The Mechanism Of How Peer Victimization Impacts On Dropout Risk Of Migrant Children

Because of their special status,migrant children face more adverse factors in the process of learning.Although China has continuously issued policies to protect migrant children’s right to education,the problem of migrant children dropping out of junior high school is still quite prominent.Peers are important social members of adolescent children.Peer victimization will destroy their social system and increase the risk of students dropping out.It has been proved by numerous studies that dropout brings harm to the economy,society and the individual physical and mental health of dropouts,so the importance of prevention and intervention of dropout risk is self-evident.This paper intends to use three studies to explore the specific source areas of dropout risk for migrant children,and explore the influence of peer victimization on dropout risk of migrant children,as well as the role of individual perception of discrimination and emotional regulation strategies.In the first study,literature analysis,interview and qualitative analysis were used to compile the initial questionnaire on dropout risk of migrant children.Item analysis and exploratory factor analysis were carried out on the initial questionnaire of 1198 migrant children in junior middle school.Confirmatory factor analysis and reliability and validity test were conducted on 1010 junior high school students’ formal questionnaires.The results showed that the questionnaire on dropout risk of migrant children included50 items in 11 dimensions,including self-efficacy,coping and self-esteem,academic attitude,learning habits and academic performance,peer relationship,peer victimization,peer influence,teacher-student relationship,school environment,family support and discipline,and economic pressure.The questionnaire model was well fitted(χ2=2677.08,df=1120,χ2/df=2.39,CFI=0.91,TLI=0.90,RMSEA=0.04,SRMR=0.04).The foreign dropout risk questionnaire(DRI),dropout tendency Inventory and middle school students learning burnout questionnaire were used as the criterion questionnaires.The results showed that the criterion validity of this questionnaire was good.At the same time,the total score and each dimension of the questionnaire have good internal consistency reliability,split half reliability and retest reliability.In the second study,318 migrant children were selected as subjects.Questionnaire method was used to explore the influence process of peer victimization on dropout risk of migrant children,and the mediating role of individual discrimination perception and the moderating role of cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression emotion regulation strategies were analyzed.The results showed that:(1)Peer victimization could positively predict dropout risk;(2)Perception of individual discrimination plays a mediating role between peer victimization and dropout risk;(3)Cognitive reappraisal moderated the relationship between peer victimization and perceived individual discrimination,but expression suppression did not.Specifically,migrant children who used less cognitive reappraisal emotion regulation strategies had more perceived individual discrimination after experiencing peer victimization.In Study 3,354 migrant children were selected as subjects,using 3(relational victimization,verbal victimization,non-victimization)×3(cognitive reappraisal,expression suppression,neutral)inter-group design,with 1 inter-group variable as peer victimization and 2 inter-group variable as emotion regulation strategy.The mediating variable was perceived individual discrimination and the dependent variable was dropout risk.This study uses scenario experiment method and self-compiled peer victimization scenario materials to investigate the effect of peer victimization on the dropout risk of migrant children.The results showed that: when the control group(nonvictimization group)was taken as the reference,(1)relational victimization had a significant mediating effect on dropout risk through individual discrimination perception,and the effect of relational victimization on dropout risk was no longer significant after the inclusion of individual discrimination perception.(2)Verbal victimization has a significant mediating effect on dropout risk through individual discrimination perception,and the effect of verbal victimization on dropout risk is no longer significant after adding the mediating variable individual discrimination perception.(3)Neither cognitive reappraisal nor expression suppression moderated the relationship between peer victimization and dropout risk.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)The self-compiled questionnaire of dropout risk of migrant children has good reliability and validity,which can be used to measure and predict dropout risk of migrant children.(2)Peer victimization can significantly predict the dropout risk of migrant children.(3)Perceived individual discrimination plays a mediating role between peer victimization and dropout risk.(4)In the questionnaire,cognitive reappraisal,rather than expressive suppression,moderated the relationship between perceived peer victimization and individual discrimination;In the scenario experiment,cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression did not play a role of moderation.