Social Cognitive Domain Coordination in Left-Behind Children: A Comparative Study of Left-Behind and Non-Left-Behind Children in Rural China

Abstract

Forty-seven left-behind children (LB) and 40 non-left-behind children (NL) in rural China were interviewed to evaluate moral, conventional, and personal violations by providing judgments and justifications. The results suggested that both LBs and NLs differentiate the rules of moral, conventional and personal domains. However, there are some differences: 1. The NL considered it acceptable to commit a personal infraction when there was no rue prohibiting it, while the LB considered it wrong; 2. The younger male LBs were more willing to accept situations without moral psychological rules, compared with younger female LBs, older male LBs, and younger male NLs. Age, sex differences were also found. The one out of our expectation is that younger males considered it more acceptable to commit a personal infraction than older males did and believed it all right if there was no explicit rule on it. Meanwhile, in providing reasons to support their judgments or evaluations, the findings revealed that: 1. More often LBs referred to social conventional reasoning even when evaluating moral and personal rules and violations, especially on personal issues; 2. LBs used more justifications of punishment and fewer justifications of personal growth. The implications of the results of the study for children’s moral development and education, especially for LBs, are discussed.

Childhood trauma and problematic internet use: A meta-analysis based on students in mainland China

“…In addition to gender, changes in year may also moderate the relationship between CT and PIU. Previous study has found that the correlation between CT and PIU decreases by growing years (Hsieh et al, 2021), However, other studies have shown that the correlation between CT and PIU increases with increasing years (Zhang et al, 2012;Wei, 2014;Liu, 2016;Li, 2020). Therefore, this study would explore the differences in CT and PIU among students in different years.…”

“…Some studies have found that there is a low positive correlation between CT and PIU of subjects in journal papers (Zhang et al, 2012), but there is also a moderate positive correlation between CT and PIU of subjects in journal papers (Yang et al, 2017). In the master's thesis and doctoral dissertation, some studies found that there was a low degree of positive correlation between CT and PIU (Wei, 2014), but other studies found that there was a moderate degree of positive correlation between CT and PIU (Liu, 2016). Therefore, this study would investigate the moderating effect in journal papers and dissertation on CT and PIU.…”

“…In the study of the relationship between CT and PIU, the Chinese version revised according to CTQ-SF by Zhao et al is most commonly used by scholars in mainland China (Zhao et al, 2005). In addition, the Child Psychological Abuse and Neglect Scale (CPANS) compiled by Deng, a Chinese mainland scholar, was often used to detect CT (Liu, 2016;Yang et al, 2017;Du, 2020;Zeng, 2020). This scale named CPANS, based on the different definitions and types of psychological abuse and neglect in literature, contains psychological abuse sub-scales (scold, intimidation, interference) and ignore sub-scales (emotional neglect, education, body/supervision ignore).…”