IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i20p13327-d943500.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unpacking the Association between Family Functionality and Psychological Distress among Chinese Left-Behind Children: The Mediating Role of Social Support and Internet Addiction

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaoyan Fan

    (School of Social Development, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China)

Abstract

Family functionality has been proven to be associated with adolescents’ and children’s mental health, but its indirect mechanisms among left-behind children have rarely been investigated in the Chinese context. This study aims to explore the direct effect of family functionality on psychological distress and the mediating roles of social support and Internet addiction among Chinese left-behind children. Based on multistage random sampling, 1355 students were recruited to participate in a school-based questionnaire survey in Jiangsu Province. Structural equation modeling using Amos 26.0 was used to test the direct and indirect paths of the variables. The results support our hypotheses, suggesting that family functionality has a direct effect on the psychological distress of left-behind children. Meanwhile, the association between family functionality and psychological distress is mediated by social support and Internet addiction, separately and sequentially. The findings suggest that effective social work interventions for psychological distress should be targeted toward social support and Internet addiction among left-behind children.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaoyan Fan, 2022. "Unpacking the Association between Family Functionality and Psychological Distress among Chinese Left-Behind Children: The Mediating Role of Social Support and Internet Addiction," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-12, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:20:p:13327-:d:943500
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13327/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13327/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhao, Xinyi & Fu, Fang & Zhou, Luqing, 2020. "The mediating mechanism between psychological resilience and mental health among left-behind children in China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    2. Wang, Bo & Stanton, Bonita & Li, Xiaoming & Cottrell, Lesley & Deveaux, Lynette & Kaljee, Linda, 2013. "The influence of parental monitoring and parent–adolescent communication on Bahamian adolescent risk involvement: A three-year longitudinal examination," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 161-169.
    3. John Knight & Lina Song & Jia Huaibin, 1999. "Chinese rural migrants in urban enterprises: Three perspectives," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 73-104.
    4. Qin Zhang & Yuhan Luo & Hao Chen & Xinghui Zhang & Senbi Deng & Weixi Zeng & Yun Wang, 2019. "Migrate with Parent(s) or Not? Developmental Outcomes between Migrant and Left-behind Children from Rural China," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(4), pages 1147-1166, August.
    5. Yu Bai & Linxiu Zhang & Chengfang Liu & Yaojiang Shi & Di Mo & Scott Rozelle, 2018. "Effect of Parental Migration on the Academic Performance of Left Behind Children in North Western China," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(7), pages 1154-1170, July.
    6. Chang, Ching-Wen & Yuan, Rui & Chen, Ji-Kang, 2018. "Social support and depression among Chinese adolescents: The mediating roles of self-esteem and self-efficacy," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 128-134.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhengmao Guo & Changzhu Qi & Jian Yang & Yatao Xu & Shouming Li, 2023. "How family structure influences middle-school students’ involvement in physical exercise and their academic achievement in China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fu, Linyun & Zhu, Yiqi, 2020. "Are rural children of work-away parents really left behind? Voices from rural teachers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    2. Lifen Zhao & Steven Sek-yum Ngai, 2022. "Perceived Discrimination at School and Developmental Outcomes among Bai Adolescents: The Mediating Roles of Self-Esteem and Ethnic Identity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-17, January.
    3. Xu, Chen & Gong, Xingying & Fu, Wanyan & Xu, Yanjun & Xu, Haiyan & Chen, Wenjing & Li, Min, 2020. "The role of career adaptability and resilience in mental health problems in Chinese adolescents," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    4. Chen, Yiu Por (Vincent) & Zhang, Yuan, 2018. "A decomposition method on employment and wage discrimination and its application in urban China (2002–2013)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 1-12.
    5. Wang, Feng & Lin, Leesa & Lu, Jingjing & Cai, Jingjing & Xu, Jiayao & Zhou, Xudong, 2020. "Mental health and substance use in urban left-behind children in China: A growing problem," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    6. Hagen-Zanker, Jessica, 2010. "Modest expectations: Causes and effects of migration on migrant households in source countries," MPRA Paper 29507, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Roberts, Kenneth D., 2001. "The determinants of job choice by rural labor migrants in Shanghai," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 15-39.
    8. Niu, Dongxiao & Sun, Weizeng & Zheng, Siqi, 2021. "The role of informal housing in lowering China’s urbanization costs," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    9. Zhang, Huafeng, 2010. "The Hukou system's constraints on migrant workers' job mobility in Chinese cities," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 51-64, March.
    10. Vendryes, Thomas, 2011. "Migration constraints and development: Hukou and capital accumulation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 669-692.
    11. Dongjie Wu & Prasada Rao, 2017. "Urbanization and Income Inequality in China: An Empirical Investigation at Provincial Level," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 189-214, March.
    12. Xiushi Yang & Huasong Luo, 2009. "Migration, Urbanization, and Drug Use and Casual Sex in China: A Multilevel Analysis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(3), pages 581-597, March.
    13. Yi CHEN & Sylvie DEMURGER & Martin FOURNIER, 2004. "Différentiels salariaux, segmentation et discrimination à l’égard des femmes sur le marché du travail chinois," Working Papers 200426, CERDI.
    14. Yulan Liu & Zihong Deng & Ilan Katz, 2022. "Transmission of Educational Outcomes Across Three Generations: Evidence From Migrant Workers’ Children in China," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(5), pages 2563-2595, October.
    15. Xiaoqin Zhu & Daniel T. L. Shek, 2020. "The Influence of Adolescent Problem Behaviors on Life Satisfaction: Parent–Child Subsystem Qualities as Mediators," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(5), pages 1767-1789, October.
    16. John Knight & Linda Yueh, 2004. "Urban Insiders versus Rural Outsiders: Complementarity or Competition in China`s Urban Labour Market?," Economics Series Working Papers 217, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    17. Kunrong Shen & Jixiang Yu & Jian Li, 2011. "Labor mobility, marketization and urban income change: Potential rural-urban harmonization or not," Frontiers of Economics in China, Springer;Higher Education Press, vol. 6(3), pages 447-463, September.
    18. Bart Cockx & Jinkai Li & Erga Luo, 2023. "The Long-Term Impact of Parental Migration on the Health of Young Left-Behind Children," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2023019, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    19. Juliane Scheffel & Yiwei Zhang, 2019. "How does internal migration affect the emotional health of elderly parents left-behind?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(3), pages 953-980, July.
    20. Liu, Yang, 2013. "Labor market matching and unemployment in urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 108-128.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:20:p:13327-:d:943500. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.