The purpose of this study was to examine the structural validity of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) in Chinese undergraduate students. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey with 631 Chinese undergraduate students was conducted, and the questionnaire package included a measure of demographic characteristics, PSQI, Chinese editions of Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression, State- Trait Anxiety Inventory, Rumination Response Scale, and Perceived Social Support Scale. Results showed that the item “use of sleep medicine” was not suitable for use with this population, that a two-factor model provided the best fit to the data as assessed through confirmatory factor analysis, and that other indices were consistently correlated with the sleep quality but not the sleep efficiency factor.

On May 12, 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck China's southwestern Sichuan province. Recent studies have identified mental health problems among the survivors, but little is known about the impact of the Sichuan earthquake on the mental health of new mothers in the area. The main objective was to assess the impact of the Sichuan earthquake on the posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) and depression of new mothers. A total of 317 new mothers were interviewed in the hospital from January 2009 to March 2009. Symptoms of PTSD were measured using the impact of event scale-revised, and symptoms of postpartum depression were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale. The prevalence rates of PTSD and postpartum depression were 19.9% and 29.0%, respectively. Women with high earthquake exposure had higher risks of PTSD (odds ratio (OR), 5.91; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.75-19.97; P < 0.001) and postpartum depression (OR, 7.28; 95% CI, 2.51-21.08; P < 0.001) than women without earthquake experience. In addition, women with low monthly family income and farm workers had a higher risk of having PTSD; women who were unemployed or with lower monthly family income and poor sleep had a higher risk of having depression. Earthquake experience increased the risks of having PTSD and depression among new mothers at 8 months later of the earthquake.

A magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck China's southwestern Sichuan province on 12 May 2008. The reported rates of depression symptoms across studies were not consistent, and its protective factors were unknown. This study collected data from Wenchuan earthquake survivors to estimate the prevalence of depression and explore the protective effects of social support and support source on depression. A randomized sampling cross-sectional survey based on community was conducted in January 2009, in Mianzhu and Anxian counties, and 633 survivors were entered into the study. The Chinese edition of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and the Social Support Rating Scale were used to investigate depression and social support. The prevalence of probable depression in adults 6 months after the Wenchuan earthquake was 22.9% (145/633). Total social support, subjective support, support use and support from family members, neighbours and organizations negatively predicted depression. According to the results, depression was common 6 months after this major disaster. Total social support, subjective support, support use and support from family members, neighbours and organizations were all protective factors for depression after a major disaster.

This study explored the mediating effect of civic interest in the relationship between adolescents' civic education and volunteering (organized and personal). Participants were 967 adolescents in northern China (435 girls, 520 boys, 12 who did not specify their gender; Mage = 15.31 years), who completed the Civic Interest Scale, the Civic Education Scale, and the Volunteer Behavior Scale in a cross-sectional survey. Results indicated that personal volunteering was significantly more common than organized volunteering, and that civic interest partially mediated the relationships between civic education and organized volunteering, and between civic education and personal volunteering. School location (big city/small city vs. small town) moderated the mediating model, with larger mediating effects being present for respondents living in a small city compared to a big city, but no significant differences being found in the structural path between big-city and small-town settings or between smallcity and small-town settings. In sum, during adolescence, personal volunteering was the main form of volunteer activity, and the partial mediating mechanism of civic interest was common to both organized and personal volunteering types.