Urban-Rural Differences in Student Mental Health: The Hong Kong Scene

Abstract

Student mental health of Hong Kong urban and rural fifth-formers and sixth-formers was assessed by examining their scores obtained from the General Health Questionnaire twice administered. The first administration was done soon after commencement of a school term and served as a baseline measure, and the second was done six weeks before the fifth-formers took an important public examination, a significantly stressful event. The results indicated that all groups of fifth-formers showed an increase in mean scores, reaching statistical significance only in urban boys and rural girls. The latter finding was explained in terms of different parental attitudes and expectations of their academic achievement. The sixth-formers had no public examination to take and they therefore acted as controls. They showed no increase in their mean scores. Students from lower social class also gave higher mean scores, and this finding was used to explain urban-rural differences in mean scores. The significance of severe examination distress and its possible late psychiatric sequelae remained unanswered.