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Although exposure to ambient air pollution has been associated with mental disorder, little is known about its potential effects on children and adolescents, especially in Chinese population. We aimed to reveal the relationship of air pollutants with hospital outpatient visits for child and adolescence psychiatry (HOVCAP) in Shenzhen. A case-crossover study based on time-series data was applied, and a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) was used to evaluate the non-linear and delayed effects of 4 major air pollutants (NO 2 , PM 2.5 , SO 2 and O 3) on HOVCAP. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression was used to control the multicollinearity between covariates and to filter variables. A total of 94,660 cases aged 3–18 were collected from 2014 to 2019 in the Mental Health Center of Shenzhen. Results of pollutants at mode value (M 0) showed that in the single lag effect result, when the average daily concentration of NO 2 at 24 μg/m3, there was a significant effect on HOVCAP over lag 1, lag 4 and lag 5, respectively. The cumulative RR of NO 2 M 0 value to the outpatient visits were 1.438 (1.137–1.818) over lag 0–2, 1.454 (1.120–1.887) over lag 0–3, 1.466 (1.084–1.982) over lag 0–4, 1.680 (1.199–2.354) over lag 0–5, 1.993 (1.369–2.903) over lag 0–6, and 2.069 (1.372–3.119) over lag 0–7. However, PM 2.5 , SO 2 , O 3 were not associated with HOVCAP over neither single lag effects nor cumulative effects. The RR values both shown an increase either when NO 2 increases by 10 units or when the maximum concentration of NO 2 is reached. Our study suggests that exposure to the normal air quality of NO2 in Shenzhen may associated with the risk of HOVCAP. However, PM2.5, SO2, O3 were not associated with HOVCAP. • A distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) was used to evaluate the non-linear and delayed effects of pollutants on HOVCAP (hospital outpatient visits for child and adolescence psychiatry). • Exposure to the normal air quality of NO2 in Shenzhen may associated with the risk of HOVCAP. • The overall effect curve of NO2 on HOVCAP demonstrated an inverted U shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]