Improving the mental well-being of children and adolescents is a significant component of the Healthy China 2030 Initiative, among which the mental health status of left-behind children in rural China deserves more attention. This paper systematically reviews the existing empirical studies of the general status and the influencing factors of the mental health among rural left-behind children, and the intervention studies for improving the mental well-being of this population. Evidences show that, despite of the previous theoretical and empirical work focusing on the mental health of left-behind children, further studies are still needed to set up a consistent concept of left-behind children, with the standard measuring tools of mental health, to carry out the longitudinal studies, to develop the cultural-specific intervention in Chinese rural communities and to facilitate the multidisciplinary collaborations.

rural left-behind children  /  mental health  /  psychological intervention