Collective and personal self-esteem as mediators between perceived group discrimination and adjustment in Chinese migrant children.
Previous studies have shown that perceived discrimination is negatively correlated with children's psychological development. However, how perceived group discrimination (PGD) leads to negative adjustment is not known. For 692 Chinese rural-to-urban migrant children, we examined the relations between PGD and both behavioral and emotional adaptation (antisocial behavior and positive affect), as mediated by collective self-esteem (CSE) and personal self-esteem (PSE). Children (50.7% boys; Mage = 13.37 years) completed questionnaires on PGD, antisocial behavior, positive affect, CSE, and PSE. PGD was positively associated with antisocial behavior and negatively associated with positive affect according to structural equation modeling. CSE and PSE accounted for some of the PGD related to antisocial behavior and fully accounted for PGD effects on positive affect. These findings suggested that the combination of CSE and PSE is a potential mechanism that underlies PGD associated with both antisocial behavior and positive affect.
['Jia|Xuji|X|', 'Li|Yaqian|Y|', 'Su|Peng|P|', 'Liu|Xia|X|', 'Lin|Danhua|D|']
D000293:Adolescent D044466:Asians D002648:Child D002681:China D006801:Humans D008297:Male D012649:Self Concept D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires D014171:Transients and Migrants
self-esteem perceived group discrimination Chinese migrant children antisocial behavior positive affect