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Based on the ecological systems theory, this study examined the multiple risk factors experienced by children from low-income families in China and their subsequent impact on children's psychological adaptation. A cumulative ecological risk questionnaire was constructed to examine the exploratory and descriptive risk factors most commonly exposed to children in families, schools and communities. The study sample consisted of 428 children from low-income families (N = 428; Mage = 12.35, SD = 2.51) from 20 ordinary primary and secondary schools across China. We conducted an exploratory latent class analysis using the responses from the cumulative ecological risk questionnaire. The results showed that a three-group solution fit the data best, with the following breakdown: "low-risk" = 41.1%, "family-risk" = 21.7%, and "school-risk" = 37.2%. The three groups showed significant differences in terms of psychological adaptation. The "low-risk" group exhibited fewer problem behaviors and higher prosocial behavior than the other groups. The "family-risk" group showed more significant adaptation difficulties, while the "school-risk" group showed lower levels of prosocial behavior. The results suggest that the ecological risks experienced by children from low-income families had significant group heterogeneity, which may further affect their psychological adaptation. Highlights: The ecological risks of children from low-income families were heterogeneous and may affect children's psychological adaptation. Latent class analysis favored a three-group solution: low-risk, family-risk, and school-risk groups. The three groups showed significant differences in terms of the children's psychological adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This longitudinal study examined whether poverty-related family risk groups with varying family resource, parental, and relational risks differed in their children's internalizing problems, and whether children's hope mediated this relationship. A sample of 798 children from poor families (N = 798, M age = 11.76, SD = 2.56) was obtained from six township public schools in China. Four groups were identified: education and involvement risk group, high risk group, parenting risk group, and family resource risk group. All groups differed in terms of internalizing problems. Compared to the education and involvement risk group, children in the high risk and parenting risk groups demonstrated higher internalizing problems, which was explained by their lower level of hope. These findings highlight that children from poor families are affected by different risk combinations, and hope may be a possible mechanism linking specific risk combinations with children's internalizing problems. These findings have implications for targeted intervention strategies. • The four poverty-related family risk groups differed in their level of internalizing problems. • Specific constellations of poverty-related adversities differentially predicted children's internalizing problems. • Hope mediated the links between risk and internalizing problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To study the developmental trajectory of hope among late-adolescents, taking population heterogeneity and the impact of gender and family socioeconomic status (SES) into consideration., Methods: The study used the Snyder Hope Scale to perform four surveys of a sample of 381 Chinese late-adolescents, both male and female, with a mean age of 17.69 ± 1.12 years, over the course of one year, and employed a growth mixture model to perform data analysis., Results: Although the levels of hope among the respondents who had high and moderate levels of hope at the outset of the study remained relatively stable over the course of the year, those with low levels of hope exhibited a significant decrease over time., Conclusions: There is significant population heterogeneity in late-adolescents' developmental trajectory of hope. Additionally, gender and family SES have a significant effect on the developmental trajectory of hope, as significantly more female students than male students reported high levels of hope. Furthermore, participants with high family SES outnumbered those with low family SES in the high-hope group, whereas those with low SES outnumbered those with high SES in the low-hope group., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)