Grandparent-child Cohesion,Beliefs About Adversity And Left-behind Adolescents' Depression And Life Satisfaction In Rural China

With parental migration,most of these left-behind adolescents actually live in a situation lacking parental care,support,guidance and communication.It is suggested that adolescents from two-parent families have higher levels of negative emotion than adolescents from nonmigrant rural families(Zhao,Liu,& Wang,2015).Negative emotion have long-term effect on adolescents' positive development,therefore,the mechanism and protective factors of negative emotional of rural left-behind adolescents has become the focus of researchers.However,researchers have gradually realized that mental health is a state of mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.Thus,to gain a larger understanding of left-behind adolescents' mental health,the current study would examine the mechanism and protective factors of left-behind adolescents' depression and satisfaction simultaneously.The most majority of adolescents in two-parent migrant families are cared for by grandparents,so grandparent-child cohesion might play an important role in left-behind adolescents' positive development.On this basis,the present study examined the roles and the mechanism of grandparent-child cohesion and beliefs about adversity in mental health(depression and life satisfaction)among adolescents left behind by both of their rural-to-urban migrant parents compared to those with nonmigrating parents.A total of 476 adolescents including 204 adolescents from parent-migrant families and 259 adolescents from nonmigrant rural families completed the self-report assessment on testing the characteristics of grandparent-child cohesion,beliefs about adversity,depression and life satisfaction and the protective effects of grandparent-child cohesion and beliefs about adversity on depression and life satisfaction.The mediate effects of beliefs about adversity between grandparent-child cohesion and adolescents' depression and life satisfaction would be examined in this study.Main results of this study are as follows:1.There was a marginal significant main effect for left-behind status for beliefs about adversity,adolescents from parent-migrating families reported lower levels ofbeliefs about adversity than those from nonmigrant-families.There was no statistically significant main effect for left-behind status for grandparent-child cohesion,depression and life satisfaction.2.Grandparent-child cohesion were negatively correlated with depression and positively correlated with life satisfaction for adolescents from parent-migrant families and nonmigrant rural families.Beliefs about adversity were negatively correlated with depression and positively correlated with life satisfaction.adolescents from parent-migrant families and nonmigrant rural families for adolescents from parent-migrant families and nonmigrant rural families.3.Grandparent-child cohesion was negatively correlated with adolescents' depression and was positively correlated with adolescents' life satisfaction.In addition,the predictive effects of grandparent-child cohesion on adolescents' depression and life satisfaction differ in the status of parent' s migration.Grandparent-child cohesion is most beneficial for adolescents from parent-migrant families versus adolescents from nonmigrant rural families.4.Beliefs about adversity partially mediated the relationship between grandparent-child cohesion and adolescents' depression.Beliefs about adversity partially mediated the relationship between grandparent-child cohesion and adolescents' life satisfaction5.The mediating effects of beliefs about adversity between grandparent-child cohesion and depression varies as the status of parent' s migration.The effect of grandparent-child cohesion on beliefs about adversity was stronger for adolescents from parent-migrant families than those from nonmigrant rural families.6.The mediating effects of beliefs about adversity between grandparent-child cohesion and life satisfaction were examined in adolescents from parent-migrant families than those from nonmigrant rural families respectively.The study found that beliefs about adversity marginal significantly predicted the life satisfaction in both subgroups.The study also found that the mediating effects of beliefs about adversity is not significant in both subgroups.