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• There is a reasonable range for financial risk perception, and neither too high nor too low is reasonable. • Teenagers with different initial financial risk perceptions respond differently to the same intervention. • Teenagers in low-risk perception group show more pronounced changes after intervention than those in high-risk perception group. • Bayesian statistical analysis is used for small samples to enhance the confidence of the results. This study examined the effects of a single-group pretest–posttest intervention in changing the level of financial risk perceptions among teenagers from the perspective of the financial resilience framework. 37 teenagers completed the six-week nonrandomised intervention with follow-up tests at Weeks 8 and 22. Based on the pretest scores of the Internet Financial Risk Perception Scale, the participants were divided into high- and low-risk perception groups. Bayesian repeated variance analysis was then used to evaluate the influence of the intervention on financial risk perception. Compared with the baseline level, the low-risk perception group showed an increase in total financial risk perception and each subdimension. Decreased changes were observed in the long term, although no sufficient evidence was found for changes in the high-risk perception group after the intervention. The financial resilience-focused framework and its corresponding program neutralizes the perceived risk. Furthermore, similar interventions should consider the initial level of risk perception among participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Employing a DID method using the NIP as a quasi-natural experiment. • NIP implementations significantly improved CAs of students in poverty. • Mechanisms are health status, sense of belonging at school, and expectations for the future. • Nutritional poverty alleviation programs helped promote human capital development. While considerable attention has been paid to the benefits of school nutritious feeding, little literature focused on the effect on human capital accumulation for students in poverty. By drawing on the quasi-natural experiment of the Nutrition Improvement Program (NIP) and adopting the Difference-in-Differences (DID) method, we sought to determine the causal relationship between school nutritious feeding and the cognitive ability (CA) development among poor students in China. Specifically, our estimates confirmed that NIP implementations significantly improved the CAs of students in poverty, which is supported by several robustness checks. Moreover, the potential mechanisms of this positive effect included improved health status, enhanced sense of belonging at school, and increased positive expectations for the future. Our study further enriches the literature on the positive effects of school nutritious feeding and provides insights for developing countries to customize nutritional poverty alleviation programs to promote human capital development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Paternal rejection plays a more vital role in prosocial behavior than maternal rejection. • The mediating mechanism of paternal rejection on prosocial behavior is revealed. • Poverty is a salient moderator of prosocial behavior among left-behind adolescents. • Poverty buffers the relationship between paternal rejection and prosocial behavior. • Poverty strengthens the relationship between moral identity and prosocial behavior. Studies have shown left-behind adolescents in rural China having less prosocial behavior than their non-left-behind peers. Although parenting styles have a role to play in the development of prosocial behavior, more studies are warranted to understand the underlying mechanisms and the conditions that could increase (or buffer) the positive (negative) association between parenting style and prosocial behavior. Based on the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Theory and other theoretical models, the present study proposed and tested a moderated mediation model to examine the mediating role of moral identity in the relationship between parental rejection and prosocial behavior as well as the moderating effects of subjective poverty on the relationship between parental rejection and prosocial behavior as well as between moral identity and prosocial behavior. A total of 714 rural left-behind adolescents in China answered a questionnaire comprising Prosocial Tendencies Measure (PTM), Short-form Egna Minnen av Barndoms Uppfostran (s-EMBU, a measurement of parental rejection), Moral Self-identity Scale (MSS) and Subjective Poverty in their classrooms. Results showed that paternal rejection, but not maternal rejection, had an indirect negative relationship with prosocial behavior via moral identity. Moreover, subjective poverty moderated the direct relationship between paternal rejection and prosocial behavior as well as the relationship between moral identity and prosocial behavior, though the moderated mediation model was not supported. Specifically, the negative relationship between paternal rejection and prosocial behavior was strengthened when subjective poverty was low. Meanwhile, the positive relationship between moral identity and prosocial behavior was reinforced among adolescents with higher subjective poverty. The findings not only reveal the underlying mechanism of the relationship between parental rejection and prosocial behavior among rural left-behind adolescents but also highlight the necessity of incorporating the effect of subjective poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty and poverty reduction in mainland China are the main concerns of development discourse and policy. Among poor individuals, children are the most vulnerable. This study aimed to investigate how multidimensional child poverty influenced children's academic achievement in poor rural areas in China. This study examined how this effect might be mediated by the stock of