Objective To systematically evaluate and comparatively analyze the mental health status of adolescents with different genders in middle schools of China, and to provide scientific evidence for the improvement of adolescents’ mental health level. Methods Such databases as CNKI, VIP, WanFang Data, and CBM (1989 to Dec, 2009) were searched. Data were extracted from the included literature and RevMan 4.2 software was used for meta-analyses. Results Twenty-seven original literatures were included. The results of meta-analyses showed: the total anxious trend of girls was higher than that of boys (OR= –?2.14, 95%CI –?2.93 to –?1.35, Plt;0.000 01); the result of each scale displayed that girls scored higher than boys in terms of study-anxiety (OR= –?0.53, 95%CI –?0.67 to –?0. 39, Plt;0.00001), social-anxiety (OR= –?0.30, 95%CI –?0.45 to –?0.15, Plt;0.000 1), self-accusation trend (OR= –?0.30, 95%CI –?0.46 to –?0.13, Plt;0.000 6), allergy trend (OR= –?0.18, 95%CI 0.31 to –?0.05, P=0.008), body symptom (OR= –0.21, 95%CI –0.34 to –0.08, P=0.001), and phobia trend (OR= –?0.80, 95%CI –?0.91 to –?0.68, Plt;0.000 01); No significant differences were identified between boys and girls in terms of solitude trend (OR=0.09, 95%CI –?0.04 to 0.22, P=0.2) and actuation trend (OR=0.06, 95%CI –?0.15 to 0.28, P=0.56). Conclusion Targeted measures should be taken for adolescent mental health education, especially for girls.
