Document is current

Article History

Received: 29 October 2024

Accepted: 9 May 2025

First Online: 17 June 2025

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: Ethical approval was provided by the Ethics Committee of the National Survey Research Center at Renmin University of China on April 11 2018 (RN2018041101), confirming that the study complies with ethical review requirements for scientific research and authorising its conduct in accordance with the approved research protocol. The study was conducted in accordance with relevant guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki.

: Informed consent was obtained from all participants. Between April 15 and 30, 2018, with the approval of the Ethics Committee of the National Survey Research Center at Renmin University of China, participants were invited in writing to grant the research team permission to access their online posts and interactions with their middle school classmates on WeChat for further academic research. The invitation message included the following statement, ‘If you agree to participate, please provide your WeChat ID, which we will consider as your informed consent.’ Participants were informed of the purpose of the research, potential risks, data protection measures, and their right to withdraw at any time. All survey participants were aged 16 or above at the time of invitation, and their individual consent was sufficient for participation in this study in accordance with the current legal framework in China.