Boarding school and depression of Chinese rural adolescents: effect, mechanism and solution.

Using nationally representative CEPS data, this paper conducts an in-depth study of the relationship between boarding school and depression of Chinese adolescents with rural hukou. The following results are obtained. First, boarding school causes depression of rural adolescents. Even if possible endogenous problems are dealt with, the result is still robust. Secondly, heterogeneity analysis found that the effect of boarding school on depression of rural adolescents was significantly different among different groups. Rural adolescents from better family conditions and male rural adolescents are more likely to be depressed when boarding school. Third, the analysis of the influencing mechanism finds that the decline in sleep quality is an important reason for the depression of rural adolescents caused by boarding. Finally, this paper discusses the possible ways to solve this problem, that is, the government improves the resources of boarding schools by increasing financial investment in education, which is conducive to reducing the negative impact of boarding on rural adolescents' depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]