A few days ago, the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Social Sciences Literature Press jointly released China's third blue book on mental health. The "2022 Survey Report on College Students' Mental Health" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") published in the book covers a survey of nearly 31,8 college students aged 15-26 in <> provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) including Shandong and Hebei.

The report shows that the problem of going to higher education is a risk factor affecting the mental health of college students. "In the past, as soon as the college entrance examination ended, students felt that they had passed the most difficult threshold of the 'Carp Leaping Dragon Gate'. Now that threshold is moving backwards, even at the college level, students will still feel obvious pressure about the future. Chen Zhiyan, a professor at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and one of the designers of the study, believes that the pressure of contemporary college students on future development is lagging behind.

The university stage is a critical period for students' personal growth and knowledge reserve, and mental health, as the basic element of all actions, is crucial to the study and life of college students.

College students have higher satisfaction with life and more anxiety about life planning

On the whole, the overall mental health of college students in China is good, and their satisfaction with life is high. However, there are still problems in college students' life planning, lifestyle and love mental health education, which need to be paid more attention to.

According to the survey, 74.10% of college students in China are "basically satisfied" with their lives, 17.24% are difficult to judge whether their lives are satisfied, and only a small number of college students are dissatisfied with their lives (8.66%). Satisfaction with the status quo has not become a reassurance for college students, and worries about the future still pull their nerves from time to time. 50.44% of college students have plans to go to graduate school, and the risk of anxiety of students who plan to go to graduate school is significantly higher than that of students who do not plan to go to graduate school. At the same time, the main stressors of college students, "heavy academic burden", "missing family" and "not knowing what job they are suitable for", are all related to personal life planning.

In order to gain more project experience, Zhang Erer, a finance major, began his internship since his sophomore year, and even had two internships in parallel for a period of time. "I don't want that either, I'm too tired. Especially when I participated in two internships at the same time, I only had a job every day and no personal life at all. However, Zhang Er felt that only in this way was he at ease. Chen Zhiyan analyzed that this may be because in the fast-paced social changes, there are more choices and the uncertainty of life increases, so college students' positioning of life is more difficult.

There are significant differences in mental health among university students in different schools, hukou and school segments. The risk of depression and anxiety among college students with urban hukou was significantly higher than that of rural hukou, and the risk of depression and anxiety of students in key colleges and universities was also higher than that of college students in non-key universities. Undergraduate students have a significantly higher risk of depression and anxiety than specialist students. These differences are not unique to 2022, data from the "China National Mental Health Development Report (2021-2019)" released by the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2020 shows that college students have better mental health than undergraduates in terms of depression level, anxiety level, sleep quality, and self-rated mental health status. Chan said this may have something to do with students' expectations for the future and who they are comparing with, "if the student is always less satisfied with himself compared to someone who has developed better than himself."

Moderate anxiety is good for test preparation and study, but if students are overly anxious, timely intervention is required. Chen Zhiyan suggested that college students should understand themselves as soon as possible, find the desired development direction, and at the same time conduct in-depth understanding to observe their own matching with the industry.

Lifestyle and mental health go hand in hand

In addition to personal development, lifestyle and the mental health of college students are also closely related, and the survey was evaluated in three aspects: sleep, stressors and boredom.

The relationship between sleep and mental health showed that students with better sleep quality scored significantly lower rates of depression and anxiety than college students with poor sleep quality, and the risk of depression and anxiety was also lower. "Many college students frequently stay up late and have a disordered sleep system, which is not conducive to mental health." Chen Zhiyan advises college students to pursue a healthy lifestyle.

What to do if I don't sleep well? Chen Zhiyan said that sleep conditions are affected by many factors such as physical and psychological factors, and to alleviate insomnia, we must first identify the causes of sleep problems. If it is for psychological reasons, such as insomnia due to anxiety, then "doing what should be done during the day and sorting out the thoughts that should be sorted out" will make it easier to fall asleep at night.

Another dimension of assessing lifestyle, "boredom," refers to "negative emotional experiences due to the perception that life is meaningless." The data showed that college students' boredom scores were positively correlated with depression and anxiety risk.

Afraid of getting tired of climbing mountains, afraid of going to the beach for the sun, visiting exhibitions and feeling incomprehensible, lying in bed and doing nothing, lamenting that life is boring, is the daily life of Wu Yu, a girl after 00. The turn of things happened six months ago, when her father bought back a camera, originally just to record daily life, but accidentally became her window into the world. Through the small viewfinder, she feels the color change and experiences the happiness of the freeze-frame moment. In order to take more good photos, she began to study light and shadow, composition, and even taught herself PS, a girl who seems to be uninterested in everything, becomes full of expectations for the most everyday things, and tries to find hidden beauty through the lens.

