Peer Victimization and Nonsuicidal Self-injury among Chinese Left-behind Children: Mediation by Perceived Discrimination and Moderation by Hardiness

ABSTRACT

Left-behind children face peer victimization, which leads to negative mental adaptation. Previous studies have shown that peer victimization profoundly influences left-behind children’s nonsuicidal self-injury. However, the underlying mechanism of nonsuicidal self-injury remains unclear. A total of 832 junior high school students aged 11 − 16 in this investigation completed the Peer Victimization Scale, Perceived Discrimination Scale, Hardiness Scale and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Scale. After left-behind children’s sex and left-behind category were controlled, peer victimization significantly contributed to left-behind children’s nonsuicidal self-injury; perceived discrimination played a mediating role in the relationship between peer victimization and left-behind children’s nonsuicidal self-injury. Both the direct and indirect relations between peer victimization and left-behind children’s nonsuicidal self-injury were moderated by hardiness, which is consistent with the stress-buffering model. The current study reveals how and when peer victimization affects left-behind children’s nonsuicidal self-injury, which contributes to the prevention and intervention of nonsuicidal self-injury.

KEYWORDS:

• Peer victimization
• perceived discrimination
• hardiness
• nonsuicidal self-injury
• left-behind children

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Mrs. Yanxia Chen and Zhaoyu Wang for all they kindness and help in data collection. We are especially grateful to Wang Zhen (Nankai University) for revising the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical Standards and Informed Consent

All the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study. Additional informed consent was obtained from all individuals for whom identifying information is included in this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the 2021 Academic Innovation Ability Promotion Plan for Excellent Doctoral Students of East China Normal University [YBNLTS2021-016]; National Education Sciences ”the 14th Five-Year Plan” National general topics for 2021 [BHA210122].