Multiple Risk Factors Among Chinese Children from Low-Income Families and Their Impact on Psychological Adaptation

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; M_age = 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.