Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Cumulative Risk and Hopelessness among Chinese Rural-to-Urban Migrant Adolescents

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Child and Family Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Many rural-to-urban migrant adolescents experience adversity and are vulnerable to emotional problems. Previous studies on migrant adolescents focused on the impact of a single type of risk exposure. The cumulative risk approach considers a number of risk factors, providing a new perspective for investigating the living environment of individuals exposed to multiple risks simultaneously. The current study examined the relationship between cumulative risk and hopelessness among rural-to-urban migrant adolescents and the potential protective roles of stress mindset and subjective social mobility on this relationship. A total of 251 Chinese rural-to-urban migrant adolescents aged 10 to 14 completed a series of self-reported questionnaires. The results showed that adolescents exposed to more risk factors simultaneously faced a higher risk of hopelessness. For those with a stress-is-enhancing mindset or the belief in the possibility of upward social mobility, the link between cumulative risk and hopelessness was nonsignificant. When the two moderators were considered simultaneously, only subjective social mobility acted as a moderator. The findings showed that both the stress-is-enhancing mindset and subjective social mobility may act as protective variables to decrease the negative influence of adverse circumstances on Chinese migrant adolescents, but the effect of the latter is stable. The practical implications for promoting the development of disadvantaged adolescents are discussed.

Highlights

  • Migrant adolescents exposed to more risk factors experienced more hopelessness.

  • Stress mindset and subjective social mobility acted as moderators between cumulative risk and hopelessness.

  • Subjective social mobility was a valuable protective factor to reduce hopelessness among disadvantaged adolescents.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abramson, L. Y., Metalsky, G. I., & Alloy, L. B. (1989). Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression. Psychological Review, 96(2), 358–372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aish, A. M., & Wasserman, D. (2001). Does Beck’s Hopelessness Scale really measure several components? Psychological Medicine, 31(2), 367–372.

  • Alcántara, C., Chen, C. N., & Alegría, M. (2014). Do post-migration perceptions of social mobility matter for Latino immigrant health? Social Science & Medicine, 101(1), 94–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amone-P’olak, K., Ormel, J., Huisman, M., Verhulst, F. C., Oldehinkel, A. J., & Burger, H. (2009). Life stressors as mediators of the relation between socioeconomic position and mental health problems in early adolescence: the TRAILS study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 48(10), 1031–1038.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A. T., Weissman, A., Lester, D., & Trexler, L. (1974). The measurement of pessimism: the hopelessness scale. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 42(6), 861–865.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker-Weidman, E. G., Reinecke, M. A., Jacobs, R. H., Martinovich, Z., Silva, S. G., & March, J. S. (2009). Predictors of hopelessness among clinically depressed youth. Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapy, 37(3), 267–291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bjørnskov, C., Dreher, A., Fischer, J. A. V., Schnellenbach, J., & Kai, G. (2013). Inequality and happiness: when perceived social mobility and economic reality do not match. Social Science Electronic Publishing, 91(7), 75–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bolland, J. M. (2003). Hopelessness and risk behaviour among adolescents living in high-poverty inner-city neighbourhoods. Journal of Adolescence, 26(2), 145–158.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bolland, J. M., Bryant, C. M., Lian, B. E., McCallum, D. M., Vazsonyi, A. T., & Barth, J. M. (2007). Development and risk behavior among African American, Caucasian, and mixed-race adolescents living in high poverty inner-city neighborhoods. American Journal of Community Psychology, 40(3-4), 230–249.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bolland, J. M., Lian, B. E., & Formichella, C. M. (2005). The origins of hopelessness among inner-city African-American adolescents. American Journal of Community Psychology, 36(3-4), 293–305.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, R. H., & Corwyn, R. F. (2013). Socioeconomic status and child development. Journal of Emotional & Behavioral Disorders, 21(3), 371–399.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2007). The bioecological model of human development. In W. Damon, R. M. Lerner, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology (Vol. 1, Chapter 14). Wiley.

  • Browman, A. S., Destin, M., Carswell, K. L., & Svoboda, R. C. (2017). Perceptions of socioeconomic mobility influence academic persistence among low socioeconomic status students. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 72(3), 45–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Browman, A. S., Svoboda, R. C. & Destin, M. (2019). A belief in socioeconomic mobility promotes the development of academically motivating identities among low-socioeconomic status youth. Self and Identity, 00(00), 1–19.

