title: Depression and anxiety among left-behind children in China: a systematic review.
abstract: This study aimed to systematically review evidence of the prevalence and predictors of depression and anxiety among 'left-behind children' in rural China. The electronic databases PubMed/MEDLINE and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure/Wanfang (Chinese) were utilized to search for terms including 'depression' or 'depressive disorder', 'anxiety' or 'mental health', combined with 'left behind', 'children' and 'China'. High rates of psychological depression/anxiety have been reported among left-behind children compared with their age-matched peers. Prevalence rates of depression are reported to range from 12.1 to 51.4% and of anxiety are reported to range from 13.2 to 57.6%. Variability between studies is likely attributable to methodological variations relating to measures used and research setting. Potential predictors measured in studies include age and gender, types of being left, age/years of separation, socio-economic status, etc. These high rates of reported psychological problems among this group of young people suggest the need to develop more effective approaches to prevention and management.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Statistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.|Department of Health Management, School of Health Management, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Statistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Y-H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002670:Child, Abandoned / Q000523:psychology; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D012423:Rural Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014171:Transients and Migrants
keywords: anxiety; depression; left-behind children; systematic review