The dual perspectives of the well-being and ill-being in middle school students’ physical and mental health

Abstract

The present study surveyed the physical and mental health of middle school students which was based on the Well-being and ill-being dual perspectives. 2344 Chinese middle school students were tested by Well-being (WB) and Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) scales. The mean score of well-being was 5.46±1.997 and the mean scores of all SCL-90 subscales were lower than 2.00. The independent sample t-test analysis indicated that seven of nine SCL-90 subscales were significantly lower than the norm in 2004. These results implied that the well-being and physical and mental health were good in Chinese middle school students. The independent sample t-test analysis indicated that girls’ scores of SCL-90 were significant higher than those of boys’, but there was no difference in well-being scores between girls’ and boys’. In addition, the scores of SCL-90 were significant difference between senior high school students and junior high school students, and high school students got higher scores in all subscales of SCL-90; but there was no difference in well-being between senior and junior school students. One-Way ANOVA results indicated that there was significant difference among six grades in SCL-90 but not in well-being. Pearson correlation analysis indicated that there was a negative correlation between well-being and subscales of SCL-90, but it was not significant. According to the above analysis, we conclude that the well-being and ill-being are independent of each other and they play different roles in the mental health.

Keywords:

• Well-being
• Ill-being
• SCL-90
• Physical Health
• Mental Health
• Middle School Students