  • Buehler, C., & Gerard, J. M. (2013). Cumulative family risk predicts increases in adjustment difficulties across early adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42(6), 905–920.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, Y., & Feng, S. (2013). Access to public schools and the education of migrant children in china. China Economic Review, 26, 75–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, L., Su, S., Li, X., Tam, C., & Lin, D. (2014). Perceived discrimination, schooling arrangements and psychological adjustments of rural-to-urban migrant children in Beijing, China. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, 2(1), 713–722.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crum, A. J., Akinola, M., Martin, A. & Fath, S. (2017). The role of stress mindset in shaping cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses to challenging and threatening stress. Anxiety Stress & Coping, 30(4), 379–395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crum, A. J., Salovey, P., & Achor, S. (2013). Rethinking stress: The role of mindsets in determining the stress response. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 104(4), 716–733.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deater-Deckard, K., Mullineaux, P. Y., Beekman, C., Petrill, S. A., Schatschneider, C., & Thompson, L. A. (2009). Conduct problems, IQ, and household chaos: A longitudinal multi-informant study. Journal of Child Psychology Psychiatry, 50(10), 1301–1308.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Devenish, B., Hooley, M., & Mellor, D. (2017). The pathways between socioeconomic status and adolescent outcomes: A systematic review. American Journal of Community Psychology, 59(1–2), 219–238.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, W. A., Heppner, P. P., & Anderson, W. P. (1991). Problem-solving appraisal, stress, hopelessness, and suicide ideation in a college population. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 38(1), 51–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emmen, R. A., Malda, M., Mesman, J., van Ijzendoorn, M. H., Prevoo, M. J., & Yeniad, N. (2013). Socioeconomic status and parenting in ethnic minority families: Testing a minority family stress model. Journal of Family Psychology, 27(6), 896–904.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, G. W., & Marcynyszyn, L. A. (2004). Environmental justice, cumulative environmental risk, and health among low- and middle-income children in upstate New York. American Journal of Public Health, 94(11), 1942–1944.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, G. W., & Cassells, R. C. (2014). Childhood poverty, cumulative risk exposure, and mental health in emerging adults. Clinical Psychological Science, 2(3), 287–296.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, G. W., & Kim, P. (2013). Childhood poverty, chronic stress, self-regulation, and coping. Child Development Perspectives, 7(1), 43–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, G. W., Li, D., & Whipple, S. S. (2013). Cumulative risk and child development. Psychological Bulletin, 139(6), 1342–1396.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A. G., & Buchner, A. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39(2), 175–191.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Flouri, E., Midouhas, E., Ruddy, A., & Moulton, V. (2017). The role of socio-economic disadvantage in the development of comorbid emotional and conduct problems in children with ADHD. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 26(6), 723–732.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gach, E. J., Ip, K. I., Sameroff, A. J., & Olson, S. L. (2018). Early cumulative risk predicts externalizing behavior at age 10: the mediating role of adverse parenting. Journal of Family Psychology, 32(1), 92–102.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Guo, L., Yao, Y., & Yang, B. (2005). Adaptation of migrant children to the city: A case study at a migrant children school in Beijing. Chinese Youth Study, 3, 22–31. (In Chinese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Haatainen, K., Tanskanen, A., Kylmä, J., Honkalampi, K., Koivumaa-Honkanen, H., Hintikka, J., & Viinamäki, H. (2004). Factors associated with hopelessness: A population study. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 50(2), 142–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, J. L., Connolly, S. L., Liu, R. T., Stange, J. P., Abramson, L. Y., & Alloy, L. B. (2015). It gets better: Future orientation buffers the development of hopelessness and depressive symptoms following emotional victimization during early adolescence. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 43(3), 465–474.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Han, X. Y., & Shek, D. T. L. (2012). Socio-demographic and family correlates of hopelessness among adolescents in Shanghai. China. International Journal on Disability & Human Development, 11(2), 113–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hankin, B. L., Abramson, L. Y. & Siler, M. (2001). A prospective test of the hopelessness theory of depression in adolescence. Cognitive Therapy & Research, 25(5), 607–632.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A. F. (2013). Methodology in the social sciences. Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsiao, H. H. M., Wong, K., Wan, P. S. & Zheng, V. (2019). The impact of experience and perceptions of social mobility on the life satisfaction of young people in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, 5(4), 319–336.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horiuchi, S., Tsuda, A., Aoki, S., Yoneda, K., & Sawaguchi, Y. (2018). Coping as a mediator of the relationship between stress mindset and psychological stress response: a pilot study. Psychology Research & Behavior Management, 11, 47–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horwitz, A. G., Berona, J., Czyz, E. K., Yeguez, C. E., & King, C. A. (2017). Positive and negative expectations of hopelessness as longitudinal predictors of depression, suicidal ideation, and suicidal behavior in high-risk adolescents. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 47(2), 168–176.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hu, H., Lu, S., & Huang, C. C. (2014). The psychological and behavioral outcomes of migrant and left-behind children in China. Children & Youth Services Review, 46, 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huang, S., Hou, J., Sun, L., Dou, D., Liu, X. & Zhang, H. (2017). The effects of objective and subjective socioeconomic status on subjective well-being among rural-to-urban migrants in China: The moderating role of subjective social mobility. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 819

