Author(s)

Xinqiang Wang^*, Tianyuan Zhang

School of Psychology & Center of Mental Health Education and Research, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China.

This paper chooses groups of middle school students of the Tujia and the Hmong who both live in ethnic groups and have history of intermarriage and cultural identity between each other as subjects to study the relationship between meaning of life and mental health based on the Xiangxi culture, which aims to provide evidence for the mental health education for middle school students in ethnic regions. Firstly, to resort to the method of Literature Collection: Pay attention to the influence of Xiangxi culture on the meaning of life and the relationship between meaning of life and mental health during the analysis of the material, trying to find out the true meanings; Secondly, using the Purpose-in-Life Test (PIL) and Mental Health Test (MHT), 913 junior high school students were investigated by cluster random sampling method. The results of the study indicated that the total score of meaning of life was significantly correlated with anxiety in people, isolation tendency, allergic tendency and tendency to impulsive (p < 0.001), related to the tendency to panic (p < 0.05), and the correlation between learning anxiety and self accusation tendency was not significant (p > 0.05). In addition, stepwise regression analysis showed that the value of life was the most important factor to predict mental health in meaning of life, and the second was the quality of life and the freedom of life. Therefore, junior high school students’ meaning of life and their mental health levels has a certain relationship. Introduction of empirical investigation helps to better research and analyze the relationship between meaning of life and mental health of Chinese people in junior high school in Xiangxi area and provides the basis in the practice of junior high school students’ mental health education and life education.

Tujia, Hmong, Junior Middle School Students, Meaning of Life, Mental Health

Wang, X. and Zhang, T. (2016) The Relationship between the Meaning of Life and Mental Health of Junior Middle School Students of Tujia and Hmong in Xiangxi, China. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 4, 179-184. doi: 10.4236/jss.2016.44026.