Social capital and flourishing of left-behind children in rural China: How basic psychological needs mediate?

Flourishing, as an integrated conceptualization, is a specific perspective of well-being which focuses on one's emotional status and psychosocial functioning. As flourishing is a vital determinant for the development of adolescents, this study aims to better understand extent and quality of the flourishing of left-behind children in rural China from a strength-based orientation rather than the traditional deficit approach. In line with an ecological system perspective, one's flourishing is intertwined with microfactors and macrofactors. Herein, this study combines social capital theory and self-determination theory to construct an integrative framework to explore how two specific microfactors and macrofactors influence the flourishing of left-behind children. Altogether, 995 Chinese rural adolescent respondents (57.2% [N = 573] male and 52.3% [N = 520] LBC, M-age = 12.56 years) filled out a self-report questionnaire that included the Social Capital Scale, Basic Psychological Needs Scale and Flourishing Scale. This study performed bivariate correlation analysis, regression analysis and mediation effect analysis through SPSS 26 and PROCESS 3.2 macro. Results indicate that (1) left-behind children with more social capital experience higher levels of flourishing and (2) basic psychological needs have an indirect effect on the relationship between social capital and flourishing. The findings underscore the importance of constructing a synthetic framework to support the flourishing left-behind children. They also indicate that the social networks and social resources for left-behind children be expanded. Finally, results suggest that more attention should be given to fostering left-behind children's innate growth through fulfilling their basic psychological needs.