Meta-analysis on the psychological outcomes in China

Abstract

Background “Left-behind children”, defined as the children aged below 18 years old, were taken care of their relatives or other guardians, due to one or both of their parents went for work, have become more and more common after the thirty years reforming and opening up in China. Therefore, government, media and the public pay more attention on this social issue. The objective of this study was to analyze the mental health and psychological outcomes about left-behind children from the view of public health aspect and identify effective intervention to improve the mental condition and psychological healthy of left-behind children according to the results of this meta-analysis.

Method Relevant studies were identified in electronic databases, such as PUBMED, CNKI, WanFang Data, Science Direct and Web of science. Keywords included “Left-behind children”, “China”, “Depression”, “Mental health”, “Mental disorders”, “Mental problems”, “Anxiety”, “Social anxiety” which can locate the researches to the appropriate studies which are related to the mental health of left-behind children. The selected literatures were evaluated and the evidence was synthesized in a series of meta-analyses.

Result I identified 26 literatures to analyze three aspects of left-behind children’s mental health. From the statistics analysis, I found that the risk of depression among left-behind children was higher than non left-behind children. However, it had shown that there was no difference from the aspects of the degree of social anxiety and depressive propensity between left-behind children and non left-behind children.

Conclusion This meta-analysis shows a significant effect of the left-behind children have a higher risk of having depression compared to non left-behind children. It will be an instructive way for the relative organizations to take intervention to the left-behind children in order to improve their mental health.