ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Adolescent and Young Adult Psychiatry
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1606762
This article is part of the Research TopicYouth Mental Health, Particularly in Asian PopulationsView all 79 articles
Impact of Left-Behind Duration on Depression and Anxiety in Rural Adolescents from Mountainous Areas and the Moderating Role of Community Resilience Post-Earthquake
Provisionally accepted
- Xihua University, Chengdu, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
In the western mountainous regions of Sichuan Province, numerous adolescents have been profoundly impacted by earthquakes, with a substantial proportion experiencing prolonged left behind status due to parental migration for work. Prior research has established that both earthquake exposure and left behind experiences detrimentally affect adolescent mental health. However, the moderating role of community resilience in the association between the duration of being left behind and post earthquake symptoms of depression and anxiety remains underexplored. This study conducted a cross sectional survey in 2023 involving 541 rural adolescents aged 12 to 18 who were affected by the 6.8 magnitude Luding earthquake in 2022. Findings revealed a significant positive correlation between the length of left behind status and severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms, whereas community resilience, conceptualized as a multifaceted construct encompassing leadership, collective efficacy, emergency preparedness, and social trust, was inversely associated with these psychological symptoms. High levels of community resilience bolster emergency response capacity and social support networks, thereby mitigating adverse mental health outcomes, although it does not fully offset the detrimental effects of extended parental absence. The study underscores the imperative of establishing comprehensive psychological support systems, including routine mental health screenings, counseling services, and targeted teacher training, to effectively identify and assist adolescents at risk of psychological distress in disaster affected rural communities.
Keywords: mountainous areas 1, earthquake impact 2, rural adolescents 3, depression 4, anxiety 5, Community resilience 6
Received: 06 Apr 2025; Accepted: 19 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xiang, Yin, Yang, Chen and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hao Yin, Xihua University, Chengdu, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.