social relationships. Data were obtained from a questionnaire survey of 775 children (grades 4 to 9) living in the most underdeveloped rural areas in southwest China (Eryuan County). Results showed that multidimensional child poverty was negatively related to children's academic achievement. Social relationships played a significant role in mediating the effects of multidimensional child poverty on children's academic achievement. These findings provided valuable insights into the multidimensions of poverty and the underlying mechanisms from poverty to children's academic achievement. Implications in theory, social work practice, and social policy were discussed. Social work intervention and prevention were also developed in terms of fostering the growth of social relationships. • Poverty and poverty reduction in mainland China are currently the central concerns of development discourse and policy. • Multidimensional child poverty was negatively related to children's academic achievement. • Social relationships significantly mediated the effects of multidimensional child poverty on children's academic achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzed child income poverty in China from 2005 to 2015 using data obtained from the Chinese General Social Survey. Building on the Foster–Greer–Thorbecke (FGT) methodology, this study estimated the headcount, poverty gap and poverty severity indexes of all children and the poverty gap of poor children. Subgroup decomposition, growth-redistribution decomposition of poverty changes and pro-poor growth measurements were conducted. The results show that the overall poverty level among children was high despite a decreasing trend, and poor children's relative economic status worsened, especially in rural areas; there were large disparities among different groups of children by urban/rural status, ethnicity and hukou. Rural children contributed more to the overall poverty level and poverty changes than urban children. The growth among children is not relatively pro-poor but only absolutely pro-poor, increasing the inequality and finally offsetting the effect of growth on reducing poverty to some extent. • Measuring and performing sub-group and growth-redistribution decomposition of child income poverty throughout China. • There are still a large number of children living in poverty in China despite a decreasing trend. • Growth among children in China is absolutely pro-poor but not relatively pro-poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poly-victimization of children attracts increasing concerns in China, and a rapid growing number of cases on poly-victimization among left-behind children were reported. This study aims to test the association and mediating mechanism between poverty and poly-victimization of left-behind children in rural China. Representative survey data on left-behind children in rural China was analyzed in this study. Frequency and percentage were reported in descriptive analyses; Logistic Regression and mediating effects analysis were employed to test the association and detailed pathways between poverty and poly-victimization. About 27.50% of left-behind children suffered from at least one kind of victimization, and >10% suffered from poly-victimization (at least two kinds of victimization in the present study). Regression results revealed that poverty was significantly and consistently associated with poly-victimization when controlling for covariates. Furthermore, the mediating mechanism analysis showed that, in the association between poverty and poly-victimization, it is the increased vulnerability from individual (individual psychological and behavioral health) and family (quality of family care) rather than vulnerability from surrounding interactions, plays a significant mediating role. This study stresses the importance of poverty alleviation in policy making for the protection of left-behind children from victimization in China. Also, support from family and school in protecting left-behind children should be paid additional attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined the extent of child poverty in urban China, and how the structural and individual risk factors impact on child poverty in urban China using China Health and Nutrition Survey data. Child poverty is measured using a multidimensional deprivation approach. Eight dimensions that are indicative of children's basic rights as ratified in UNCRC (1989) are used to identify poor children, including nutrition, water, sanitation, health, education, information, participation and protection. The empirical results show that the hukou type of the family and parents' work units as the structural risk factors exerted the greatest influences on child poverty in urban China. These structural barriers for realising children's basic rights should be removed in order to achieve the Chinese government political goal of eradicating poverty in China in the next five years before 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the multidimensional child poverty status and its dynamic changes in China from 1989 to 2009 using the China Health and Nutrition survey data. Built on the Alkire–Foster methodology, the adjusted child poverty headcount ratio is calculated which measures not only the traditional headcount ratio of child poverty but also the average deprivation intensity among poor children. The overall poverty rates declined over years from 1989 to 2009 in national wide and among provinces, where the key driver was the reduction of the poverty headcount ratio. With the property of decomposition for the adjusted headcount ratio, this study also examines the provincial and regional contribution to the national poverty reduction. Provinces in the middle region of China received the biggest reduction of child poverty rate, and the regional gap of child poverty has been narrowed down, but more effort of poverty reduction should be made to the poorest provinces and rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 2011 Hong Kong population census, 26.4% of domestic households were in the poverty category, and one in every four children (26.4%) lived in low-income households. Children in low-income families face financial and material barriers, and these barriers leave them trapped in a cycle of disempowerment. The present study has invited 1622 children aged three to six and 152 teachers in ten kindergartens in the top five child-poverty-rated districts in Hong Kong to participate in the study (a) to validate the psychometric properties of the culturally and developmentally appropriate Preschool Play Behavior Scale (PPBS) with a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) model, (b) to assess social withdrawal in three subtypes — reticence, solitary-passive, solitary-active and social play among preschoolers in low-income families, (c) to investigate gender difference in social withdrawal and social play, (d) to investigate age difference in social withdrawal and social play, and (e) to inform early childhood intervention to children in low-income families. The PPBS has adopted 18 items assessing five factors: reticence, solitary-passive, solitary-active, rough play, and social play. The “back-translation” procedure – a commonly used procedure in the translation of cross-cultural research instruments – was adopted. Results indicated that the five-factor model of the PPBS statistically fits the results of the Hong Kong samples. Girls exhibited greater social competence (social play) less socially withdrawal behavior. Social play behavior increased with age, while social withdrawal decreased with age. Cultural contexts (emic consideration) on scale items were received attention in future research. Recommendations for cultural understandings on shyness, social withdrawal and social disinterest, and concurrent validation of the PIPPS (Hong Kong version) were made in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This work fills the existing knowledge gap by examining and comparing the basic needs of and the publicly funded services available for urban Dibao recipient children focused on the interpretation of street-level bureaucrats. • Dibao recipient children's needs regarding basic survival and living standards are being satisfied by the publicly funded services. • The publicly funded services in the areas of education and medical care need to be enriched to serve Dibao recipient children more comprehensively. This study examined and compared the basic needs of and the publicly funded services available for Dibao recipient children by interviewing 43 staff members at Community Residents Committees in Dalian, China. The finding indicates that Dibao recipient children face a considerable level of unmet needs in the areas of education and medical services, including free school lunch, aid for high school supplies, assistance for severe disease treatment expenses, hospitalization, and outpatient expenses. The results suggest that the publicly funded services in the areas of education and medical care need to be enriched to serve Dibao recipient children more comprehensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Poverty exposure affects children's cognitive abilities in rural China. • We used a nationally representative sample. • We constructed an IV based on the heteroskedasticity of the error term of the poverty status. • IV estimates suggested that poverty significantly led to low cognitive abilities of children. • Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition results showed that family investments were quite important. Family poverty may affect family investments, which affect children's cognitive development. Based on a unique and nationally representative sample from the National Children's Study of China (NCSC), this study aimed to explore the relationship between poverty and children's cognitive abilities and the roles of different investments to the cognitive gaps. We had the following three findings. First, the cognitive abilities of children in poor families were significantly and negatively affected by their families' poverty status. Second, poverty was significantly correlated with lower family education expenditures, lower expectations of parents for their children's education, and more permissive parenting styles. Finally, the results of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method showed that family educational expenditures, educational expectations, and permissive parenting styles accounted for substantial portions of the gaps in cognitive abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• China initiated the Targeted Poverty Alleviation Policy since 2016. • One of the initiatives provides financial support to low-income students. • The effects of financial support on financial well-being were examined. • Both receipt and amounts of cash assistance increase financial well-being. To address persistent and widespread poverty across China, particularly in rural areas, the Chinese government initiated the Targeted Poverty Alleviation Policy. As a result, several programs have been established to provide financial support to students from low-income families. This study used a primary dataset that came from senior students at a vocational school in Sichuan province to examine the relationship between financial support programs and the financial well-being of vocational school students. The results indicate that the receipt of cash assistance for education and the amount received were both associated with financial well-being of the students. In addition, the effects of the policy on students' financial well-being differed by their poverty status – students who were previously in poverty but were no longer living in poverty reported greater financial well-being than those who were still living in poverty at the time of data collection. