Background: Although abundant research documented the vulnerability of left-behind children in rural China, little is known about whether early left-behind experiences are linked to their positive psychosocial functioning in later life, as well as the potential protective factors for their psychosocial adjustment.

Purpose: Informed by positive youth development framework and a positive adjustment framework in migrants, the current study compares psychosocial adjustment characterized by self-esteem and prosocial behavior between emerging adults with early left-behind experiences (LB-E) and their counterparts (Non-LB-E). Of importance, this study also examines the potential protective roles of social context (ie, peer support) and individual characteristic (ie, resilience) in psychosocial outcomes among Chinese emerging adults with and without early left-behind experiences.

Methods: A propensity score matching was used to balance the two groups regarding age, gender, socioeconomic status, and potentially traumatic life events. Finally, a total of 182 emerging adults with early left-behind experiences and 182 their counterparts was involved in the current study, who were asked to complete self-report questionnaires.

Results: The results showed that there were no significant differences in self-esteem and prosocial behavior between the two groups. In addition, resilience was found to moderate the link between peer support and self-esteem. Specifically, in the context of higher levels of peer support, emerging adults with higher levels of resilience reported higher levels of self-esteem.

Conclusion: The current study suggests that early left-behind experiences are not an adversity for emerging adults’ positive psychosocial adjustment, and the protective roles of peer support and resilience are highlighted in Chinese emerging adults. Intervention or prevention programs may focus on the enhancement of resilience as well as the quality of peer relationships, shifting away from risk towards positive development models.

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Direct and interactive effects of peer support and resilience on psychosocial adjustment in emerging adults with early left-behind experiences.

Migrant children experience more stressful life events than their urban counterparts. Despite the growing evidence that stressful life events are associated with non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), few studies have investigated this relationship using longitudinal designs. Besides, potential mediating factors have been rarely examined. This study tested the temporal relationship between stressful life events and NSSI among Chinese rural-to-urban migrant children, with depressive symptoms as the potential mediator, as well as the potential sex differences in these associations. In the present study, 279 Chinese rural-to-urban migrant children (57.3% females; Mage = 11.95, SD = 1.22) reported their stressful life events, depressive symptoms and NSSI a total of three times at 6-month intervals. Depressive symptoms only longitudinally mediated the relationship between stressful life events and NSSI among females. These findings provide evidence that supports the longitudinal effect of stressful life events on NSSI and the mediating role of depressive symptoms among migrant children. Moreover, there are sex differences in these longitudinal relationships.

Associations between stressful life events, non-suicidal self-injury, and depressive symptoms among Chinese rural-to-urban children: A three-wave longitudinal study.

This study explored the mediating effects of resilience and future orientation on the relationship between family socioeconomic status (SES) and learning engagement within the context of Chinese culture based on the cognitive theory of social class. A total of 1,245 junior high school students were recruited to complete anonymous questionnaires regarding the objective and subjective SES of their families, resilience, future orientation, and learning engagement. The mediating effects were tested by stepped multiple linear regression. Results indicated the following: (1) the relationships between objective and subjective SES, resilience, future orientation, and learning engagement was significantly positive; (2) resilience only mediated the relationship between subjective SES and learning engagement, whereas future orientation mediated the relationships between objective/subjective SES and learning engagement; (3) resilience and future orientation sequentially mediated the relationship between subjective SES and learning engagement. The current study contributes to a better understanding of how family SES influences adolescent academic performance from the perspective of adolescent cognitive abilities. In addition, this study provides implications for the prevention and intervention of academic performance of poor adolescents due to low SES.

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Family Socioeconomic Status and Learning Engagement in Chinese Adolescents: The Multiple Mediating Roles of Resilience and Future Orientation.

Introduction: Hippocampus, a medial temporal lobe structure, has significant implications in memory formation and learning. Although hippocampus activity is believed to be affected by socioeconomic status (SES), limited knowledge exists on which SES indicators influence hippocampus function. Purpose: This study explored the separate and combined effects of three SES indicators, namely parental education, family income, and neighborhood income, on adolescents' hippocampus activation during an N-Back memory task. As some of the effects of parental education may be through income, we also tested if the effect of parental education on hippocampus activation during our N-Back memory task is mediated by family or neighborhood income. Methods: The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study is a national multi-center investigation of American adolescents' brain development. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data of a total sample of 3067 9-10-year-old adolescents were used. The primary outcome was left- hippocampus activation during the N-Back memory task (mean beta weight for N-Back run 1 2 back versus 0 back contrast in left hippocampus). The independent variable was parental education. Family income and neighborhood income were two possible mediators. Age, sex, and marital status were the covariates. To test mediation, we used hierarchical linear regression models first without and then with our mediators. Full mediation was defined according to Kenny. The Sobel test was used to confirm statistical mediation. Results: In the absence of family and neighborhood income in the model, higher parental educational attainment was associated with lower level of left hippocampus activation during the N-Back memory task. This effect was significant while age, sex, and marital status were controlled. The association between parental educational attainment and hippocampus activation during the N-Back memory task was no more significant when we controlled for family and neighborhood income. Instead, family income was associated with hippocampus activation during the N-Back memory task. These findings suggested that family income fully mediates the effect of parental educational attainment on left hippocampus activation during the N-Back memory task. Conclusions: The effect of parental educational attainment on adolescents' hippocampus activation during an N-Back memory task is fully explained by family income. That means low family income is why adolescents with low-educated parents show highlighted hippocampus activation during an N-Back memory task. Given the central role of the hippocampus in learning and memory and as income is a modifiable factor by tax and economic policies, income-redistribution policies, fair taxation, and higher minimum wage may have implications for promotion of adolescent equality and social justice. There is a need to focus on family-level economic needs across all levels of neighborhood income.

