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Article History

Received: 29 May 2025

Accepted: 20 May 2026

First Online: 9 June 2026

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests. BL Zhong is a member of the Editorial Board of Humanities & Social Sciences Communications . The manuscript was assessed in line with the journal’s standard editorial processes, including its policy on competing interests.

: The study was conducted in strict accordance with the ethical principles outlined in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its subsequent amendments, as well as relevant ethical regulations in China. The survey protocol was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Wuhan Mental Health Center (Approval No.: KY2024.0508.01) on May 8, 2024. The approval encompassed the entire research design, including the 2-tier informed consent process for minor participants, data collection methodologies, and privacy protection measures.

: Informed consent was systematically obtained through a sequential 2-tier process. First, oral informed consent was secured from head teachers of participating schools to confirm institutional collaboration, with discussions documented in signed meeting minutes retained by the research team. This was followed by written informed consent from parents or legal guardians of student participants. The consent process was implemented across 12 schools between October 2024 and March 2025 using a staggered approach. For example, while survey activities were ongoing at School A, head teachers at School B were being contacted and informed consent was being obtained from parents of potential participants at School B. This staggered approach ensured that informed consent was obtained from all participants before any survey activities commenced at each respective school. With the support of the participating schools, all students were given an informed consent form to take home to their parents or guardians. The form provided detailed information regarding the study’s purpose, procedures, assessment instruments, privacy protection measures, potential risks and benefits, assurance of anonymity, and the voluntary nature of participation. Parents or guardians who agreed to their child’s participation were required to sign the consent form. The signed forms were first returned to the head teachers, who then collected them and provided them to the research investigators. Each school’s consent process was initiated 1–2 weeks prior to survey administration to ensure all approvals were in place before data collection. The consent explicitly covered participation in the survey, use of de-identified data for academic research, and anonymized publication of study findings in scholarly outputs. In all participating schools, head teachers maintained official records of each student’s legal guardian, as such information is required at the time of school enrollment. This ensured that the research team could accurately identify the appropriate parent or guardian from whom to seek consent. In cases where children were not living with both parents—for example, due to divorce, parental absence, adoption, or grandparental care—head teachers confirmed the identity of the legal guardian on record and facilitated the consent process accordingly. When parents or guardians were not physically present, an electronic version of the consent form was sent to them, signed, and returned to the head teacher as a scanned copy, which was then printed and archived together with other informed consent materials. These printed copies of scanned forms served as valid documentation of informed consent and were fully consistent with relevant national ethical and regulatory standards in China.

: During the preparation of this work the authors used Doubao 1.5 Pro exclusively to refine language fluency, enhance readability, and correct grammatical inaccuracies. No AI-generated content was incorporated into the manuscript at any stage of the writing process. The conceptual framework, methodological design, data interpretation, and scholarly conclusions remain entirely original to the authors. After using this tool/service, the authors reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the content of the published article.