The association between hope and depression has been studied, leaving the underlying mechanism of how hope might predict depression unexplored. With a cross-sectional design, this study investigated two possible mediating factors in the relationship between hope and depression among Chinese shadow education tutors, who confront a high turnover rate and are at high risk for depression. Altogether, 221 tutors participated in the survey, and reported their dispositional hope, perceived social support (PSS), perceived stress (PS), and depression. Results indicated that both PSS and PS mediated the relationship between hope and depression. Results also supported the hypothesized serial mediating effect. In other words, hope as a positive disposition may promote PSS, which can mitigate PS. The reduced PS, in turn, alleviates depression. This finding not only shed light on the independent and accumulative mediating effects of PSS and PS, but also has implications for preventive interventions among Chinese shadow education tutors experiencing the enormous pressure of instability. This serial mediation model should be confirmed by further longitudinal study.

Social–emotional competence (SEC) played an important role in promoting the physical and mental development of children, but there exist huge gaps in SEC development between rural left-behind children. This study used propensity score matching (PSM) to investigate 578 rural children about the effects of being left behind as well as individual characteristics and teacher support on their development of SEC. The results showed that being left behind had significant negative effects on the SEC of rural children. The development of SEC varies among left-behind children of different genders and length of left-behind duration. Teacher support had a significant moderating effect on the influence path of SEC, which could effectively mitigate the negative effects of left-behind children. Therefore, this study played an implicative role in studying the development of left-behind children’s SEC. The government and society should provide adequate cultural capital by completing the support system for compensating the lack of cultural capital. Schools and teachers should pay more attention to the development of left-behind children’s SEC through curriculum development and performance evaluation to create a positive atmosphere. Parents should promote SEC development for left-behind children by improving their communication and family parenting styles.