The effectiveness of language nursing intervention on mental health in children with poor language skills

by Xi Shu, Yingzi Xiao, Lingzhi Yang

Background

Mental health issues in adulthood often start in childhood, so it’s important to identify these issues early and find ways to manage them. To our knowledge, no study was found that evaluated the long-term effects of language nursing intervention on mental health in children with poor language skills. This study, therefore, aimed to evaluate the long-term impact of a language nursing intervention on the mental health of children with poor language skills.

Methods

We estimated poor language skills prevalence in 3-4-year-old children who were planning to enter kindergartens in Hunan, China. After selecting these children, we divided them into two experimental and control groups. The experimental group received a nursing intervention related to language skills for eight months. After eight months, the language skills of both groups were re-evaluated. Then, in the follow-up evaluation, the mental health of these children was evaluated at the ages of 9–10 years. Univariate and multivariate regression models adjusted with sampling weights were used to estimate the correlation of mental health and risk factors.

Results

The language skills of the experimental group increased significantly compared to before the protocol (from 87.4±10.87 to 98.08±7.13; p = 0.001). At the end of the eight-month nursing intervention, the language skills of the experimental group were significantly higher than the control group (98.08±7.13 in experimental group and 87.51±9.59 in control group; p = 0.001). In multivariate analysis, single-parent family and not participating in the nursing protocol related to language skills at the age of 3–4 years were related to high symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms (single-parent family: for depression symptoms, OR = 1.28, 95% CI = 0.88–1.42; for stress symptoms, OR = 1.31, 95% CI = 0.79–2.74 and for anxiety symptoms, OR = 1.42, 95% CI = 0.97–2.44; not participating in the nursing protocol related to language skills at the age of 3–4 years: for depression symptoms, OR = 2.98, 95% CI = 1.80–5.19; for stress symptoms, OR = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.23–2.01 and for anxiety symptoms, OR = 2.67, 95% CI = 1.51–3.77; p<0.05).

Conclusion

The current study showed the effectiveness of this intervention on both language skills and mental health of children with poor language skills.