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mobile phone addiction impacts school performance through depression. • Family functioning moderates depression. Mobile phone addiction has gained much attention from researchers recently since its negative effects on adolescents' school performance. The previous study has found a strong negative correlation between mobile phone addiction and school performance, however, little is known about mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this association, particularly among adolescents from low-income families. The present study explored the mediating role of depression and the moderating role of family functioning in the relationships between mobile phone addiction and school performance. A national representative sample of 1794 Chinese adolescents from low-income families was recruited to complete measures of mobile phone addiction, school performance (academic rank and learning burnout), depression, and family functioning. Results indicated that depression partially mediated the association between mobile phone addiction. Besides, low-income family functioning was generally limited though it turned out to partially moderate the depression in related to association between mobile phone addiction and school performance. The present study can extend our understanding of how and when mobile phone addiction give rise to poor school performance among adolescents from low-income families. And it is necessary to strengthen functioning of disadvantaged families by lunching more family-oriented social support policies. Limitations and implications of this study were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• About 700 million people have been lifted out of poverty since 1978. Yet, there were still millions of poor people in China. • Chinese government announced a plan to eliminate poverty by 2020 and calls for enterprises in this effort. • This study uses the China Philanthropy platform, supported by the Bank of China, as a case study. • The results indicate that this novel platform improves work skills of the workers and their family income and expenditures. Since its economic reforms in 1978, China has seen nearly 700 million people lifted out of poverty. Although a great feat, millions of people, concentrated primarily in rural areas of the country, continue to experience extreme poverty. In order to address this issue, the Chinese government announced a strategy, called targeted poverty alleviation, to eliminate poverty by 2020. This strategy calls upon the cooperation of enterprises in this poverty alleviation effort. This study examines the China Philanthropy platform to illustrate how targeted poverty alleviation efforts have led to an innovative and successful e-commerce platform, which has shown positive effects on skills development, income, and resource allocation for workers and their families. The results indicate that this novel platform has strong potential to improve the professional skills of the participants and increase their family incomes. In turn, the families have more income to allocate to the education expenses of their children, an indicator of human capital accumulation. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Our study solves the endogenous problem with the PSM-DID model, identifies the causal effects of the program, and offers findings that can be used to broaden understanding of the impact of CT programs. • Our study enriches knowledge about Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) programs. • We discuss the possibility that teachers offer subsidies based on students' academic performance—and we offer insight into policy design, to more effectively improve educational outcomes among underprivileged children. Poverty has significant and lasting adverse impacts on child development. In recent decades, Cash transfer (CT) programs are widely used to address child poverty, and have become one of the most important social-protection programs for improving welfare outcomes of children. This study evaluates the effects of the rural-China School Subsidy Program (SSP) on compulsory student academic, cognitive achievement, and enrollment outcomes. Instituted in 2006, the program targets students from poor families in rural areas, who receive cash transfers of about 1000 yuan (US$150) per year, or 15% of the average per capita disposable rural income. Our sample is drawn from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), and includes 3552 compulsory students in rural China. In the data analysis, we employed the difference-in-differences model with propensity score matching (PSM-DID), and the logit model. Our results show that the program significantly increases student enrollment, but has no effect on academic performance or cognitive achievement. Further, the positive enrollment effects of the program are greater for students with less-educated fathers. The results are robust across alternative matching methods. Our findings suggest that the program results in partial improvement to student enrollment in rural areas, but that more support is needed for improving overall student welfare. One concern in implementing the SSP is that due to the lack of effective supervision, teachers are more likely to offer subsidies to students with high academic standing. This will reduce the welfare improvement effect of SSP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The LBC have more insomnia and nightmares than controls. • Longer separation of LBC coincided with more insomnia and nightmares. • The LBC experienced more peer bullying than controls. • Psychological distress is a mediator between childhood adversities and sleep. This study investigated the impact of parental migration and other childhood adversities such as peer bullying and poverty on adolescent insomnia and nightmares in Sichuan Province, China, and identified the potential relationships with sleeping problems. In this cross-sectional study, the sleep behaviors of adolescents from migrant working parents known as "left-behind children" (LBC) were compared