Comparative Research on Children's Mental Health, Lifestyles and the Psycho-social School Environment : 5th and 6th Grade Elementary School Children from Cities and Remote Island in Nagasaki and Okinawa Prefectures

We conducted surveys on 5 and 6 grade Elementary School children in Nagasaki Prefecture, and in both cities and remote islands in Okinawa Prefecture of Japan, in order to clarify current lifestyles, mental health (depression trends, interpersonal stress, feelings of inefficiency and tempestuousness) and the psycho-social school environment of children in remote islands. This research aims to investigate correlations between the mental health, lifestyles and psycho-social school environment of children in remote islands. T-test results for lifestyle showed boys in remote islands get up earlier and spend less time on the computer, playing with parents and exercising. Girls in remote islands sleep earlier, eat more by not leaving leftovers, exercise more outside class, spend less time studying outside school hours and have a greater awareness of their grades. Also, both boys and girls in remote island tend to have more siblings and participate more in local events. In regard to the psycho-social school environment, girls in remote islands showed a significantly higher level of satisfaction with their school, and children in remote islands were more likely to feel that their school environment was 'comfortable'. Concerning components of mental health, boys in remote islands demonstrated significantly higher interpersonal stress, and girls tended to have significantly stronger feelings of inefficiency. Also, in regard to correlations between mental health, lifestyle and the psycho-social school environment, both boys and girls produced low though significant correlations over several items. In particular, significant correlations were found between mental health and satisfaction with school in many items for boys in cities and girls in remote islands, suggesting that satisfaction with school is an important factor in children's mental health