Journal of International Psychiatry

Objective　To explore the effect of psychological counseling on psychological development of children left behind. Methods 85 children left behind as the experimental group and 87 basic left-behind children as control group were selected two primary schools in Hengyang City. The intervention group accepted the weekly psychological counseling for three months，the control group was not given any intervention. Results Seven factors in the in MHT scores after the intervention the fourth grade intervention group were significantly lower than pre-intervention: learning anxiety, loneliness tendency, self-accusation tendency, body symptom, horror tendency, impulsive tendency and the general anxiety factor(P <0.05). Fifth grade in the intervention group, in addition to seven factors in the fourth grade, the anxiety to people factor is also significantly lower than pre-intervention(P <0.05). In the control group, the "total anxiety" factor of the fourth grade and fifth grade MHT scale was significantly lower than pre-intervention, the remaining factors were not statistically different（P>0.05）. Conclusion Psychological counseling can significantly improve the mental health of children left behind.

psychological counseling; left-behind children; psychological development；mental health