{
  "abstract": "The diagnostic rates of mental disorders among adolescents have been increasing in China over the past few years, corresponding to a rise in school absences due to mental illness. A 2024 report on the mental health of Chinese adolescents revealed that 82.3% of adolescents with depression or anxiety had requested at least one leave of absence, and 53.85% of them had taken a temporary absence from school.1 At the same time, education authorities and schools in China began allowing students with documentation of a diagnosis to take ‘medical’ leave from school. This change has led to an influx of students requesting mental health diagnoses from their psychiatrists to support their short-term ‘medical’ leave, and to a potentially steep increase in adolescents taking short-term medical leave from school due to mental disorders. However, attributing school absenteeism solely to mental illness may obscure other underlying issues. We should move beyond diagnostic labels and analyse the causes of Chinese adolescents’ school absences from multiple perspectives to facilitate their successful return to school.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Humanities and Management, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, Guangdong, China"
      ],
      "name": "Fen Cheng"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Humanities and Management, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, Guangdong, China"
      ],
      "name": "Yulan Yu"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Clinical Psychology, People's Hospital of Longhua, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China"
      ],
      "name": "Manjun Shen"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Rethinking temporary absence from school in Chinese adolescents",
  "uid": "5bc9664d-5b16-59e3-8d1f-9c37a1ce48f5"
}