Mother-child attachment and resilience in Chinese impoverished children: a moderated mediation model of psychological needs satisfaction and perceived teacher support

The current study aimed to explore the relative role of psychological needs satisfaction and perceived teacher support between mother-child attachment and resilience among impoverished children. Participants consist of 284 Chinese middle school students (49.25% males; M age = 14.13 years, SD = 1.57) from low-income families who completed a comprehensive questionnaire from the aspects of mother-child attachment, resilience, psychological needs satisfaction and perceived teacher support. Structural equation modeling showed that psychological needs satisfaction partly mediated the relationship between mother-child attachment and resilience. Specifically, mother-child attachment was positively associated with psychological needs satisfaction, which in turn positively associated with resilience. Moreover, perceived teacher support moderated the relationship between psychological needs satisfaction and resilience. The correlation between psychological needs satisfaction and resilience was more robust in children who perceived higher teacher support than those who perceived lower teacher support. The findings suggested that interventions focusing on satisfying the psychological needs of mother-child attachment and enhancing teacher support may promote the resilience of impoverished children.