Unsociability and social adjustment of Chinese preschool migrant children: The moderating role of resilience

Abstract

ObjectivesThe present study examined the moderating effect of children’s resilience on the relations between unsociability and social adjustment (i.e., prosocial behaviors, peer exclusion, interpersonal skills, internalizing problems) in Chinese preschool migrant children.MethodsParticipants were N = 148 children (82 boys, Mage = 62.32 months, SD = 6.76) attending two public kindergartens in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Mothers provided ratings of children’s unsociability and resilience; teachers assessed children’s social adjustment outcomes, and children reported their receptive vocabulary.ResultsUnsociability was positively associated with peer exclusion and internalizing problems, and negatively associated with prosocial behaviors and interpersonal skills among Chinese preschool migrant children. Moreover, children’s resilience significantly moderated the relationship between unsociability and social adjustment. Specifically, among children with lower levels of resilience, unsociability was significantly and positively associated with peer exclusion and internalizing problems, while among children with higher levels of resilience, unsociability was not associated with social adjustment difficulties.ConclusionThe current findings inform us of the importance of improving children’s resilience to buffer the negative adjustment among Chinese migrant unsociable young children. The findings also highlight the importance of considering the meaning and implication of unsociability for preschool migrant children in Chinese culture.

Associations between Unsociability and Peer Problems in Chinese Children and Adolescents: A Meta-Analysis

“…The present meta-analysis found significant and positive associations between unsociability and peer problems in Chinese children and adolescents, which is consistent with previous empirical findings in Chinese culture [44,46,[48][49][50]58]. Compared to the cross-cultural meta-analysis regarding the associations between social withdrawal and peer problems [51], the strength of the correlation coefficient was higher in the present study.…”

“…Although previous studies found the positive associations between unsociability and peer problems in Chinese culture [48][49][50], the strength and direction of these associations were mixed and no study has synthesized the previous findings to examine the associations in Chinese sample. Ran and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis to assess the associations between three subtypes of social withdrawal and peer problems in Chinese and North American youth to detect the mixed results in Western countries and China [51].…”

“…Future meta-analysis could find more related empirical studies to enlarge the number of effect sizes, and consider more moderators (e.g., children's personality, socioeconomic status, parenting style) to explore the psychological mechanisms of the associations between unsociability and peer problems. Finally, the majority of existing findings have utilized questionnaires to examine the associations and its potential psychological processes [44,[48][49][50]58]. However, some studies have tried to examine social withdrawal with neural techniques.…”