Abstract
Left-behind children (LBC) is a group of children who live without their parents and receive less parental care and education. Compared with non-left-behind children (NLBC), LBC are more likely to develop emotional or behavior problems. This study aimed to explore the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the Chinese version of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) in Chinese LBC. A sample of 2960 middle school students (44.35% male, 55.28% female; age: 12 to 20 years) including LBC (n = 1365) and NLBC (n = 1595) was used. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA); confirmatory factor analyses (CFA); tests of measurement invariance; t-tests of gender and left-behind experience differences; tests of reliability and convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity were conducted. The results showed that two factors were extracted, and the CFA replicated the original two-factor structure (S-Bχ2/df ≈ 106.778/34, P < .001, CFI = .948, TLI = .932, RMSEA = .056 [.044, .068]). The measurement invariance of the ERQ across genders, LBC and NLBC was also confirmed. Males use expressive suppression (ES) significantly more than females (t = 2.63, p < .01), and LBC use ES significantly more than NLBC (t = 2.11, p < .05). The internal consistency coefficients for ES and cognitive reappraisal (CR) were acceptable, and the test-retest reliability was .62 and .68, respectively. Good convergent, discriminant and criterion validity were also demonstrated. It can be concluded that the ERQ is a valid measure for investigating the use of two different emotion regulation strategies among Chinese left-behind children.
Highlights
Guyin Zhang is the Co-first authorUniversity, Guiyang, China 3 Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China 4 Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, ChinaThe physical and mental health of left-behind children (LBC), as a disadvantaged group created by the rapid urbanization and economic development of China, has long been a concern (Shao et al, 2018)
The LBC in this study were defined by the following criteria: 1) children under 18 years old; 2) with one or both of the parents migrating for work; 3) being left behind for three consecutive months or more
The results showed that the variables basically met the norms for univariate normality, we found that the data showed slightly non-normality (Coenders et al, 1997; Flora & Curran, 2004)
Summary
The physical and mental health of left-behind children (LBC), as a disadvantaged group created by the rapid urbanization and economic development of China, has long been a concern (Shao et al, 2018). With the rural-to-urban migration, the workers had to leave their children in the countryside, and are unable to bring them to the cities due to destitute living conditions. These affected children are forced to live without their parents and receive less parental care and education (Tang et al, 2019; Wu et al, 2019).
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