Trajectory of mental health development among college students with higher baseline mental health symptoms

Objective To understand the development of mental health status among college students with psychological problems.Methods All the 6 103 college freshmen from a comprehensive university were investigated with Chinese College Student Mental Health Scale.A total of 764 students who had higher mental health symptoms were followed up for 4 years.Developmental trajectory of mental health was analyzed in growth mixed model.Results During the 4-year follow-up,mental health scale scores decreased.Three classes of trajectories in mental health development among those 764 college were identified,namely gradually decreasing group(95.16%),decreasing after increasing group (1.70%) and rapid decreasing group(3.14%).Conclusion The overall mental health among college students with baseline mental health symptoms shows improvement during the 4 year follow-up,three developmental trajectories are identified according to the decreasing characteristics.