What makes left-behind children resilient? And how? The role of hope on the resilience of Chinese left-behind children

Left-behind children (LBC) in China, of which there are 40 million, are a significant concern due to reported mental health issues including depression. Recent research has shown the negative correlation between resilience and the poor mental health outcomes of LBC, but the underlying mechanisms of this resilience have remained unclear. This study utilized the Risk and Resilience framework and conceptualized that resilience is an outcome of the absence of depressive symptoms when protective factors mitigate the negative impact of risk factors. This study examined whether protective factors were correlated with a reduction in the association between risk factors and LBC’s depressive symptoms, thereby contributing to LBC’s resilience. Participants were recruited from first and second-year middle school students in Henan province, aged 11–15 years (N = 841). Researchers delivered the questionnaires to the classrooms. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between hope and depressive symptoms as well as to examine the moderating role of hope on the correlations between risk factors and depressive symptoms. The same analyses were stratified by gender. Hope was negatively correlated with LBC’s depressive symptoms. For males, there was a significant interaction between hope and stressful life events, but the interaction was not significant for females. The results suggest that LBC boys’ resilience can improve if hope mitigates the negative impact of stressful life events on LBC’s depressive symptoms.