The mediating effect of self-esteem on the relationship of living environment, anxiety, and depression of underprivileged children: A path analysis in Chinese context

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the relationships of living environment, self-esteem, anxiety, and depression of children in poverty. A sample of 1314 children (grades 4-9) was collected by a school-based survey in Xiushui city, Mainland China. Structural equation modeling was adopted to analyze the data and verify the hypothesized model. Results showed that living environment was negatively correlated with poor children's anxiety and depression levels, and self-esteem had a mediating effect on the relationship between living environment and the mental health of underprivileged children. Based on these findings, we proposed relevant theoretical and practical implications.

Post-traumatic growth among 5195 adolescents at 8.5 years after exposure to the Wenchuan earthquake: Roles of post-traumatic stress disorder and self-esteem

“…People with high self-esteem are generally believed to have sufficient internal resources of confidence and positive emotions to cope with external threats (Steele, 1988). High self-esteem is also considered to be a buffer against negative experiences, protecting children and adolescents from trauma-related stress (Moksnes et al, 2010; Yin et al, 2017). This also seems to be true for survivors of natural disasters such as earthquakes.…”

The longitudinal associations among grandparent–grandchild cohesion, cultural beliefs about adversity, and depression in Chinese rural left-behind children

“…Parental absence, as a consequence of parents’ rural-to-urban migrations, often has substantial detrimental effects on children’s depression (He et al, 2012; Wu et al, 2015; Yin et al, 2017). In recent years, many studies have reported high prevalence rates of depression among left-behind children in China (Cheng and Sun, 2015; He et al, 2012; Wu et al, 2015) and demonstrated that left-behind children were at greater risk for developing depression than non-left-behind children (Liang et al, 2017; Wang et al, 2015; Wu et al, 2015; Zhao et al, 2015).…”

Family Income and Child Depression: The Chain Mediating Effect of Parental Involvement, Children’s Self-Esteem, and Group Differences

“…Prior studies have demonstrated that in low-income families, parents typically exhibit negative parenting behaviors, including inadequate parental involvement [26,27], which in turn is detrimental to children's development [28]. In contrast, positive parental involvement can alleviate depressive symptoms and reduce the risk of depression in children [9]. In addition, parental involvement longitudinally predicts the development of children.…”

“…According to the report published by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China, the divorce rate rose from 2.0% in 2010 to 3.4% in 2019 [41,42], which has led to increase in the number of children raised in single-parent families. Compared with intact families, children from single-parent families face more physical and mental health problems [15], including fewer positive psychological states [43], a higher risk of depression [9,44], and lower self-esteem [45]. These negative outcomes also continue into adulthood [46].…”

“…Studies have shown that family factors have a great impact on depression [7], as a single-parent family, a low family income, and negative parenting are important stress factors [8], while self-esteem is an important cognitive vulnerability factor [9]. In addition, prior research has found that stressors often appear together, and multiple stressors have a greater impact on the development of children than a single stressor [10].…”