Relationship between the prevalence of negative life events and depressive and anxiety symptoms and dissatisfaction of school life among middle school students in Shaoxing city, Zhejiang province

Objective To understand the prevalence of negative life events and its association with depressive, anxiety symptoms and dissatisfaction of school life among middle school students in Shaoxing, and to provide scientific evidence for further interventions. Methods A total number of 3 197 students (including 1 134 urban and 2 063 town adolescents) were recruited from 2 middle schools in Shaoxing, their average age was (13.73±1.03) years. The Multidimensional Life Events Rating Questionnaire for Middle School Students (MLERQ), Depression Self-rating Scale for Children (DSRSC) and Screening for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) were used to assess the mental health status, while the school life satisfaction was evaluated by the School Life Satisfaction Rating Questionnaire for Adolescents (SLSRQA), and the data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression models. Results The prevalence of the negative life events was 84.9%, unsatisfactory examination performance (48.6%), unreached the teacher's expectation (46.2%), parental chatter (41.4%), unbalanced learning (37.9%), and getting parents scold (27.6%) constituted the main negative life events. The prevalence of depressive symptom, anxiety symptom, and dissatisfaction of school life were significantly higher among middle school students living with negative life events (41.1%, 22.6%, 26.0%) than those without negative life events (20.9%, 3.5%, 16.5%), (χ2=71.33, 94.78, 19.83,P<0.001). The prevalence of the psychosomatic health involvement significantly increased with the increase of the number of the dimensions and events (P< 0.001). The multivariate logistic regression showed that negative life events were the risk factors of depression, anxiety and dissatisfaction of school life. Their OR values were 2.483 (1.951- 3.160), 7.245 (4.411- 11.899) and 1.733 (1.325- 2.267), respectively. The risk of occurring mental symptoms among children with the number of dimensions≥4 and/or the number of events≥12 was two times higher than those of children without such increase in numbers of dimensions and events. Conclusion The status of negative life events is serious among middle school students in Shaoxing. There are statistical associations between negative life events and mental symptoms. Key words: Life change events; Questionnaires; Statistic; Psychometrics; Students