Abstract
The study aims to examine the longitudinal relationship between the beliefs about adversity and left-behind children’s learning engagement and reveal the underlying mechanism. In total, we collected 601 left-behind children data in China over three waves spaced six-month apart. The results showed that left-behind children with higher beliefs about adversity tended to have more learning engagement one year later directly and via enhancing their sense of hope. Unexpectedly, our study found that peer attachment tended to alleviate the promoting effect of beliefs about adversity on learning engagement among left-behind children. These findings extended the existing research on learning of left-behind children and provide the implications for improving the children’s academic performance and the intervention of underachievement students among left-behind children.
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Acknowledgements
The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of National Social Science Foundation. We are appreciative of the parents, adolescents, and teachers who participated in our study and the people who assisted in data collection.
Contributors
Conceived and designed the experiments: Jiayi Li, Wan Ding, Xiuyun Lin
Performed the experiments and analyzed the data: Jiayi Li
Drafted the manuscript: Jiayi Li
Revised the manuscript: Jiayi Li, Ruibo Xie, Wan Ding, Min Jiang, Xiuyun Lin, Sumaira Kayani, Weijian Li
Data Availability
The dataset analyzed during the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Funding
The study described in this report was Funded by The National Social Science Foundation of China (18AZD038).
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Li, J., Xie, R., Ding, W. et al. Longitudinal relationship between beliefs about adversity and learning engagement in Chinese left-behind children: Hope as a mediator and peer attachment as a moderator. Curr Psychol 42, 12814–12821 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02671-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02671-x