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Huebschmann, N. A., & Sheets, E. S. (2020). The right mindset: stress mindset moderates the association between perceived stress and depressive symptoms. Anxiety, Stress and Coping, 33(3), 248–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang, Y., Ming, H., Tian, Y., Huang, S., Sun, L., Li, H. J., & Zhang, H. (2020). Cumulative risk and subjective well-being among rural-to-urban migrant adolescents in China: Differential moderating roles of stress mindset and resilience. Journal of Happiness Studies, 21(7), 2429–2449.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang, Y., Zhang, J., Ming, H., Huang, S., & Lin, D. (2019). Stressful life events and well-being among rural-to-urban migrant adolescents: The moderating role of the stress mindset and differences between genders. Journal of Adolescence, 74, 24–32.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jordan, L. P., & Graham, E. (2012). Resilience and well‐being among children of migrant parents in South‐East Asia. Child Development, 83(5), 1672–1688.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Keech, J. J., Hagger, M. S., O’Callaghan, F. V., & Hamilton, K. (2018). The influence of university students’ stress mindsets on health and performance outcomes. Annals of Behavioral Medicine: A Publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, 52(12), 1046–1059.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelley, S. M. C. & Kelley, C. G. E. (2009). Subjective social mobility: Data from 30 nations. In M. Haller, R. Jowell, & T. Smith, (Eds.), Charting the globe: the international social survey programme 1984–2009 (Chapter 6). London: Routledge. .

  • Kouider, E. B., Lorenz, A. L., Dupont, M., & Petermann, F. (2015). Internalizing disorders in migrant and non-migrant children and adolescents: analyses of a German health care population. Journal of Public Health, 23(6), 349–361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kraus, M. W., Tan, J. J. X., & Tannenbaum, M. B. (2013). The social ladder: A rank-based perspective on social class. Psychological Inquiry, 24(2), 81–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Landis, D., Gaylord-Harden, N. K., Malinowski, S. L., Grant, K. E., Carleton, R. A., & Ford, R. E. (2007). Urban adolescent stress and hopelessness. Journal of Adolescence, 30(6), 1051–1070.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Laurin, K., Fitzsimons, G. M., & Kay, A. C. (2011). Social disadvantage and the self-regulatory function of justice beliefs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(1), 149–171.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, D., Yu, X., Wang, Y., Zhang, H., & Ren, G. (2014). The impact of perception of discrimination and sense of belonging on the loneliness of the children of Chinese migrant workers: a structural equation modeling analysis. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 8(1), 52.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, X., Lin, X., Zhou, Q., Zhou, N., Li, Y. & Lin, D. (2017). Family and individual risk and protective factors of depression among chinese migrant children with oppositional defiant disorder symptoms. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 508

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, X., Liu, L., Yang, J., Chai, F., Wang, A., Sun, L., & Ma, D. (1997). The reliability and validity analysis of the adolescent self-rating life events check list. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1, 34–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynd-Stevenson, R. M. (2011). A test of the hopelessness theory of depression in unemployed young adults. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 35(1), 117–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mair, C., Kaplan, G. A., & Eversonrose, S. A. (2012). Are there hopeless neighborhoods? An exploration of environmental associations between individual-level feelings of hopelessness and neighborhood characteristics. Health & Place, 18(2), 434–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matheny, A. P., Wachs, T. D., Ludwig, J. L., & Phillips, K. (1995). Bringing order out of chaos: Psychometric characteristics of the confusion, hubbub, and order scale. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 16(3), 429–444.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLaughlin, K. A., & Sheridan, M. A. (2016). Beyond cumulative risk: a dimensional approach to childhood adversity. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25(4), 239–245.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ming, H., Zhang, F., Jiang, Y., Ren, Y., & Huang, S. (2021). Family socio-economic status and children’s executive function: The moderating effects of parental subjective socio-economic status and children’s subjective social mobility. British Journal of Psychology.

  • Ming, L. (2013). The relationship of characteristics of both institutional trust and social mobility beliefs with student engagement. Master’s dissertation, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing.

