Background In China, adolescents are frequently left behind by their parents. A great deal of scientific evidence demonstrates considerable psychological and social impacts that negative life events may have on adolescents who are left behind. While a direct relationship between negative life events and psychological and social effects has been observed, indirect effects have yet to be examined. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the association between negative life events and positive social adjustment and how resilience and self-esteem mediate this association. Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out in the provinces of Shandong, Henan, and Sichuan in China. A questionnaire was distributed to 4716 left-behind adolescents in ten middle/high schools. We performed Bayesian estimations in structural equation modeling using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm to test our hypotheses. Results Negative life events were significantly related to resilience ( r s = − 0.402), self-esteem ( r s = − 0.292), and positive social adjustment ( r s = − 0.239). Positive social adjustment was directly affected by resilience ( β = 0.639) and self-esteem ( β = 0.448). Negative life events were not only directly related to positive social adjustment ( β = − 0.187, 95% credible interval: − 0.233 ~ − 0.139), but also showed an indirect effect on positive social adjustment ( β = − 0.541, 95% credible interval: − 0.583 ~ − 0.501) through resilience ( β = − 0.370) and self-esteem ( β = − 0.171). The total effect of negative life events on positive social adjustment was − 0.728, where 74.31% was mediated by resilience and self-esteem. The indirect effect of negative life events on positive social adjustment through resilience and self-esteem was 2.893 times more than the direct effect. Conclusions Resilience and self-esteem mediated most of the effect of negative life events on positive social adjustment. Interventions should be developed to improve the social adjustment of adolescents who are left behind, particularly the enhancement of resilience and self-esteem. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12888-019-2219-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

In China, adolescents are frequently left behind. To date, few studies have focused on the pro-social tendencies of left-behind adolescents and the relationship of family function, self-esteem, and pro-social tendency is yet to be examined. This study, therefore, aims to understand the status of pro-social tendency of left-behind adolescents and to explore the mediating and moderating roles of self-esteem in the relationship between family function and pro-social tendency. A large, school-based survey was conducted in three Chinese provinces. An analysis of covariance was first used to identify the differences in pro-social tendency between adolescents who were and were not left behind. We then analyzed the variance within left-behind adolescents using demographics, left-behind type, years of being left-behind, and caregiver related characteristics. A structural equation model was used to analyze the relationship of family function, self-esteem, and pro-social tendency, with bootstrapping used to explore the mediating role of self-esteem. Additionally, an ordinary least squares regression was used to examine the moderating effect of self-esteem. The results showed that the pro-social tendency of left-behind adolescents was lower than in non-left-behind adolescents ( F = 15.11, p = 0.0001). Family function was positive related to pro-social tendency ( r = 0.259), which had not only a direct effect on pro-social tendency (β = 0.254), but also an indirect effect through self-esteem (β = 0.071, bias-corrected 95% CI: 0.051:0.090; percentile 95% CI: 0.053:0.092). Additionally, 21.85% of the total effect of family function on pro-social tendency was mediated by self-esteem. Furthermore, self-esteem negatively moderated the relationship between family function and pro-social tendency (β = -0.208, p < 0.0001), such that the effect of family function on pro-social tendency became weaker as self-esteem increased. The current study verified the negative effect of being left behind on the social development of adolescents and contributed to the understanding of the importance of self-esteem in the relationship between family function and pro-social tendency. Interventions aimed at enhancing self-esteem should be developed and implemented in left-behind adolescents to promote wellness in the entirety of psychological and social outcomes.

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Adolescents are particularly prone to antisocial behavior. The promoting effect of negative life events on antisocial behavior has been well-documented. However, the internal influence mechanisms between negative life events and antisocial behavior tendencies in adolescents are still unknown. The aim of this study was to explore the mediation effect of self-esteem and the moderated mediation effect of family support between negative life events and antisocial behavior tendencies in 8,958 adolescents who were selected from three Chinese provinces. Robust maximum likelihood estimator (MLR) of a structural equation model (SEM) was applied to test the mediation model and the moderated mediation model. The results revealed that negative life events had a positive effect on antisocial behavior tendencies in adolescents, with a direct effect of 0.082 (95% CI: 0.052, 0.111) and an indirect effect via self-esteem of 0.168 (95% CI: 0.146, 0.191). Negative life events had a 67.20% effect on antisocial behavior tendencies, where self-esteem showed mediation. The indirect effect was 2.049-fold greater than the direct effect. Furthermore, the effect of latent interaction of subjective family support and negative life events on self-esteem was negatively significant (β = −0.018, p = 0.032, 95% CI: −0.035, −0.002). The indirect effect of negative life events was greater, where subjective family support was below 1 SD of the mean (conditional indirect effect = 0.227, 95% CI = 0.200, 0.255) than where it was above 1 SD of the mean (conditional indirect effect = 0.203, 95% CI = 0.177, 0.229). The moderated mediation effect index was −0.012, p = 0.033. Moderated mediation showed that the mediated path was less evident in the students who had greater subjective support from family. The results of the current study demonstrated the important role that self-esteem and subjective family support played in minimizing the adverse effect of negative life events on antisocial behavior development of adolescents. These findings have important implications for preventing antisocial behavior in adolescents by developing interventions aimed at enhancing their self-esteem and providing support-skill training to parents aimed at improving subjective family support of adolescents.