The mediating role of resilience and self-esteem between negative life events and positive social adjustment among left-behind adolescents in China: a cross-sectional study

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.