Adversity and Internalizing Problems among Rural Chinese Adolescents: The Protective Roles of Parents and Teachers

Throughout the developing world, adolescents living in rural poverty face multiple and inter-related adaptive challenges. Using longitudinal data from the Gansu Survey of Children and Families, we investigate the relationship between cumulative adversity and internalizing problems among adolescents in an interior Chinese province, and the protective roles of parental warmth and teacher support. Results of multivariate regression models suggest that internalizing problems increase in later adolescence. The rate of increase does not differ by gender in our sample, counter to most extant literature on sex differences in the developmental trajectory of internalizing problems. Along with parental warmth, teacher support emerges as an especially important protective factor, highlighting the significance of teachers as an often overlooked resource for poor rural adolescents.