西部农村学校同伴效应对青少年近视的影响

Peer Effects on the Adolescents’Myopia

我国青少年近视率居高不下,农村地区也不例外,已严重威胁我国未来人力资本水平。基于2018-2019年在西部2省9县农村地区163所学校四至九年级的实地调查数据,使用工具变量法分析了同伴效应对青少年近视的影响。研究发现班级中近视同伴比例越高,青少年的视力水平更差、近视的可能性更大。同时发现同伴效应在近视的青少年中影响更大,但该影响在戴眼镜的近视青少年中有所降低。同伴效应对女生、初中生以及住校生的视力影响更大。作用机制检验发现,同伴近视并未通过间接影响个体对于近视的态度来增大近视可能性,可能主要通过直接改变个体用眼行为产生影响。因为同伴效应的存在,近视防控亟需引起全社会的重视,让近视防控产生社会乘数效应。同时,近视防控工作需要针对不同的青少年给予差异化的关怀与帮助,积极倡导正确的用眼行为。

The rate of myopia among Chinese teenagers remains high,and the prevention and control of myopia have become one of our key tasks.This study is based on the survey data from grades 4 to 9 of 163 schools in nine counties in two provinces from 2018 to 2019.Using the instrumental variable method,this paper analyzes the impact of classmates’peer network on the adolescents’myopia.The empirical results show that the higher the proportion of myopic peers in the class,the higher the chance of individuals being myopic.Myopic students,girls,junior school students,and students boarding at school are more susceptible to their peers’myopia.Finally,we analyze the mechanism of peer effect and finds that peers’myopia may directly affect other individuals’visual acuity by changing their behavior instead of the attitude.The conclusions of this article have important practical meaning for formulating relevant policies to the prevention and control of myopia.