with adolescents from non-migrant working parents. The left-behind status, left-behind duration and primary caregivers were determined through face-to-face interviews, and insomnia and nightmares, psychological distress, peer bullying and family economic situations were assessed using a battery of self-administered questionnaires. Structural equation models were then used to examine the effects of parental migration and/or other psychosocial difficulties on the incidence of insomnia and nightmares. The LBCs were found to have worse sleep outcomes than the children of non-migrant parents: insomnia (26.3% vs. 19.0%) and nightmares (8.8% vs. 4.4%): with longer periods of separation resulting in higher sleep disturbance and nightmare frequencies. The LBC also experienced more bullying from their peers than the children of non-migrant parents, and it was found that psychological distress partly mediated the relationship between these adversities and insomnia and/or nightmares. The LBC are at a higher risk of developing sleep problems, being bullied and suffering from poverty. Therefore, correctly identifying these children would allow for early intervention to enhance their quality of life. These findings supported the implementation of comprehensive school programs to improve sleep quality that target vulnerable LBC sub-groups, and especially bullied or poverty-stricken adolescents or with psychological distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Employing resilience framework to examine the poverty effect under multisystems. • Constructing Multidimensional Poverty Index to measure household poverty. • Identifying promotive factors in mitigating poverty risk posed on child development. By employing the resilience framework, this study investigates how poverty would impact children's educational and behavioral performance in China. Considering the nested structure of the data, we employed multilevel structural equation modeling. The results suggest that, at the household level, personal agency and family resources completely mediate the effect of poverty on educational performance while partially mediating its effect on behavioral performance. At the community level, the two mediators partially mediate both educational and behavioral performance. Taking both mediators into account, poverty has a negative effect on cognitive ability at the community level, but positive impacts on behavioral performance at both the household and community levels. This study offers a new lens for social service practitioners who seek to promote poverty resilience among poor children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Poverty has a direct negative effect on adolescents' psychological well-being but not on their psychological distress. • Relational victimization, not overt victimization, mediates the association between poverty and adolescents' mental health. • Poverty and relational victimization negatively predict self-esteem, which in turn, jeopardizes adolescents' mental health. Poverty is negatively linked to adolescents' mental health. However, little is known about the underlying process that mediates this relationship. This study aims to examine the association among poverty, peer victimization, self-esteem, and mental health of adolescents. Data are collected through a multistage cluster random sampling in Hebei, China (N = 1280; mean age = 15.68; 47.4% male). Structural equation modeling is adopted to examine the hypothetical model using AMOS 24.0. Results reveal that the mechanisms linking poverty to adolescent mental health differ in terms of victimization types (overt or relational). Relational victimization and self-esteem partially mediate the relationship between poverty and psychological well-being and fully mediate the relationship between poverty and psychological distress after gender, age, hukou status, and family socioeconomic status are controlled. However, the mediating effect of overt victimization is not significant. The overall model accounts for 27% and 24.8% of the variance in psychological well-being and distress, respectively. This study contributes to an improved understanding of the mediating mechanisms underlying poverty and mental health. The implications of the present findings for social work interventions and social policies are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Despite legislation and financial redistribution, unequal access to educational resources in China remains. • The government has failed to provide sufficient financial support to underdeveloped provinces. • In underdeveloped areas, financial capacity is lower, but educational need is higher. There is great inequality of educational resources between different provinces in China due to unbalanced economic development. Despite continued redistribution of financial resources by the central government in favor of poorer provinces, educational inequality remains. In this paper, we argue that focusing on educational resources is far from sufficient. Poorer provinces do not only suffer from a lower level of educational resources, but they also have more children to educate, i.e. a greater need for education. Combining and analyzing the data in the Sixth National Population Census of China and the official statistics on education spending and resources, we found that provincial-level variations in the child population and the child dependency ratio have made access to educational resources even more unequal given the unequal financial capacity at the provincial level. Poorer provinces face a higher child dependency ratio and have lower economic development, and these two factors jointly lead to limited educational resources. Apart from a much higher level of redistribution in favor of less developed provinces, encouraging more balanced distribution of teachers and more broadly promoting economic equality are essential to reduce inequality in educational resources in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]