[An epidemiological study on mental problems in adolescents in Chengdu, China].
OBJECTIVE
To study the mental health problems in the adolescents aged 11-18 years in Chengdu, China.


METHODS
Youth Self-Report (YSR) and the General Information Questionnaire were administered to 1802 students who were randomly selected from schools in Chengdu City.


RESULTS
The overall rate of mental problems was 15.1% in the adolescents, 15.2% in boys and 14.9% in girls if 90th percentile of total scores and/or 98th percentile of syndromes scores were assigned as the cutpoint of norms. The overall rate of mental problems was 27.2% in the adolescents, 27.6% in boys and 26.8% in girls if 75th percentile of total scores and/or 98th percentile of syndromes scores were assigned as the cutpoint of norms. The rates of mental problems were not significantly different between boys and girls (chi-squared = 0.042, P = 0.838; chi-squared = 0.126, P = 0.723). Mental problems tended to be increasing with age (P = 0.000). There were 29 items that the percentiles were higher than 50% but 5 items were under 10% in all the 101 items of YSR. 3.1% of the adolescents often had suicidal intention, and 6.1% of the adolescents often thought of becoming opposite sex identity.


CONCLUSIONS
The rates of mental problems in adolescents aged 11-18 years in Chengdu, Chana were 27.2% or 15.1% respectively,if 75th or 90th percentile of the total scores were assigned as the cutpoint of total scores. The mental problems in the adolescents tended to be increasing along with age.
Tang
Guang-zheng
GZ
Department of Psychiatry, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Guo
Lan-ting
LT
Huang
Xue-zhu
XZ