise.

(5) Advocate the healthy use of mobile phones by young people and reduce the risk of mobile phone addiction.