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There are about 61.02 million left-behind rural children in China, who were left at their hometowns by one or both of their rural-to-urban migrant parents. As a result of parental migration, left-behind children receive compromised parental care and are at higher risk for depression than non-left-behind children. In light of the huge number of Chinese left-behind children and their heightened risk for depression, the association between parental care and left-behind children's depression and the underlying mechanisms were examined in a sample of 279 fourth-graders and seventh-graders over 2.5 years. The analytic sample included 72 children left behind by both parents, 79 children left behind by fathers, and 56 non-left-behind children. These children's family structure, guardians, and the left behind type remained stable across the 2.5 years.The results showed that children left behind at home by one or both of their migrant parents reported less parental care and higher depression at both the pretest and the posttest than non-left-behind children. Depression assessed at posttest was higher than that at pretest among children left behind by both parents. When controlling for gender, parental care at pretest was associated with concurrent depression among left-behind children via self-esteem and neuroticism; parental care at pretest also was associated with left-behind children's depression at posttest via self-esteem and neuroticism at posttest. When controlling for gender and posttest parental care, pretest parental care was marginally associated with posttest depression but the mediation effects via posttest self-esteem and neuroticism disappeared. Under either controlling condition, the interaction between pretest parental care and pretest friendship quality predicted posttest self-esteem and neuroticism. Specifically, associations between pretest parental care and posttest self-esteem and neuroticism were stronger among left-behind 7th-graders with higher friendship quality than those with lower friendship quality.The findings of this study supported some propositions of the diathesis-stress theory on depression. Moreover, the findings have several practical implications for future intervention on reducing depression among left-behind children. Programs that aim to decrease those children's depression should pay attention to strengthening their parental care, improving their self-esteem and emotional stability, and promoting their friendship quality.

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Objectives The protective role of self‐compassion in emerging adult depression has garnered empirical support. It makes more sense to understand the psychological processes underlying this relationship. Based on the stress appraisal patterns, the present study examined the mediating roles of emotion regulation (ER) and resilience in the link between self‐compassion and depression among college students with left‐behind experience (LBE). Methods A total of 391 LBE college students (Mage = 18.43 years; SD = 0.79 years) in Chongqing reported their demographic information and self‐compassion (the Self‐Compassion Scale) level at baseline (T1) and reported their levels of ER (the Emotion Regulation Scale), resilience (the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale), and depression (the Depression‐Anxiety‐Stress Scale) 3 months later (T2). Results The results revealed that (a) both ER (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and resilience separately mediated the association between self‐compassion and depression; (b) cognitive reappraisal and resilience sequentially mediated this association. Conclusions These findings reveal the underlying mechanisms of the associations between self‐compassion and depression among LBE college students and have implications for interventions aimed at mitigating their depression.