Psychological Adaptation And Predictors Of Left-behind Children In Rural Junior High Schools

Since the reform and opening up in 1980 s,a large number of rural labor force Migrant workers have chosen to go out to work to improve their family economic status.The low social and economic status of migrant workers and the restriction of dual household registration system have forced them to leave their children in their registered residence,forming a special subpopulation of left-behind children in rural areas.Rural left-behind children are those whose under the age of 18 and one or both parents are migrating to urban areas,whereas children stay in rural areas where their registered residence is located,and therefore cannot live together with their parents,(National Women’s Federation research group,2013).According to a research report of National Women’s Federation in 2013,the number of left-behind children in rural China has reached 61.0255 million,nearly equal to the total population of the UK.Spawned in a specific era,this huge subpopulation has been experiencing parent-child separation for decades and will continue to exist for a period of time,which is unprecedented in the history of both China and foreign countries.Therefore,the research on it is not only a reference for the disadvantaged children in the world,but also a necessary move for Rural Revitalization in China.There are still many controversies on the question that “Whether parents go out to work lead to worse psychological adaptation of left-behind children or not”.Although various studies have answered this from different perspectives,there is still a lack of research based on the person-centered approach,and few studied the longitudinal development and change of left behind children’s psychological adaptability.In addition,although the rise of positive psychology also drives researchers begin to pay attention to the protective factors that promote the psychological development of left-behind children,such as parent-child cohesion,peer friendship quality and so on.However,there is still a lack of research on the difference of their influence and the vertical influence on psychological adaptation.Therefore,the purpose of this study is to explore the different patterns of left-behind children’s psychological adaptation and their vertical stability and variability through latent profile analysis and latent transition analysis.At the same time,this study also explores the predictive role and their differences of parent-child cohesion and peer relationship quality on the horizontal and vertical psychological adaptation profiles.This not only fills the gap of the person-centered approach in this field,but also provides a reference for understanding and promoting left-behind children’s psychological adaptation and its development during middle high school.894 junior high school students from Sichuan,Henan,Guizhou and Shanxi province in China were selected to conduct a follow-up study for three times in two years.SPSS 22.0 and Mplus 8.3 were used for data statistics and analysis.This study consists of two studies.One is to investigate the different patterns of psychological adaptation of left-behind children through latent profile analysis,and to analyze the cross-sectional predictive effect of interpersonal variables,gender and left-behind type on the profiles by multiple logistic regression.The second is to construct a longitudinal latent transition analysis model based on the results of study one,studying the similarities and longitudinal transition of different profiles.Then,gender,left-behind type and interpersonal relationship variables are included in the above model to analyze the impact of the above variables on the vertical transition probability.The results are as follows:(1)There are four different patterns of psychological adaptation of left-behind children in rural junior middle school,which are named respectively as “well-adjusted group”,“risky group”,“internalizing problematic group” and “externalizing problematic group”.(2)Both gender and left-behind type can significantly predict the profile’s membership.Boys are more likely to be in the externalizing problematic group.The children with migrating father are more likely to adapt well,while those with migrating mother are more likely to be in the externalizing problematic group,and the children whose both parents go out are more likely to be classified into risky group and internalizing problematic group.(3)Father-child cohesion can predict better adaptation profiles,but mother-child cohesion has no significant effect.On the one hand,friendship quality can predict a better adaptation profile,on the other hand,it may make individuals more likely to be classified into externalizing problematic group.(4)These profiles has longitudinal consistency in the period of junior high school.(5)Between the transition from wave 1 to wave 2,the internalizing problematic group has a higher probability of becoming better,and the externalizing problematic group has a higher proportion of turning to the risk group.From wave 2 to wave 3,the internalizing problematic group has a significant increase in stability,while the externalizing problematic group has a higher proportion of turning to the internalizing problematic group.(5)There are gender differences in the transition of left-behind children’s psychological adaptation profiles.Four groups of girls are less stable in the transition from wave 1 to wave 2,especially the well-adapted group,then all groups have higher stability at T2-T3;meanwhile,boys have higher stability at T1-T2,but lower stability at T2-T3.(7)There are left-behind type differences in the transition of left-behind children’s psychological adaptation profiles.Children with one migrant parent are more likely to improve their psychological adaptation,while those with two migrant parents are more likely to maintain their stability in the less-adapted profiles.(8)The higher the friendship quality at T2,the more likely the risk group is to turn to the internalizing problematic group instead of the other three groups,and the internalization problem group is more likely to remain in the same group instead of turning to the risky group.Also,the externalization problem group is more likely to turn to the risk group instead of the well-adapted group.(9)The higher the father-child cohesion,the more likely the externalizing problematic group will turn to the internalizing problematic group instead of the original group at T1-T2,and the more likely the risky group will stay in the original group instead of turning to the externalizing problematic group at T2-T3;the higher the mother-child cohesion,the more likely the well-adapted group in T1 will turn to the internalizing problematic group instead of the externalizing problematic group at T2,and it also will be more likely to turn to the externalizing problematic group in T3 instead of remaining in the same group.