The Role Identity In The Relationship Between Perceived Discrimination And Psychological Adjustment Of Migrant Children

In recent years,the rapid economic and social progress and development,and the increase in the number of people on the move,have led to the increasing scale of mobile young children in China’s rural and urban areas,and their mental health and other closely related issues have attracted widespread attention from international and social circles.This study used a follow-up study to examine the relationship between perceptions of discrimination and psychological adjustment of migrant children and the role of their role identity in it.Three public junior high schools were selected and 281 migrant children(157 boys;M age=13.43 years,SD=0.85)were asked to report the results of the questionnaire related to discrimination perception,urban role identity and psychological adjustment in the first semester of their first year of schooling,and to understand their life satisfaction,loneliness and school attitude adjustment.The data were collected again at the same time points one year later and two years later,respectively.The results of the study showed that(1)discrimination perceptions of migrant children were significantly associated with psychological adjustment,and the higher the level of discrimination,the lower the well-being of migrant children,the worse their attitudes toward school,and the higher their feelings of loneliness.(2)There is a mediating effect of urban role identity on discrimination perceptions and psychological adjustment of migrant children.Discrimination perceptions negatively predict psychological adjustment through urban group identity,i.e.,high discrimination perceptions can alleviate the negative effects of stressful situations and maintain psychological adjustment at a healthy level through low urban group identity.(3)Urban role identity has a moderating effect on discrimination perceptions and psychological adjustment of migrant children.For migrant children with high urban group identity,discrimination perceptions significantly and negatively predicted school attitudes,i.e.,the stronger the discrimination perceptions,the lower the school attitude scores.For children with low urban group identity,this predictive effect was not significant.When discrimination perceptions were at low levels,children with high urban group identity performed significantly higher on school attitudes than children with low urban group identity.The conclusions of this study are as follows: There is a close relationship between discrimination perception,urban role identity and psychological adjustment in migrant children.The increase in discrimination perceptions of children led to a decrease in urban role identity,and High urban role identity has a positive effect on children’s mental health levels in a low-discrimination environment.