Changes in vocational college students' mental health over two academic years: associations with family factors and co-curricular activities.

Authors

Zhaoying Ping, Wenshan Zhou

Published in

Frontiers in public health. Volume 14. Pages 1901932. Epub Sep 16, 2026.

Abstract

Vocational college students face elevated risks of psychological distress due to academic, interpersonal and family stressors. However, longitudinal evidence tracking their two-year mental health shifts and relevant ecological correlates remains scarce. This study analyzed two-year mental health changes among vocational college students and examined correlations between family background variables and co-curricular activities (locally named "second classroom").
A two-year longitudinal survey was conducted with 1,277 students recruited from one vocational college in Anhui, China. Mental distress was measured via the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). Analyses included independent-samples t-tests, paired-samples t-tests, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression adjusted for baseline mental health scores.
Students exhibited statistically significant reductions in SCL-90 total scores at the two-year follow-up (p < 0.001), indicating improved psychological status. Family financial hardship and childhood left-behind experience correlated with higher levels of psychological distress. Co-curricular credit accumulation showed a weak negative correlation with post-test SCL-90 scores (r = -0.140, p < 0.001).
Vocational students presented overall mental health improvements across two academic years. Family disadvantage correlates with higher psychological distress, while co-curricular participation only shows a mild negative correlation with follow-up mental symptoms with low explanatory power; co-curricular participation exhibits a potential supportive association with students' mental wellbeing, yet it is merely one of numerous relevant factors shaping students' psychological status. Optimizing structured co-curricular schemes can serve as one auxiliary mental health measure rather than a dominant intervention path.

PMID:
42818634
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 01 Oct 2026.

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