Across-temporal meta-analysis of changes in Chinese high school students’ psychological resilience: 2009-2024

The present study conducted a cross-temporal meta-analysis of 206 papers that using Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescents to investigate Chinese high school students’ psychological resilience,and explored the current status, overall trends, and regional, school-type, and gender differences in psychological resilience and its dimensions among Chinese high school students. The results showed: (1) The overall psychological resilience and its dimensions among Chinese high school students were at a medium to high level. However, except for the family support dimension, which remained unchanged, the total psychological resilience score and the other four dimensions showed a gradual decline over time; (2) The total psychological resilience score decreased by 0.179 and 0.455 standard deviations in the eastern and central regions, respectively, while no significant change was observed in the western region. The eastern region outperformed the central and western regions in both the total psychological resilience score and emotional control; (3) The total psychological resilience scores among general high school students and vocational high school students declined by 0.360 and 0.306 standard deviations, respectively, with general high school students exhibiting significantly superior levels of positive cognition compared to vocational high school students; (4) The total psychological resilience score increased by 0.184 standard deviations among male students but decreased by 0.123 standard deviations among female students; however, the general meta-analysis results indicated that the overall differences in the total psychological resilience score and its dimensions among high school students were not significant; (5) Several social indicators from economic conditions, social connections, and educational circumstances significantly predicted the decline in psychological resilience of high school students.