Abstract: Since China's reform and opening up in 1980s, large numbers of rural laborers left their homes in the countryside to pursue better job opportunities in urban areas. As a result of the direct influence of the large-scale immigration, millions of children became left communities and were taken care by their grandparents or other relatives. A long family separation, lacking of face to face communication and the relative absence of parents affection, all these factors have a negative impact on left-behind children. Discrimination is relatively frequent in the lives of left-behind children, and with the continuous impact, it can increase the risks of maladjustment in adulthood. Left-behind children’s discrimination perception and academic achievement has been identified correlative in cross-sectional research. Nonetheless, there are few longitudinal studies involving these two constructs, so the direction of the association between discrimination perception and academic achievement is somewhat unclear. What’s more, depression has been proved as an important predictor of discrimination perception and academic achievement, which could potentially influence the development of the two constructs. In this paper, we investigate the longitudinal associations among discrimination perception, depression and academic achievement of left-behind children. Besides, we particularly do some research on the possibility of bidirectional associations between discrimination perception and academic achievement, and the mediation role of depression between these two constructs. A total of 1147 rural children (630 boys, 517 girls; M age=12.94 years, SD =0.88) were recruited from a rural area in Shandong province, including 428 children (228 boys and 200 girl)from two-parent-migrant families, 719 children (401 boy and 318 girl) from father-migrant families completed measures of perceived discrimination, depression and academic achievement at baseline, 6 months and 12 months. In addition, This study controlled left-behind children’s family socioeconomic status (SES) as a covariate because?previous?studies?showed was significantly associated with adolescents' discrimination perception. SES was computed by creating a composite of children' reports of perceived family economic pressure and parents’ highest level of education. Repeated measurement analysis showed that left-behind children’s perceived discrimination and academic achievement. at baseline were significantly higher than those at 12 months, left-behind children’s depression at baseline was higher than that at 6 months and 12 months , and there was also significantly differncece between depression at 6 months and 12 months . But,no significant were found for gender and left-behind?status on perceived discrimination, depression and academic achievement.. Cross-lagged analysis showed a significant one-way relationship between perceived discrimination and academic achievement when controlling for key demographic variables (SES). Specifically, baseline academic achievement predicated perceived discrimination at 12 months, baseline perceived discrimination did not predict academic achievement at 12 months. Moreover, academic achievement predicated increases in depressive 6 months later, which in turn, predicated increases in perceived discrimination 12 months later. Perceived discrimination predicated increases in depressive 6 months later, but, it did not predict increases in perceived discrimination 12 months later. Compared with girls and boys, father-migrant families and two-parent-migrant families, there were no differences in their modeling paths. The results of the cross-lagged model comparisons indicated a unidirectional relation between academic achievement and perceived discrimination: academic achievement appeared to be a predictor of perceived discrimination but not vice versa. The longitudinal mediation modeling shows that academic achievement not only directly affected discrimination perception, but also indirectly increase the influence on discrimination perception through depression.

Key words: left-behind children, perceived discrimination, academic achievement, depression, longitudinal study

摘要： 以1147名双亲外出儿童和父亲外出儿童为被试，采用追踪研究设计，探讨了农村留守儿童歧视知觉和学业成绩之间的相互作用关系以及抑郁在其中的中介作用。结果发现:（1）农村留守儿童的学业成绩显著负向预测其随后的歧视知觉，但是歧视知觉不能显著预测其随后的学业成绩；（2）抑郁在留守儿童的学业成绩和歧视知觉之间起着纵向中介作用。这表明，学业成绩是降低留守儿童歧视知觉水平的重要资源，良好的学业成绩不仅可以直接降低农村留守儿童的歧视知觉，而且还能通过降低其抑郁水平来降低农村留守儿童的歧视知觉水平。

关键词: 农村留守儿童, 歧视知觉, 学业成绩, 抑郁, 纵向研究