mental health status of high school girl and boy students in boarding schools in markazi

the students who live in boarding schools experience more stress than others which live with their parents.therefore, the mental health of this group is of special importance. the present study attempted to examine the mental health status of adolescent students in boarding high schools in . this was a cross-sectional study which was conducted by using stratified cluster sampling method. this study was done on 1000 subjects from 15 rural boarding schools in the academic year 2008-2009. all the subjects studied in the second year of high school and 58/4% of the students were females. data was gathered through the revised scl90-r symptoms checklist to assess mental health symptoms and the checklists were completed by self report secretly. t -test statistical analysis was conducted using spss. (p<0.05). data showed that in all subjects the scores of paranoid ideation were higher than other dimensions of scl-90-r. girls seemed worse than boys regarding the total scores of scl-90 and acquired higher scores in all dimensions.there was a significant difference in the mean score of the symptom checklist between girls and boys in all dimensions, except symptoms of aggression (p < 0.05). regarding the findings of the current study and higher rate of symptoms in female students, this group of adolescents need special attention, proper mental health education and available counseling centers. however, further researches for evaluation of effective factors on mental health in schools are recommended.