Compared With Girls, Boys' Psychological Symptoms Are More Likely to Be Influenced by Lifestyle in Chinese Middle School Students

Jinkui Lu; Chun Tan; Jianfeng Zhou; Mian Sha; Yongli Xu; Jianhua Qiu; Ningling Liu

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.899273

Compared With Girls, Boys' Psychological Symptoms Are More Likely to Be Influenced by Lifestyle in Chinese Middle School Students

Front Psychol. 2022 Jul 8:13:899273. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.899273. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jinkui Lu¹, Chun Tan², Jianfeng Zhou¹, Mian Sha¹, Yongli Xu¹, Jianhua Qiu¹, Ningling Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Physical Education, Shangrao Normal University, Shangrao, China.
² Department of Preschool Education, Shangrao Preschool Education College, Shangrao, China.

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the relationship between Chinese middle school students' lifestyles and psychological symptoms and compare the differences between genders.

Method: Using the method of stratified cluster sampling, 14,356 students aged 13-18 years from 8 cities in China were selected as participants. The Multidimensional Sub-health Questionnaire of Adolescents was used to estimate psychological symptoms. Chi-square test and Logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the relationship between lifestyle and psychological symptoms.

Results: The psychological symptom detection rate of Chinese middle school students was 21.37%. The detection rate of psychological symptoms for boys was 22.1%, which was significantly higher than for girls (20.64%, χ² = 4.608, P < 0.05). According to the Logistic regression analysis, factors that have a positive correlation with the demonstration of psychological symptoms (P < 0.01) include: how the students go to school (by foot or on the vehicle) (OR = 1.16, 95% CI: 1.07-1.25); inadequate time for sleep (OR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.28-1.72); video watching time ≥2 h/d (OR = 1.25, 95% CI: 1.13-1.39); never exercise (OR = 2.39, 95% CI: 2.07-2.76); never participate in extracurricular exercises (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.27-1.66); have breakfast occasionally (OR = 1.35, 95% CI:1.22-1.50); never have breakfast (OR = 1.90, 95% CI: 1.62-2.24); always have snacks (OR = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.13-1.44); always drink sugared beverages (OR = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.22-1.55); picky with food occasionally (OR = 1.22, 95% CI: 1.11-1.33).

Conclusions: There was a positive correlation between unhealthy lifestyle and the occurrence of psychological symptoms, and boys are more easily influenced by lifestyles than girls.

Keywords: correlation analysis; gender differences; lifestyles; middle school students; psychological symptoms.