Abstract:
This study aimed to examine the relationships that stress, attachment styles, and psychological capital had with depression as well as the degree to which these variables could predict depression in adolescents with left-behind experiences. Participants, selected by a purposive sampling method, consisted of 141 young adults (aged 18-25) with left-behind experiences (i.e., living apart from their mothers and/or fathers for at least six months when they were younger than sixteen years of age) and were not under psychiatric treatment. Participants responded to the on-line measures of stress, five dimensions of attachment styles, psychological capital, and depressive symptoms. Pearsons product moment correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted. Findings suggested significant associations (p < .01) that the study variables had with depression in the directions hypothesized. When examined together, the predictor variables accounted for 68% of the variance of depression (R2 = .68, p < .001). However, when examined together, only stress could significantly predict depression in adolescents with left-behind experiences.