Journal of International Psychiatry

Objective To explore the dual mediating effects of psychological resilience and expression suppression between self-esteem and anxiety among left-behind junior middle school students. Methods 820 junior middle school students were surveyed and administered the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders（SCARED）, the Self-Esteem Scale（SES）, the Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescent（RSCA）, and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire（ERQ）. Results Compared with non-left-behind junior middle school students, left-behind junior middle school students have higher scores of SCARED and expression suppression , and lower scores of SES and RSCA（Ps＜0.01）; Both self-esteem and psychological resilience were significantly negatively correlated，and expression suppression was positively correlated with anxiety（Ps＜0.01）; Psychological resilience and expression suppression play a dual mediating role between self-esteem and anxiety among left-behind junior middle school students, the mediating effects ratio were 26.81％and 15.30％ respectively, and the difference between the mediation effects was not significant. Conclusion The self-esteem not only has a direct impact on the anxiety of left-behind junior middle school students, but also has indirect affects through psychological resilience and expression inhibition, respectively. It suggests that it will be benefit to reduce anxiety and promote mental health of left-behind junior middle school students by enhancing the self-esteem and psychological resilience, and encouraging or teaching them to express their emotions as well.

Left-behind junior middle school students；Anxiety；Self-esteem；Psychological resilience；Expression suppression