Chinese students' concept of mental health

This study explored Chinese students' concept of mental health through a qu estionnaire completed by 999 students from six primary schools, six high sc hools, and three universities in Shanghai. The results confirmed the expect ation that Chinese students' mental health concept would be multifaceted an d would reflect psychological, physical, and sociocultural factors. An expl oratory factor analysis on 12 mental health items with a subsample extracte d a three-factor model, which was cross-validated by confirmatory factor an alysis with a different subsample. These three factors were labeled as Affe ctive Strength. Adaptive Strength, and personal Strength. No gender differe nces were found The grade differences supported the notion that Chinese stu dents' concept of mental health seems to be more consistent with the develo pmental paradigm of health. The senior years in primary school could be the turning point at which children start to conceptualize health asa holistic experience by recognizing the importance of mental health.