The Relation Between Perceived Discrimination And Migrant Children's School Adaptation: A Longtitudinal Study

Migrant children's mental health and social adjustment has obtained extensive attention from all walks of life. Previous research found the maladjustment of Chinese migrant children. As the most potential risk factor, the function mechanism of perceived discrimination is still not clear and need more research. The present study used longitudinal design, multiple informants, hierarchical regression and simple slope analysis to examine the relation between perceived discrimination and migrant children's school adaptation, and whether the relation varied with gender and social support. Two hundred and eighty-one children (157 boy and 124 girls) and their parents and teachers participated in the study. When these children were in grade 7 (Mage=13.09 years, SD=1.13)(T1), they were initially asked to report their perceived discrimination and social support, and teachers and parents were asked to report children's problem behaviors at school on Teacher-Child Rating Scale, respectively. One year later (T2), data was collected again.The results indicated that:(1) children's perceived discrimination at T1 positively predicted teacher-reported externalizeng and learning problems, and parent-reported internalizing problems at T2,and marginally significantly positively predicted parent-reported externalizing and learning problems at T2, after controlling for the stability of outcome variables, whereas the prediction from children's school adaptation at T1 to perceived discrimination at T2 was nonsignificant; (2) boys perceived more discrimination and had more externalizing and learning problems than girls; gender moderated the relation between perceived discrimination and migrant children's externalizing problems; specifically, perceived discrimination increased boys'externalizing problems, but not girls; (3) a negative correlation was found between migrant children's social support and their perceived discrimination. And social support moderated the relation between perceived discrimination and children's internalizing problems; specifically, perceived discrimination increased migrant children's internalizing problems only when they had higher objective support, or use support frequently.In summary, the results indicated that perceived discrimination has consistently detrimental effect on migrant children's adjustment. Gender and social support moderate the effect of perceived discrimination on school adaptation. The governments, school and other organizations should take effective measures to decrease the migrant children's perception of discrimination, create an healthy environment full of emotional care and pay more attention to boys'social adjustment. Future research need to investigate the mediated process between perceived discrimination and migrant children's adjustment.