Birth cohort changes in anxiety levels among primary school students in China during 1995-2019: A cross-temporal meta-analysis

Sufei Xin; Liang Sheng; A-Yuan Zhang; Qian Su; Haiyun Peng; Yinghua Chen; Xiaojie Geng; Hui Liu

doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.103996

Birth cohort changes in anxiety levels among primary school students in China during 1995-2019: A cross-temporal meta-analysis

Acta Psychol (Amst). 2023 Sep:239:103996. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.103996. Epub 2023 Aug 8.

Authors

Sufei Xin¹, Liang Sheng¹, A-Yuan Zhang², Qian Su³, Haiyun Peng¹, Yinghua Chen⁴, Xiaojie Geng⁵, Hui Liu⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Educational Science, Ludong University, Yantai 264025, China; Collaborative Innovation Center for the Mental Health of Youth from the Era of Conversion of New and Old Kinetic Energy along the Yellow River Basin, Ludong University, Yantai 264025, China.
² Department of Primary Education, Teachers' College, Beijing Union University, Beijing 100011, China; College of Education, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China. Electronic address: 20185008@buu.edu.cn.
³ Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Beijing Guangming Primary School, Beijing 100061, China. Electronic address: causuqian@126.com.
⁴ Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences, Beijing 100036, China.
⁵ Beijing Dongcheng Academy of Educational Sciences, Beijing 100009, China.
⁶ College of Elementary Education, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China.

PMID: 37562320
DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.103996

Abstract

To investigate birth cohort changes in anxiety levels among primary school students in China, we conducted a cross-temporal meta-analysis of 126 studies (N = 109,957) reporting the anxiety levels among primary school students in China during 1995-2019 using the Mental Health Diagnostic Test (MHT); higher MHT scores indicated higher anxiety. The results showed that: (1) The MHT scores for five types of mental health problems (social anxiety, lonely tendency, physical symptoms, terror tendency, and impulsive tendency) and the total MHT score were significantly negatively correlated with the data-collection year, indicating that the anxiety levels among primary school students in China decreased over time. (2) The MHT score for learning anxiety was significantly positively correlated with the data-collection year, indicating that the learning anxiety levels of primary school students in China increased over time. (3) The overall MHT score did not show significant gender differences, but gender-wise varying trends were observed in the types considered.

Keywords: Anxiety; Birth cohort; Chinese primary school students; Cross-temporal meta-analysis; Meta-analysis; Social change.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis
Review

MeSH terms

Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety* / epidemiology
Anxiety* / psychology
Birth Cohort*
China / epidemiology
Humans
Schools
Students / psychology