Individual resilience and family resilience in left-behind children: A longitudinal network analysis.

The left-behind children are children aged below 16, who remain in their hometowns without one or both parents' presence. Both individual resilience and family resilience play a crucial role in how left-behind children cope positively with adversity. Few studies have attempted to explore the dynamic processes of individual resilience and family resilience of left-behind children from a dimensional perspective. To address this gap, this study employed a cross-lagged panel network model to examine the complex interactions among various resilience components. A total of 2,259 left-behind children completed the survey in December 2018 (T1), and 1,991 of them completed the assessments 4 months later (T2). A final sample of 1,708 Chinese left-behind children (M_age = 12.94, SD = 1.56; 47.50% girls) completed a survey at both waves. The results indicated that "maintaining a positive outlook" is the most critical dimension of beliefs connecting children's individual resilience and family resilience. Perceived beliefs about maintaining a positive outlook across the whole family at T1 were found to be associated with the three dimensions of individual resilience at T2, rather than the reverse. This suggests that family belief systems may represent a pivotal point of intervention for left-behind children. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).