Objective To assess the mental health status, social support, as well as the relationship between them among middle-school students in the Lushan earthquake area.

Methods A random sampling method was adopted to select all 526 middle-school students as the research subjects in the disaster area. Students were investigated with the authors-designed basic information questionnaire, symptom checklist-90(SCL-90) and social support rating scale (SSRS).

Results The mental health of male in the disaster areas in compulsive symptoms, depression, anxiety and terror is lower than female. The mental health of junior middle-school students in anxiety and terror is lower than senior middle-school students.The students from urban in interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety is lower than rural (P < 0.05). The high social support group in compulsive symptoms, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, terror and paranoia is lower than social support group (P < 0.05). Social support of female junior high school students with minor impairment of rural family property score lower than that of urban male high school students with family property seriously damaged (P < 0.05). Mental health scores, social support factors and scores in the disaster are negative correlation (r=-0.109~-0.383, P < 0.01or 0.05).Multiple regression analysis results show that the factor of subjective support, objective support and availability for social support were reverse prediction of mental health from junior middle-school students, and explained 24.6% of variance.

Conclusions The mental health status of junior middle school students in Lushan earthquake disaster area is poor. The higher social support they have, the better mental health they will be.Social support contributes to mental health.