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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.

This study used the trauma film paradigm to investigate different forms of posttrauma verbal processing relevant to the formation of intrusive memories. We designed 3 experiments to investigate verbal processing that could help to reduce the formation of posttraumatic intrusions. Experiments 1 and 2 looked at the effect of several forms of verbal processing, varied in emotional foci and vantage points, on the formation of posttraumatic intrusions. Experiment 3 utilized event-related potential (ERP) technology to control emotional focus and to further examine the effect of verbal processing from different vantage points. Data produced by Experiment 1 showed that the "what-focus" group had fewer intrusions than the "why-focus" group. Experiment 2 produced no significant difference between first- and third-person vantage points. Results from the last experiment showed the what-focus group was faster to judge the colors of the words in the emotional Stroop task, and the amplitude and latency of P2 for negative words were greater than neutral words in the what-focus group. Based on the results of the experiments, participants who were led to verbalize their traumatic experiences using the what-focus and the first-person vantage point ended up with fewer intrusions.

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