Family Income Mediates the Effect of Parental Education on Adolescents' Hippocampus Activation During an N-Back Memory Task.

This study aims to explore the influence mechanism of COVID-19 risk perception on anxiety in emerging adulthood in the context of public health events of the second round of COVID-19 outbreaks and provide support for exploring the path of mental health after the normalization of the epidemic situation. An online questionnaire, combined with community social work, was used in this study, and data of 522 emerging adults were collected in February 2021. The Perceived Risk of COVID-19 pandemic scale (PRCPS), the generalized anxiety disorder 7-item (GAD-7) scale, the scale of affect balance, and the connor-davidson resilience scale (CD-RISC) were used to investigate. The results showed that: first, the risk perception of COVID-19 in early adulthood was positively predictive of anxiety symptoms [B = 0.110, p < 0.05, 95%CI = (0.042, 0.176)]. Second, the affective quality of life plays a mediating role between the risk perception of COVID-19 and anxiety [B = 0.108, 95%CI = (0.060, 0.161)]. Thirdly, resilience plays a moderating role between the risk perception of COVID-19 and anxiety, the higher the resilience of emerging adulthood, the weaker effects of the risk perception of COVID-19 negative prediction of anxiety [B = −0.110, p < 0.001, 95%CI = (−0.170, −0.049)]. Therefore, to control the anxiety of emerging adulthood in public health events, we should pay attention to the propaganda and management of epidemic information, improve the quality of life, and attention should be paid to the emerging adulthood with low resilience.

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The Effect of Risk Perception on Anxiety in Emerging Adulthood Under the Local Outbreak of COVID-19: A Conditional Process Analysis

Low family socioeconomic status (SES) is closely related to increased risk of emotional maladaptation among adolescents. Although previous studies have found that low family SES is a significant and common experience for most rural-to-urban migrant adolescents in China, little research has examined the association between family SES and emotional adaptation or identified the protective factors that may minimise emotional maladaptation among these adolescents. The present study examined the associations between family SES and three indices of emotional adaptation (emotion regulation, life satisfaction and depression) and the moderating effects of adolescents' resilience and parental positive emotion (PE) among 486 Chinese rural-to-urban migrant adolescents. The results suggest that family SES was significantly associated with migrant adolescents' emotional outcomes, to varying degrees. Moreover, both adolescents' resilience and PE moderated the associations between family SES and emotional outcomes, although the protective effects of the two moderators differed on the three emotional outcomes. These findings shed light into designing intervention and prevention programs to reduce emotional maladaptation among migrant adolescents.

Family socioeconomic status and emotional adaptation among rural‐to‐urban migrant adolescents in China: The moderating roles of adolescent's resilience and parental positive emotion

Migrant adolescents are exposed to a variety of risk factors that threaten their well-being. However, previous studies have often focused on one or several factors separately, ignoring the cumulative effect of risks. The current study adopted the cumulative risk (CR) model and examined the deleterious effect of CR on the three indices of subjective well-being (SWB) among early migrant adolescents in China. We further explored the moderating role of resilience and stress mindset on the above associations. A sample of 234 early migrant adolescents (45.7% girls) completed self-reported questionnaires in two waves (2016–2017), and the mean age of valid participants was 11.49 years (SD = 1.16) at T1. The multiple regression results indicated that CR negatively predicted adolescents’ life satisfaction one year later. Moreover, high resilience and a more stress-is-enhancing mindset buffered the deleterious effect of CR on the emotional components of SWB. Specifically, the negative effect of CR on positive affect was reduced as resilience increased, whereas the adverse effect of CR on negative affect was attenuated by holding a more stress-is-enhancing mindset. The present findings suggest that CR is a useful predictor for multiple risk factors to which migrant adolescents are exposed and that it has a robust effect on later SWB. These findings also contribute to a better understanding of the moderating roles of resilience and stress mindset to aid future intervention programs.

Cumulative Risk and Subjective Well-Being Among Rural-to-Urban Migrant Adolescents in China: Differential Moderating Roles of Stress Mindset and Resilience

Hui-jie Li

Papers

Family socioeconomic status and emotional adaptation among rural‐to‐urban migrant adolescents in China: The moderating roles of adolescent's resilience and parental positive emotion

Cumulative Risk and Subjective Well-Being Among Rural-to-Urban Migrant Adolescents in China: Differential Moderating Roles of Stress Mindset and Resilience