Faculty of Public Health, Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Can Tho, Vietnam.
BMC Public Health. 2013 Nov 6;13:1046. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-13-1046.
Secondary school can be a stressful period for adolescents, having to cope with many life changes. Very little research has been conducted on the mental health status of secondary school pupils in South East Asian countries, such as Vietnam.The study aimed to explore perceptions of mental health status, risk factors for mental health problems and strategies to improve mental health among Vietnamese secondary school students.
A qualitative design was used to address the main study question including: six in-depth interviews conducted with professionals (with two researchers, two psychiatrists, and two secondary school teachers) to learn about their experience of mental health problems among secondary school pupils; 13 focus group discussions (four with teachers, four with parents, and five with pupils); and 10 individual in-depth interviews with pupils who did not take part in the FGDs, to reflect on the collected data and to deepen the authors' understanding. All interviews and FGDs were audio-taped, transcribed and analyzed for the identification of emerging issues using qualitative techniques of progressive coding, analytic memoing and ongoing comparison.
Our study confirms the need to pay attention to mental health of pupils in Vietnam. Depression, anxiety, stress, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts were seen as major problems by all stakeholders. Mental health problems were mainly associated with academic pressure, resulting from an overloaded curriculum and pressure from teachers and parents to succeed. The study found that pupils' mental health demands interventions at many levels, including at the level of government (Ministry of Education and Training), schools, communities, families and pupils themselves.
Vietnamese secondary school pupils feel that their mental health status is poor, because of many risk factors in their learning and living environment. The need now is to investigate further to identify and apply strategies to improve students' mental health.
中学阶段对于青少年来说可能是一个充满压力的时期，他们需要应对许多生活变化。在东南亚国家，如越南，很少有研究关注中学生的心理健康状况。本研究旨在探讨越南中学生对心理健康状况的看法、心理健康问题的风险因素以及改善心理健康的策略。
采用定性设计来解决主要研究问题，包括：对专业人员（包括两名研究人员、两名精神科医生和两名中学教师）进行了六次深入访谈，以了解他们在中学生中遇到的心理健康问题的经验；进行了 13 次焦点小组讨论（与教师进行了 4 次、与家长进行了 4 次、与学生进行了 5 次）；对未参加 FGD 的学生进行了 10 次个人深入访谈，以反思收集的数据并加深作者的理解。所有访谈和 FGD 均进行了录音、转录，并使用定性技术进行分析，包括逐步编码、分析备忘录和持续比较，以识别新出现的问题。
我们的研究证实，需要关注越南学生的心理健康。抑郁、焦虑、压力、自杀念头和自杀企图被所有利益相关者视为主要问题。心理健康问题主要与学业压力有关，这是由于课程负担过重以及教师和家长对成功的期望造成的。研究发现，学生的心理健康需要在许多层面上进行干预，包括政府（教育部和培训部）、学校、社区、家庭和学生自身。
越南中学生认为他们的心理健康状况不佳，因为他们在学习和生活环境中面临许多风险因素。现在需要进一步调查，以确定并实施改善学生心理健康的策略。