"Boredom is related to the sense of meaning in life, and the more meaning a person finds, the less likely he is to feel bored and empty." Chen Zhiyan analyzed that many college students feel bored in life, probably because they only focus on improving their scores when they are teenagers and lack a clear life orientation for the future; It may also be related to social trends, which now often emphasize timely pleasure, "always seeking short-term happiness, easy to make people bored." She said that the pursuit of meaning in life must require hard work and even pain, in order to finally reach the stage of happiness.

Chen Zhiyan suggested that college students should explore and contact more, collect information through various methods such as the Internet and internships, and find things that they find meaningful; Participate in more interpersonal activities, get feedback in communication with people, and discover what you are good at and suitable for. It's also a good idea to ask a teacher to guide you.

A healthy and good relationship is a good medicine for mental health

What is the contemporary college student's view of love? Two popular sayings seem to be summed up: "Single and light, loveless is the elite" and "I don't look at the temple of marriage, and the long kneeling in the temple of the God of Wealth cannot afford to kneel".

"College students may have less courage to fall in love." Chen Zhiyan found in the survey that a considerable number of single college students now do not want to get rid of the single. The data shows that 27.61% of college students are in love, 41.93% of college students are single and do not want to get out of the single, 25.40% of college students are in the state of single and want to get off the single, and the rest of the students do not report.

Chen Zhiyan believes that the increase in convenience and certainty in modern life is an important reason. "As long as you work hard, you will be easily seen by the boss and get the opportunity for a promotion and a raise. Even if you leave later, you have more job skills that are transferable. She said that love has more uncertainty than work, and requires more courage and wisdom.

However, when we are in a healthy relationship, it is not always so overwhelming. The report showed that college students in love had the lowest depression scores and lower anxiety scores, and single college students who wanted to get out of singles scored significantly higher; On boredom, college students in love scored the lowest on boredom. A healthy relationship may have a role in promoting the mental health of college students.

At the beginning of his senior year, Li Lei was told that he had obtained a place in the school's graduate school. The problems of further education and employment were spread out in front of his classmates, but he arrived early on the shore. In the eyes of many people, Li Lei is undoubtedly excellent, but he knows that without his girlfriend Xiaoqin, he is still just a loafer. When he first entered college, he finally survived his third year of high school and began to let himself go, skateboarding, street dance, group clubs, and competitions... He seems to be involved in everything he can join, except studying. It wasn't until the end of the semester that he found out that he couldn't do anything, and then with the help of Xiaoqin, he barely got through.

Not everyone is as lucky as Li Lei. Liao Jie has changed from cheerful and confident to sensitive and inferior, related to her ex-boyfriend. "He was always denying me, at first he didn't approve of my style of dressing, and then he laughed at my shallow views." Liao Jie said that he would refute at first, but later as the other party denied more and more, he also began to wonder if he was really as bad as he said.

What is a healthy and good relationship? In Chen Zhiyan's view, both parties should be able to bring more emotional support to each other, be willing to work hard to understand each other, support each other, and at the same time be able to better understand themselves in the process. In pursuit of healthy and good romantic relationships, Chen Zhiyan suggested that schools should strengthen mental health education in love, and set up relevant courses according to the development characteristics of different students to help college students establish a correct view of marriage and love.

Mental health is the foundation for college students to explore themselves, learn deeply, and develop skills, but it is often affected by many factors such as lifestyle, career planning and love. What can schools, parents and society do to protect the mental health of college students?

Chen Zhiyan stressed that the integration of mental health in primary and secondary schools is very important. "Just as 'socializing' is not learned until college, many college students cannot find the direction of life, probably because they do not explore themselves enough in elementary school, junior high school, and high school." She said that the school should give support to students of different ages, including interpersonal communication, emotional regulation, self-awareness and other aspects, which is not only the work of colleges and universities, but the entire school system to do.

Chen Zhiyan suggested that they move the threshold of protecting children's mental health forward, and parents should provide some guidance from the time the children are young. "If the student is already in college, I hope that parents will give more cooperation and support to mental health work." She said.

In addition, many college students learn about mental health through the Internet. "Network information is mixed." Chen Zhiyan appealed, "Improving the standardization and scientific nature of online resources is conducive to the improvement of college students' mental health." ”

(Except for Chen Zhiyan, the names of people in this article are pseudonyms)

Li Danping, trainee reporter of China Youth Daily Source: China Youth Daily