ArticleBMC public health2025
The impact of only-child status on adolescent mental health: a multi-center cross-sectional study using propensity score matching in Western China.
Article in BMC public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Brief Web-Based Psychological Intervention for Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese Adolescents: Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2026Trial
- Prevalence and associated factors of non-suicidal self-injury among Chinese adults: a national, population-based cross-sectional study.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2026Article
- Temporal relationship between physical activity, social anxiety, and internet addiction among adolescents: a cross-lagged analysis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Association of problematic short-video use with adolescent depression: a cross-sectional study and machine learning identification model construction.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Discovery of suicide risk-associated predictors among emerging adults: an interpretable machine learning and network analysis approach.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Not all students are the same: how academic attribution profiles moderate the transmission of COVID-19 stress to problem behaviors.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Bedtime Procrastination and Attention as Serial Mediators Between Premenstrual Syndrome and Test Anxiety in Nursing College Students: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study.Psychology research and behavior management · 2026Article
- A Network Analysis of the Interrelationships Between Depression, Anxiety, Insomnia and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in Middle School Students.Psychology research and behavior management · 2026Article
- The impact of ultra-processed foods on social development of adolescent: differences by gender and only child status.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Association between Chinese only-child university students' psychological symptoms and lifestyle behaviors.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Physical exercise and depression in university students with psychological resilience as mediator and family support as moderator.Scientific reports · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPrior research on the mental well-being of adolescents has shown conflicting findings regarding the impact of only-child status. This study uses Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to control for confounding variables and investigate the impact of only-child status on the psychological health of adolescents.
methodsA multi-center cluster sampling approach included 7,359 students from 33 middle schools in Western China. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), the Childhood Psychological Abuse and Neglect Scale (CPANS), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Chinese iteration of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), and the Chinese version of the Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children (PANAS-C) were utilized to assess the adolescents' emotions, sleep, psychological abuse, and neglect. PSM was employed to address confounding variables. Univariate analysis used t-tests, chi-square tests, and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, while multivariate analysis used GLM to compare DASS-21, PSQI, and PANAS-C scores.
resultsAfter PSM, 980 only-child and 980 non-only-child adolescents were included. Only-child adolescents showed significantly lower levels of depression, stress, emotional neglect, and negative affect. Further scrutiny of the mean ranks of these dimensions indicated that the only-child group yielded lower scores. In the GLM analysis, after adjusting for neglect, no significant associations were observed (all p > 0.05). However, post adjustments for psychological abuse, the only-child group also recorded lower scores in depression, stress, and negative affect.
conclusionsThis study reveals that the only-child adolescents possibly showing better psychological well-being overall in western China. This study's findings suggest that, during adolescent development, families and society should pay greater attention to the mental health of non-only children.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.