Guo Sijia, Cheung Chau Kiu Jacky, Hu Jieyi, Ning Xuan
College of Public Administration and Humanities, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, Liaoning, China.
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Psicol Reflex Crit. 2021 Jan 4;34(1):1. doi: 10.1186/s41155-020-00166-5.
Most studies equate children's mental health to a state of flourishing, which is a positive feeling and functions in their lives. Identity exploration and the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs are universal and crucial indicators of children's flourishing. First, according to identity crisis theory, children in the pre-adolescence period begin to explore their own identities, a process which significantly affects their development and flourishing. Meanwhile, self-determination theory points out that the basic psychological needs, namely the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, are essential for children's development and flourishing in the worldwide. Accordingly, this study examined how identity exploration affects the flourishing of rural children in China, one kind of collectivism cultural contexts, with the interaction effect of identity exploration and basic psychological needs satisfaction. To understand the interaction effect of identity exploration and basic psychological needs satisfaction on rural children's flourishing, we form a theoretical framework combining identity crisis theory and self-determination theory. Both these two theories emphasize the importance of self in facilitating mental health and the development of functioning. Specifically, identity crisis theory focuses on intrapsychic process, while self-determination theory stresses the influence of the surrounding environment on the individual, which provides a solid foundation for integrating these two theories to explore rural children's flourishing in China. Accordingly, this study collected 520 left-behind children and 475 other rural children in Liaoning Province in Mainland of China, and used regression analysis to measure the associations among variables. This study found that identity exploration and basic psychological needs satisfaction positively affect rural children's flourishing respectively, while their interaction effects negatively affect on their flourishing.
大多数研究将儿童的心理健康等同于一种蓬勃发展的状态，这是一种积极的感受且在他们的生活中发挥作用。身份认同探索以及三种基本心理需求的满足是儿童蓬勃发展的普遍且关键的指标。首先，根据身份认同危机理论，青春期前的儿童开始探索自己的身份认同，这一过程会显著影响他们的发展和蓬勃状态。同时，自我决定理论指出，基本心理需求，即自主需求、能力需求和归属需求，在全球范围内对儿童的发展和蓬勃状态至关重要。因此，本研究考察了在集体主义文化背景之一的中国农村儿童中，身份认同探索如何通过身份认同探索与基本心理需求满足的交互作用来影响儿童的蓬勃发展。为了理解身份认同探索与基本心理需求满足对农村儿童蓬勃发展的交互作用，我们构建了一个将身份认同危机理论和自我决定理论相结合的理论框架。这两种理论都强调自我在促进心理健康和功能发展方面的重要性。具体而言，身份认同危机理论关注内心过程，而自我决定理论强调周围环境对个体的影响，这为整合这两种理论以探索中国农村儿童的蓬勃发展提供了坚实的基础。因此，本研究在中国辽宁省收集了520名留守儿童和475名其他农村儿童，并使用回归分析来测量变量之间的关联。本研究发现，身份认同探索和基本心理需求满足分别对农村儿童的蓬勃发展有积极影响，而它们的交互作用对其蓬勃发展有负面影响。
