Abstract: Objective To understand the current situation of mental health among boarding junior school students in rural area,and to provide the references for improving mental health of rural junior high school students in rural area.Methods The stratified sampling method was adopted to randomly select 7 947 junior high school students in rural areas.Measured by the mental health test and the student general information questionnaire.Descriptive statistical analysis was used to analyze the current situation board and mental health,and OLS regression was used to explore the correlation between current board status,board-started grade,board experience and mental health.Results The detection rate of serious psychological problem was 2.0% (162/7 947),the detection rate of anxiety tendency was 71.8% (5 707/7 947).There was no significant difference between current boarders and noboarders about test scores (β =0.367,P =0.112);there was no significant correlation between boarding start grade and test scores(β=0.275,P=0.699);those students have boarding experience get higher test scores significantly than those never boarding students (β=0.461,P<0.01).The analysis also found a significant correlation between gender,detained students,teacher-student relationship and test scores(P<0.01).Conclusion Board experience has a strong positive correlation with the mental health of junior high school students,we should pay more attention on the mental health of students that have ever boarded on school.Girl,detained student,bad relationship with teacher will lead to worse status of mental health.