The impact of school life and family involvement on Western China junior high school students’ wellbeing at multidimensional levels

BACKGROUND: The focus of students’ health concerns has gradually progressed from the single factor of physical health to comprehensive health factors, and the physical and mental health of students are now generally considered together. This study focuses on exploring the status of junior high school students’ physical health and their subjective health assessment with the major societal factors that affect students’ lives: School Life and Family involvement. In addition, we explore the main factors influencing students’ subjective health. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 190 Tibetan junior high school students in the Maozhuang Township. The intentional sampling was used to choose the research object. The structured questionnaire comprised four parts, namely social and demographic information, family condition, school life, and subjective health quality which was assessed by PROMIS (Chinese version of the Pediatric Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System). RESULT: The average height and weight of boys and girls are statistically different (p-values of 0.026 and 0.044, respectively), but there is no statistically significant difference in BMI (Body Mass Index) between boys and girls (p-value of 0.194). The average values of the five dimensions of depression, anger, anxiety, fatigue, and peer relationships in the PROMIS of the research subjects were 58.9 ± 5.3, 53.3 ± 8.0, 58.1 ± 7.3, 52.8 ± 8.0, 39.3 ± 6.6. In the demographic dimension, the grade was the main factor influencing anger (p < 0.01) and fatigue (p < 0.01), while gender was related to peer relationships (p = 0.02). In the family dimension, the father’s educational level was related to peer relationships (p = 0.05), while the family financial situation was related to depression (p = 0.01). In the school life dimension, relationship with classmates was found to affect anger (p = 0.05), while homework was related to anxiety (p = 0.02) and fatigue (p = 0.05). CONCLUSION: the physical health index BMI and subjective health evaluation of students are worse than students of more developed areas in China. Their family environment and school life all have varying degrees of impact on the five subjective health outcomes. There are differences in gender and grade level. The government and society need to pay more attention to the physical and mental health of students in remote and underdeveloped areas and improve their health through a student nutrition plan and the establishment of mental health offices.