Prevalence and repercussions of stress and mental health issues on primary and middle school students: a bibliometric analysis.

Objective: This study analyzes the presence and reverberations of stress, anxiety, and other mental health issues on primary and middle school students using bibliometric analysis. The aim of this study is to map the research landscape by statistically analyzing existing literature and identifying key themes, trends, and research hotspots in the domain of stress in students. This study also presents analysis related to top contributing countries, journals, authors, citations, and collaboration networks. Method: A total of 1,335 publications from 1962 to 10 September 2023 were included in this study using the Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus databases. The steps involved in the bibliometric study included data collection, cleaning, and various analyses such as performance analysis, citation analysis, and network analysis. Biblioshiny by RStudio and Microsoft Excel were used for bibliometric analysis to determine the collaboration between countries and authors and to explore keyword analysis and thematic evolution. Results: The findings show that China and USA have contributed the highest number of publications. Discussion: The study has highlighted the various reasons for stress and its potential repercussions on students. This information can be used to help parents, teachers, and the school administration to spot the most susceptible group of students who need immediate intervention to address various mental health issues. We see a gradual progress in the research areas being covered under this domain. More relevant areas of concern related to stress are being explored with time. With the technological advancement and the vast unmonitored internet usage (especially for primary and middle school students), the stress caused by cyberbullying and peer victimization has also become an important topic of research in later years.