  • Murry, M. B., Berkel, C., Gaylord-Harden, N. K., Copeland-Linder, N., & Nation, M. (2011). Neighbourhood poverty and adolescent development. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(1), 114–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor, R. C., O’Connor, D. B., O’Connor, S. M., Smallwood, J., & Miles, J. (2004). Hopelessness, stress, and perfectionism: The moderating effects of future thinking. Cognition & Emotion, 18(8), 1099–1120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at school: What we know and what we can do. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, D., Yu, A., Metz, S. E., Tsukayama, E., Crum, A. J., & Duckworth, A. L. (2018). Beliefs about stress attenuate the relation among adverse life events, perceived distress, and self-control. Child Development, 89(6), 2059–2069.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peng, L., Zhang, J., Li, M., Li, P., Zhang, Y., Zuo, X., & Xu, Y. (2012). Negative life events and mental health of Chinese medical students: the effect of resilience, personality and social support. Psychiatry Research, 196(1), 138–141.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Perczel Forintos, D., Rózsa, S., Pilling, J., & Kopp, M. (2013). Proposal for a short version of the beck hopelessness scale based on a national representative survey in Hungary. Community Mental Health Journal, 49(6), 822–830.

  • Perris, C., Jacobsson, L., Lindström, H., Von, K. L., & Perris, H. (1980). Development of a new inventory assessing memories of parental rearing behaviour. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 61(4), 265–274.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ricaurte, J. C. & Moya, A. (2016). Self-Fulfilling prophecies: Expectations, psychological distress, and social mobility in Colombia. Working Paper: Universidad de los Andes.

  • Sapienza, J. K., & Masten, A. S. (2011). Understanding and promoting resilience in children and youth. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 24(4), 267–273.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • So, S., Gaylord-Harden, N. K., Voisin, D. R., & Scott, D. (2018). Future orientation as a protective factor for African American adolescents exposed to community violence. Youth & Society, 50(6), 734–757..

  • Stoddard, S. A., Henly, S. J., Sieving, R. E., & Bolland, J. (2011). Social connections, trajectories of hopelessness, and serious violence in impoverished urban youth. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 40(3), 278–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suárez-Orozco, C., Motti-Stefanidi, F., Marks, A., & Katsiaficas, D. (2018). An integrative risk and resilience model for understanding the adaptation of immigrant-origin children and youth. American Psychologist, 73(6), 781–796.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, L., & Mesman, J. (2015). Child development in the face of rural-to-urban migration in China: A meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(6), 813–831.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wanklyn, S. G., Day, D. M., Hart, T. A., & Girard, T. A. (2012). Cumulative childhood maltreatment and depression among incarcerated youth: impulsivity and hopelessness as potential intervening variables. Child Maltreatment, 17(4), 306–317.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Washbrook, E., Waldfogel, J., Bradbury, B., Corak, M., & Ghanghro, A. A. (2012). The development of young children of immigrants in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Child Development, 83(5), 1591–1607.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Weintraub, M. L. R., Fernald, L. C. H., Adler, N., Bertozzi, S., & Syme, S. L. (2015). Perceptions of social mobility: development of a new psychosocial indicator associated with adolescent risk behaviors. Frontiers in Public Health, 3, 62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wimberly, J. C. (2012). Family environment and adolescents’ feelings of hopelessness among low-income, urban African American families. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Alabama,Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

  • Xin, Z., Ma, J., & Geng, L. (2006). Relationships between adolescents’ hopelessness and life events, control beliefs and social supports. Psychological Development & Education, 22(3), 41–46. (In Chinese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ye, Z., Chen, L., Harrison, S. E., Guo, H., Li, X., & Lin, D. (2016). Peer victimization and depressive symptoms among rural-to-urban migrant children in china: the protective role of resilience. Frontiers in Psychology, 7.

  • Yue, D. (1993). Preliminary revision of EMBU and its application in neurotic patients. Chinese Mental Health Journal, 7(3), 97–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, F., Jiang, Y., Ming, H., Yang, C., & Huang, S. (2020). Family socioeconomic status and adolescents’ academic achievement: the moderating roles of subjective social mobility and attention. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49(9), 1821–1834..

  • Zhang, W., & Wu, J. (1999). Revision of the Chinese version of Olweus child bullying questionnaire. Psychological Development & Education, 2, 8–12.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This study was supported by the Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Science Research Project (18YJA190003) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (32071071).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Hua Ming, Ying Jiang, Yuan Tian & Silin Huang

Authors
  1. Hua Ming
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ying Jiang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yuan Tian
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Silin Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silin Huang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Helsinki declaration. The investigation protocol was approved by the institutional review board of the researchers’ affiliated institution. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ming, H., Jiang, Y., Tian, Y. et al. Cumulative Risk and Hopelessness among Chinese Rural-to-Urban Migrant Adolescents. J Child Fam Stud 30, 2016–2027 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02005-2

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02005-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation