Online risk exposure and mental health in Chinese junior high school students: A latent profile analysis

Abstract

We explored the latent profile of online risk exposure and its relationship with school students’ mental health. Junior high school students (n = 1 178; female = 49.5%, male = 50.5%; Grade 7 = 57.1%, Grade 8 = 42.9%) completed measures of online risk exposure, anxiety, depression, self-esteem, and subjective well-being. Latent profile analysis yielded heterogeneity in online risk exposure, which could be divided into security group, explicit content exposure group, and risk group. Of these groups, the security group had the best mental health status, followed by the explicit content exposure group, and the risk group had the worst mental health status. By demographics, girls, junior high school students with a poor family socioeconomic status and poor academic performance had lower mental health levels. Our findings indicate a need for phased prevention programs by online risk characteristics to improve junior high school students’ mental health.