Peer-reviewed article
Latent profiles of resilience associated with problem behaviors among Chinese preschool left-behind children
Tianqi Qiao, Haocai Hong, Pingzhi Ye, Jiaxin Xiang, Xinxin Wang ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This cross-sectional study looked at resilience among 940 preschool left-behind children (children whose parents have migrated for work) in kindergartens in Zhejiang and Shandong provinces, China. Using latent profile analysis, the authors identified four resilience groups: high, medium, low and risk. Problem behaviors differed significantly between the four groups. Child sex, age, parental education and annual family income predicted which group a child belonged to. The authors conclude that these children generally lack resilience and that resilience-focused interventions could help their psychosocial adjustment.
Key points
- Four resilience profiles fit the data best: high (17.5%), medium (34.5%), low (37.7%) and risk (10.3%).
- Problem behaviors differed significantly among the four resilience groups.
- Child sex, age, parental education and annual family income significantly predicted profile membership.
- The authors state that preschool left-behind children generally lack resilience, and that this is related to their problem behaviors.
Limitations
The cross-sectional design cannot show that resilience causes changes in problem behaviors, and the sample comes from only two provinces. The abstract does not evaluate any intervention, so it cannot tell us whether resilience-focused programmes work.
Abstract
Aim This study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to investigate the characteristics of resilience among preschool left-behind children in China. We examined the relationship between resilience and problem behaviors in these children and found that the underlying categories of resilience were related to sociodemographics. Design and method A total of 940 preschool left-behind children from kindergartens in the Zhejiang and Shandong provinces were selected as subjects for this cross-sectional study. We used the Personal Information Form, the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for Preschoolers (Second Edition), and the Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scales for measurements. Results The four resilience profiles for preschool left-behind children showed the best model fit, including the high-resilience group (17.5% of the sample), medium-resilience group (34.5% of the sample), low-resilience group (37.7% of the sample), and risk group (10.3% of the sample). A one-way analysis of variance showed that there were significant differences in problem behaviors among the four groups of children. A multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that child sex, age, parental education, and annual family income had significant predictive effects on the membership of the profiles. Conclusion Preschool left-behind children generally lack resilience, which is related to their problem behaviors. Therefore, the results of this study can assist in the development of resilience-focused interventions to promote better psychosocial adjustment among preschool left-behind children.