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Poverty impedes children's executive function (EF). Therefore, it is necessary to mitigate the negative effect of poverty by developing efficient interventions to improve poor children's cognitive function. In three studies, we examined whether high‐level construals can improve EF among poor children in China. In Study 1, we observed a positive relationship between family socioeconomic status and children's EF, which was moderated by construal level (n = 206; Mage = 9.71; 45.6% girls). In Study 2a, we experimentally induced high‐ versus low‐level construals and found that poor children with high‐level construals exhibited better EF than those with low‐level construals (n = 65; Mage = 11.32; 47.7% girls). However, the same intervention did not affect the performance of affluent children in Study 2b (n = 63; Mage = 10.54; 54% girls). Moreover, we found that the interventional effects of high‐level construals improved the ability of children living in poverty to make healthy decisions and delayed gratification in Study 3 (n = 74; Mage = 11.10; 45.9% girls). These findings may have implications for using high‐level construals as an effective intervention to improve poor children's EF and cognitive capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the mediating effect of perceived social support in the relationship between loneliness and social isolation among Chinese older adults relocated for poverty relief. Methods: We surveyed 128 older migrants from four resettlement areas in Guizhou Province, southwest China. A general information questionnaire, the Lubben Social Network Scale‐6, the Perceived Social Support Rating Scale, and the Single Item Loneliness Scale were used in our study. We also used the SPSS macro PROCESS to test a mediation model and the Bootstrap method to assess its significance. Results: The prevalence of social isolation among older relocators was 85.9%; the mediation model showed that loneliness had a direct negative effect on social isolation (B = −1.25, p < 0.01), and that perceived social support fully mediated this effect (−1.18), with a total effect of −1.25 (p < 0.01) and a mediating proportion of 94.4%. Conclusions: Older relocators in poverty alleviation areas experienced high levels of social isolation. Perceived social support might buffer the negative impact of loneliness on social isolation. We suggest that interventions should be designed to enhance perceived social support and reduce social isolation among this vulnerable population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the role of hopeful thinking in enhancing life satisfaction among a minority group facing pervasive group-based discrimination: country migrant workers' children in China. Positive psychology reasoning suggests that hopeful thinking can attenuate the negative impact of perceived discrimination on life satisfaction. This moderation model is compared to a mediation model, which predicts that reduced hopeful thinking explains the negative impact of perceived discrimination on life satisfaction. Study 1 showed that hopeful thinking did not moderate the relationship between discrimination and life satisfaction. Rather, the negative impact of discrimination on life satisfaction was mediated through diminished hopeful thinking. Study 2 manipulated perceived discrimination and replicated Study 1 findings. The results reveal that hopeful thinking can indeed have positive consequences, but that hopeful thinking is also constrained by perceiving discrimination. This suggests that there are limits to the extent to which hopeful thinking can be developed when facing group-based discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]