| With the fast development of the process of Chinese urbanization, the number of migrant population in China has been expanding in a high speed. The form of the single flow of migrant population has gradually switched to the form of ’family’ flow, and the number of migrant children rises sharply as well. How to guarantee the sound development of migrant children has become an important subject for researchers. Due to the big differences in cultural backgrounds, life-style, and values between urban and rural regions, and the limitation of the household registration system in China, migrant children are facing the adverse circumstances compared with urban children in some resources such as family environment, interpersonal network, and educational development. As a result, when compared with urban children, they may think that a lot of interests which should belong to them have been deprived, which easily produced a subjective and relative deprivation in their mind. Relative deprivation (RD), a subjective cognition and emotional experience, refers to that some individuals or groups perceived themselves at disadvantage circumstances by comparing with the corresponding reference groups, which leads them to experience some negative emotions, such as anger and resentment. Through literature reading we found that, previous researches in RD field were mainly focused on the vulnerable groups whose group membership couldn’t change. For a difference, the group membership of migrant children is relatively concealable and can be changed. Thus, the conclusions of previous research cannot fully deduce to migrant children. Anyhow, comprehensive study of the specific regularity of RD for migrant children has important theory values and practical implications for both enriching the theoretical system of RD and promoting the psychological harmony level of disadvantaged groups.Based on the perspective of psychological and social harmony, the current study, using interview method, questionnaire method and experiment method, taking the special group "migrant children in urban area" as the objects of this study and conducting a sample on migrant children from the Fourth Grade in elementary school to junior middle school students, was aimed to examine Chinese migrant children’s RD compared with urban children. More specifically, in order to thoroughly reveal and understand the generation process and effect mechanism of children’s RD and provide a scientific basis in promoting migrant children to adapt and enjoy the urban life better, the current study was intended to make a systematic research on structures, developmental characteristics, influence factors, explicit mechanism, and implicit mechanism of RD for migrant children. The current research designed four parts of empirical study (seven sub-studies) to discuss the above problems:The first part of research mainly aimed to explore the structures and characteristics of migrant children’s RD. Study 1 developed the RD scale for migrant children based on the literature analysis, in-depth interview and open questionnaire survey. Results showed that the construction of RD for Chinese migrant children contained second-order two-factor structures: Individual RD (with individual-cognitive and individual-emotionalRD) and group RD (with group-cognitive and group-emotional RD). The self developed scale had good reliability and validity, and can be used as an effective tool for further studies. Study 2 made a large scale measurement on the migrant children’s RD by using the formal questionnaire developed by study 1. Results found that Chinese migrant children had a moderate score on RD, in which their score on group RD was significantly higher than the score on individual RD. The RD increased gradually with the growth of migrant children’s age. The migrant children in middle school had more score on RD than those in elementary school. Compared with the migrant one-child, those migrant children who are not the only-child in their families had more score on RD. With the increas ing of mobility, migrant children’s RD boosted gradually as well This part of the study answered the question that what were the structures and developmental characteristics of migrant children’s RD?The second part of research mainly discussed the influence and their effect differences of individual and environmental factors on migrant children’s RD. Specifically, the current study, using hierarchical regression analysis, investigated the effects of individual factors such as locus of control, perceived discrimination, and environmental factors such as social economic status of family (SES), class environment on migrant children’s RD. It was found that after controlling the effect of some key demographic variables, the SES, the relationship between teachers and students, the relationship between different students, and the competitive atmosphere in class had significant negative effect on migrant children’s RD, while locus of control and perceived discrimination had significant positive effect on migrant children’s RD. On the whole, the predictive effect of environmental factors on migrant children’s RD was greater than that of individual factors. What’s more, class environment had larger predictive effect among the environmental factors, while perceived discrimination had larger predictive effect among the individual factors. This part of the study answered the question that what were the key individual and environmental factors which influenced the development of migrant children’s RD and how was the difference of their effect?The third part of research mainly discussed the influence of RD on migrant children’s city adaptation (including psychological adaptation and social adaptive behavior), as well as its internal mechanism. Study 1 using structural equation model (SEM) to investigate the impact of RD on migrant children’s psychological adaptation (with mental health, subjective well-being and self-esteem as indice), and focused on the effect of sense of personal control and belief in a just world between them. Results showed that:1) The total psychological adaptation level of migrant children was well; 2) RD affected mental health, subjective well-being and self-esteem directly and indirectly through the sense of personal control, which suggest that the sense of personal control could be the mediator between RD and psychological adaptation; 3) Belief in a just world (BJW) significantly moderated the relationship between RD and psychological adaptation. Specifically, the high level of BJW can weaken the negative influence of RD on mental health, subjective well-being and self-esteem. Similarly, Study 2 use SEM to investigate the impact of RD on migrant children’s social adaptive behavior (with aggressive behavior, social withdrawal behavior and prosocial behavior as indice), and focused on the effect of social support and group identity between them. Results showed that:1) The total social adaptation level of migrant children was well; 2) RD had significant positive effect on migrant children’s aggressive behavior and social withdrawal behaviors, and had negative effect on their prosocial behavior. Social support played a partially mediated role between RD and aggressive behavior as well as prosocial behavior, while played a completely mediated role between RD and social withdrawal behavior; 3) Group identity significantly moderated the relationship between RD and prosocial behavior. Specifically, the high level of ingroup identification can strengthen the negative influence of RD on prosocial behavior. This part of the study answered the quest ion that how RD affected migrant children’s explicit city adaptation and what was its intrinsic mechanism?The fourth part of research ma inly focused on the effect of RD on migrant children’s implicit social cognition and its mechanism. Experiment 1, using the classic IAT paradigm and questionnaire method, examined the influence of RD on implicit intergroup preference, implicit self-esteem and implicit aggression, and verified whether the implicit intergroup preference and explicit intergroup preference, implicit self-esteem and explicit self-esteem, as well as implicit aggression and explicit aggression would be separated. Results found that migrant children’s implicit intergroup preference and explicit intergroup preference, implicit self-esteem and explicit self-esteem, and implicit aggression and explicit aggression separated significantly. The migrant children with high level of RD had more score on implicit outgroup preference and less score on implicit self-esteem than those with low level of RD. But on implicit aggression, there was no significant difference between high and low level groups. Aiming at the shortcomings of experiment 1, experiment 2 further examined whether triggered situational factors (including the level of related situation and irrelevant situation) moderated the relationship between migrant children’s RD and implicit social cognition. Results showed that the triggered situation had significant moderating effect between migrant children’s RD and implicit intergroup preference, implicit self-esteem as well as implicit aggression. More specifically, in the context of relevant circumstances, the migrant children with high level of RD had more score on implicit outgroup preference and implicit aggression, and less score on implicit self-esteem than those with low level of RD. While in the context of independent circumstances, there was no significant difference between high and low level groups on implicit outgroup preference, implicit self-esteem and implicit aggression. This part of the study answered the question that how RD influenced migrant children’s implicit social cognition? Were there any differences between the implicit and explicit effect mechanism? Finally, all the results have been discussed under the framework of social identity theory, social comparison theory and theory of resilience. |
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