Objective: to investigate the mental health condition of 5934 freshmen in a university in
Shandong province, and to explore the factors influencing college students’ psychological crisis, so as to
shed insights on the mental health work in colleges and universities. Methods: Xin Yun Mental Health
Management System was used to screen psychologically risky freshmen starting 2021 in a university.
In this study, the students with high risk of psychological crisis were selected as the risk group, and
the students with no or low risk of psychological crisis as the control group. In this way, the factors
affecting college students’ psychological crisis were analyzed. Results: multivariate logistic regression
analysis showed that major factors include age (OR=0.90, 95%CI: 0.83~0.98), bad parental relationship
(OR=1.58, 95%CI: 1.15~2.18), the experience of being fostered (OR=1.47, 95%CI: 1.03~2.09), physical
abuse (OR=1.73, 95%CI: 1.08~2.77), sexual abuse (OR=2.42, 95%CI: 1.40~4.17), and psychological
abuse (OR=6.06, 95%CI: 3.02~12.14). Poor relationship with family (OR=1.50, 95%CI: 1.23~1.82),
bad relationship with friends (OR=1.76, 95%CI: 1.51~2.06), lack of the meaning of life (OR=2.24,
95%CI: 2.03~2.70) as well as learning (OR=1.84, 95%CI: 1.61~2.10) are also risk factors of students’
psychological crisis. Conclusion: this study provides data support for the Tree theory of psychological
crisis intervention, that is, the emergence of psychological crisis is the result of the joint influence of
psychological , social as well as biological factors. Childhood trauma, such as poor parental relationships
and experiences of separation, weak social support and absent life purpose are all risk factors mental
health workers should consider.