Abstract: ObjectiveTo assess metal health status among middle school resident students and to provide evidences for psychological intervention in the students.MethodsTotally 21 790 middle school students (including 14 818 resident students) were selected form 70 schools in 7 municipalities and counties in Henan province with stratefied random cluster sampling and surveyed with Mental Health Inventory of Middle School Students (MMHI-60) and a general questionnaire in 2011.ResultsThe detection rate of psychological problems in the resident students was 48.7%,with the highest score for learning stress (2.26±0.79) among the ten subscales of MMHI-60.Compared to among the urban,senior middle school,and normal senior middle school and voccational school resident students,significantly higher average overall MMHI-60 score was observed among the rural (2.06±0.52 vs.2.02±0.54),junior middle school (2.08±0.52 vs.1.97±0.54),and key senior middle school resident students (2.12±0.51 vs.2.05±0.53 and 2.05±0.51)(all P<0.05).There was no significant difference in the average overall score of MMHI-60 between the male and female students (P>0.05),while there were significant gender differences in the scores of 9 MMHI-60 subscales (compulsion,paranoid,sensitivity of interpersonal relationship,depression,anxiety,learning stress,maladaptation,emotional instability,and psychological imbalance)(all P<0.05);there was also a significant difference in the average overall MMHI-60 score between resident and non-resident students (P<0.05).ConclusionMental health status is not good among the rural,senior middle school,especially key senior middle school resident students and mental health status of resident students is worse than that of non-resident students in Henan province.