Objective: To examine the mental health status of 11-16 years old children exposed to the 5.12 WenChuan earthquake and to help develop post-traumatic psychological interventions.
Methods: The self-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was administered to 540 children (mean age: 13.82+/-0.98, male/female ratio 1.06:1) from the earthquake affected areas one month after the earthquake.
Results: (1) The children had an average difficulty score (T score) of 13.41+/-5.71, with 74.6% reporting at least minor perceived difficulties. (2) The children with higher levels of exposure had higher emotional subscale scores (z=-2.323, P=0.020). The female students had higher emotional subscale scores than the male students (z=-4.985, P=0.000). (4) The impact of the difficulties on the children's learning increased with age (z=9.106, P=0.011). (5) The longer the children lived in the transferred safe places, the more likely the children got an abnormal (OR=1.233, P=0.003).
Conclusion: The mental health status of the children from the earthquake affected areas are influenced by their exposure levels, gender, age and the length of living in transferred safe places. These factors should be taken into considerations when post-traumatic psychological interventions are planned.