Background: Left-behind adolescents who are from father-migrant/mother caregiver families have become the main type of left-behind children in China. The migratory of fathers not only makes left-behind adolescents suffer more difficulties but also causes left-behind women to face the challenge of raising the child alone. This study examined the association among peer victimization, maternal psychological control, and adjustment problems among Chinese rural left-behind adolescents. Furthermore, we first explored the moderating role of maternal behavioral control in this relationship.
Methods: Using cross-sectional design, we recruited 194 left-behind adolescents (49% girls; mean age = 13.51, SD = 1.03) from four junior schools in the Guizhou province of China. Left-behind adolescents completed a battery of self-report questionnaires regarding peer victimization, maternal control, self-injury behaviors, depression, and loneliness.
Results: The hierarchical multiple regressions indicated that both peer victimization and maternal psychological control were positively associated with self-injury behaviors, depression, and loneliness. Moreover, maternal behavioral control played a dual role in the impact of peer victimization on self-injury behaviors depending on the levels of maternal psychological control. When left-behind women exerted high psychological control on their children, maternal behavioral control buffered the negative effect of peer victimization on self-injury behaviors. However, when left-behind women exerted low psychological control on their children, maternal behavioral control exacerbated the negative effect of peer victimization on self-injury behaviors.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that the effectiveness of behavioral control may depend on different situations, left-behind women should be cautious in exerting behavioral control over their children.
Keywords: left-behind adolescents, peer victimization, psychological control, behavioral control, psychological adjustment