Perceived discrimination and self-esteem of left-behind children: The mediating effect of grit

Although perceived discrimination has been found to diminish self-esteem, the mechanism of such effect and potential protective factors demands further study. Grit has been suggested to moderate the effect of risk factors affecting Chinese left-behind children, but few studies have considered that being left behind might diminish the family and social conditions needed for nurturing grit, and therefore grit might mediate the effect of being left behind and perceived discrimination upon self-esteem. With the questionnaire data collected from 974 Chinese rural children among whom 517 were left-behind children, the present study shows that perseverance of effort mediates the effect of being left behind upon self-esteem. Moreover, within the subsample of left-behind children, perceived discrimination was found to mediate the effect of time length of being left behind on self-esteem, while a chain mediation effect was found where perceived discrimination and consistency of interest mediated the effect of the time length of being left behind on self-esteem. Findings suggest that for left-behind children, while the adverse social conditions reflected by perceived discrimination affects self-esteem by diminishing consistency of interest, the absence of adequate parental regulation more directly affects perseverance of effort and therefore affects self-esteem. Further research directions about practices and interventions targeting at protecting self-esteem through fostering grit are discussed.