Developmental Trend Of Loneliness And The Relationship Between Loneliness And Cumulative Risk Of Left-behind Children In Primary Schools:a Longitudinal Study

Rapid social transformation and urbanization in domestic areas saw a surge in the number of young and middle-aged labor force parents left their hometown for seeking more working opportunities,hoping to enhance their quality of life and augment their family income.The total number of children in China who were left-behind in 2017 exceeded sixty million,due to families entrusting their children to other relatives in rural areas in order to reduce the cost of living,thus forcing them to remain in the domicile area.As the size of the left-behind children group expands,the multifaceted problems they are facing are gradually attracting public attention.In left-behind children group,left-behind children in primary schools occupy a great amount of total left-behind children,and they report more psychological adaptation problems.Bioecological system theory posits that,due to the combination of environmental system and individual psychological attitude,left-behind children in primary schools inhabit a full ecological environment system,leading to adverse outcomes.The lack of companionship and care from their parents or guardians,combined with the restrictions and challenges they face in terms of access to education and social interaction,may make left-behind children in primary schools more prone to experience of loneliness than other children.In addition,this experience may be influenced by gender,left-behind status and socioeconomic status,and these may exist great individual differences.According to the theory of self-determination,the stress of left-behind children in primary schools in multiple ecosystems can lead to negative self-perception.But according to stress-buffering hypothesis,left-behind children could use their positive cognition as a protective factor to keep the possibility of healthy development under adverse environment and negative behavior.The study purpose is to investigate the changing trend and potential influencing factors of loneliness of left-behind children in primary schools,and the prediction and internal mechanism of cumulative risks on loneliness of left-behind children in primary schools.The study unveils the developmental pattern of loneliness in left-behind children,the correlation between the cumulative risk and the loneliness of left-behind children,and has vital significance for the beneficial growth of their mental health.The study used children’s loneliness scale,socioeconomic status scale,basic psychological needs satisfaction scale,prosocial behavior scale,cumulative risks scale,and selected 511 left-behind children from primary schools in Shanxi,Sichuan and Guizhou provinces for the follow-up study.HLM6.08 and SPSS 26.0 were used for statistics and analysis of data.The first study analyzed the developmental trend of loneliness of left-behind children from grades 4 to 6 by constructing a multilevel analysis.At the same time,gender,left-behind status,socioeconomic status as moderators to investigate whether left-behind children’s overall variation of loneliness is affected.In the second study,12 cumulative risk variables from family,school and peer in microsystems were selected to analyze the effect of cumulative risks in fifth grade on left-behind children’s loneliness one year later.Investigations were conducted to determine the moderating and mediating effects of basic psychological needs satisfaction and prosocial behavior.The results are as follows:(1)The decrease in loneliness among left-behind children with a rise in grade is generally observed,yet individual variations in the initial assessment and speed of loneliness development are evident.(2)Notably,the initial measurement of loneliness varied between left-behind children of various left-behind status.The left-behind children in primary schools whose mothers were absent exhibited a significantly greater initial loneliness than those whose parents were absent.Nevertheless,no noteworthy disparity in the develop speed of the left-behind status was observed.(3)There was no noteworthy disparity between genders in the initial assessment and the speed of loneliness’ s development.(4)The left-behind children in primary schools of varying socioeconomic status experienced a marked sense of loneliness in the beginning measurement,and with the growth of grade,the socioeconomic status could positively predict the decline trend of loneliness.(5)Cumulative risk could positively predict the loneliness of left-behind children in primary schools after one year.(6)The basic psychological needs plays a longitudinal mediating role in predicting the cumulative risks to loneliness of left-behind children in primary schools.(7)Pro-social behavior moderates the relationship between basic psychological needs satisfaction and loneliness of left-behind children in primary schools,and high-pro-social behavior can enhance the positive effect of basic psychological needs satisfaction on loneliness of left-behind children in primary schools.