Journal of International Psychiatry

Objective To investigate the depression and anxiety of primary and middle school students in Urumqi pre- and post- ‘double reduction’ policy, providing reference for the study and intervention of adolescents’ mental health. Methods 2,817 primary and middle school students from S district in Urumqi were investigated through electronic questionnaire with Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) adopted to evaluate the depression and Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) applied to measure the anxiety, data analyzed by spss26.0.Results ① The data in students from post-‘double reduction’ (detection rate of depression=6.06%, detection rate of anxiety=10.62%, comorbidity rate=4.49%) were significantly lower in those from pre-‘double reduction’ (detection rate of depression=10.08% anxiety detection rate=15.23%, comorbidity rate=8.61%), the differences were statistically significant (P＜0.001).② Detection rates of depression and anxiety, and detection rate of comorbidity were highest in junior school students, followed by senior high school students, and lowest in primary school students. The differences between junior and senior high school students from pre-and post-‘double reduction’ were statistically significant (P＜0.05). ③ Detection rates of depression and anxiety and detection rates of comorbidity in male and female students were decreased during post-‘double reduction’ and the differences between pre- and post- ‘double reduction’ were statistically significant (p＜0.01). Conclusions The implementation of the ‘double reduction’ policy alleviated the depression and anxiety symptoms of primary and middle school students, suggesting that the ‘double reduction’ policy protected students mental health to a certain extent.

‘double reduction’, primary and middle school students, depression, anxiety